GEORGE BAIRD. This gentleman was a typical specimen of the vigorous and hearty Scotch-Irish race from which he claimed descent. His grandfather, John Baird, came to America, as a soldier under Gen. Braddock, and shared with him the memorable defeat on the Monongahela, July 9,1755. He is said to have lost his life in the disastrous battle of Grant's Hill, in 1758, before Fort Duquesne (now Pittsburgh). His widow with her infant son, Absalom, continued to reside in the home he had established for them in Chester county, Penn. But on arriving at a suitable age, this son was sent to the famous academy at Pequa, in Lancaster county, then conducted by that eminent educator, Dr. Robert Smith, where, by thorough study, be prepared himself to enter upon a course in medicine. The outbreak of the American Revolution found him a physician ready for practice, and opened to him a fine field of professional energy and of patriotism as an army surgeon, a capacity in which he served his country until 1781, when his regiment was disbanded under an act of Congress. Returning to Chester county, he settled in Kennett Square, and there practiced medicine until November, 1786, when he removed to Washington, Penn. In his new sphere, Dr. Baird, besides practicing his profession, soon reached eminence as a leader in the community, as indicated by the various offices he successively held, viz.: justice of the peace, county lieutenant, brigade inspector, member of the State Senate, and then of the House of Representatives, sheriff of Washington county and trustee of Washington Academy, the germ of the present Washington College. He died October 27, 1805, leaving four sons, viz.: John, who followed him in the medical profession, but died early; George, the subject of this memorial, and Thomas H. and William, both of whom became eminent and successful lawyers, the former also a distinguished judge. His first wife, Susanna (Brown), was called from earth November 16, 1802, about three years before his death, and his second, Margaret (Darrah), followed his remains to the grave in the year succeeding their marriage. George Baird, the second son of Dr. Absalom Baird, was born in Kennett Square, Chester Co., Penn., October 28, 1785. He was taken by his parents to their new home in Washington at the age of eleven months, and here he grew up into the bodily and mental strength which ever characterized him amidst the peculiar advantages of a community whose first settlers possessed unusual culture and transmitted it to their posterity. Reared carefully amidst the best influences of a Scotch-Irish Presbyterian home and community, the texture of his youthful character was wrought after that superior fashion. The death of his father left Mr. Baird an orphan of just twenty years. He had simultaneously or alternately, been for some time pursuing classical and mathematical study at Washington Academy, and preparing for the practice of medicine in his father's office. During the summer of 1805, he had enjoyed the instruction of the Rev. Matthew Brown, who in the spring of that year had become both pastor of the Presbyterian Church of Washington, and principal of the academy. Dr. Brown had in the academy, as assistant, Mr. David Elliott (afterward Rev. Dr. Elliott), the successor of Dr. Brown both in the pastorate of the church and the presidency of the college. The retirement of Mr. Elliott after a year of service to resume his studies as a candidate for graduation in Dickinson College, at Carlisle, Penn., was simultaneous with the transition of Washington Academy into the college under the charter of 1806. Mr. Baird took his place as tutor, and efficiently discharged the duties of the position for a year. The serious bereavement which imposed upon him a large share of the support of the family, also compelled the abandonment of a future prosecution of collegiate studies, and, what was still worse, of his medical studies also. This was much regretted, in view of his special classical taste and capacity, and a corresponding want of adaptation to ordinary trade. But “necessity knows no law." The aspiring student must needs abandon his books and come down to the stress of business. He did this with cheerful submission and characteristic energy, ever holding the confidence of the community in which he lived, but not with the degree of success with which we may well suppose the pursuits of his preference and longing might have been crowned. His first important venture, along with his brother-in-law, Nicholas Wilson, in the form of a boat-load of flour for the market at New Orleans, was a disastrous failure, on account of the intervening depression of prices. Subsequently he was engaged in business for a brief season at St. Genevieve, Mo., and also at Nashville, Tenn. But returning to his home in Washington, popular favor expressed itself in his election, in 1811, to the office of sheriff of Washington county, for the term of three years, re-election being forbidden by law in the case of that office, unless after a lapse of time. During the same years, as for the two previous years, the office of deputy attorney-general was filled by his brother Thomas H. Baird, who likewise was president judge of the district composed of Washington, Fayette and Greene counties for a continuous period of twenty years, beginning with 1818. During the years 1816-24, William Baird, the youngest brother, was deputy attorney-general. These facts abundantly attest both the energy of these brothers and of their hold on the public confidence. Two important events in Mr. Baird's life were closely associated with his election as sheriff in 1811. One of these was his marriage, and the other his union with the Presbyterian Church of Washington, by public profession of his faith. On October 25, 1811, two or three weeks after his election, he and Miss Jane, daughter of John and Catherine Wilson, of Washington, were happily united for life by Rev. Dr. Matthew Brown. The union was a thorough blending of mutual love and devotion, of ever increasing strength, until November 2, 1860, when on the verge of a half century the husband's death separated them for a little while. Very shortly after his marriage and the assumption of the duties of his office, Mr. Baird took the vows of a Christian upon himself and sat down beside his beloved bride at the communion table of the Lord. The expiration of Mr. Baird's term of office was followed, after a short interval, by his election in January, 1816, as a member of the House of Representatives at Harrisburg, to fill the vacancy occasioned by the death of Gen. James Stephenson. He at once took his seat and vigilantly discharged his duties as a legislator. Retiring then to private life, he engaged in mercantile business, which through several changes, and with varying fortune, he pursued until 1829 when his financial embarrassments culminated in bankruptcy. The trial was in every way severe, and its experience bitter, but conscious integrity and an unblemished reputation sustained his wounded spirit. It was under the necessity which followed this reverse of fortune, that Mr. Baird in 1830 removed to the neighborhood of Ripley, Ohio, and took charge of a farm and a mill belonging to his brother-in-law, Rev. Andrew Todd, of Kentucky. Here, too, his life for six years was one of both struggle and heroic endurance, as well as of success least equal to his expectation. In 1836 another change was made responsive to an invitation of his wife's brother, Marcus Wilson, to join him in the dry-goods business at Wheeling, Va. But their arrangements had scarcely gone into effect when Mr. Wilson's death precipitated another. Alone he then entered into the grocery business, though he was, of course, put under unexpected stress. Yet he pushed his way with assiduous earnestness and established a trade which produced a comfortable living~ So he continued until 1844, when the increasing infirmities of Mrs. Baird's aged parents at Washington, made a call of filial duty to return to that place and take charge of them. Concurrent with this was the inducement of a better opportunity to educate his younger children. At Wheeling he had not only been reasonably prospered in business, but his family had formed strong ties of friendship, which still bind them. Their relations with the First Presbyterian Church of that city, during the seven years of their continuance, were most cordial and satisfactory. Especially was their union close with the venerable pastor, Rev. Henry R. Weed, D.D., and his family. The removal to Washington was the last change. Engaging in the same business as at Wheeling, Mr. Baird prosecuted it with vigor, having the efficient help of his youngest son, Andrew Todd Baird, during the last twelve years of his life. That son succeeded him at his death, and soon, by his combined skill and energy, rose to the front rank of business men, a place which by common consent lie held up to his death. The return of Mr. Baird to Washington was speedily followed with renewed tokens of confidence from a community which well knew his worth. He was at once elected a trustee of Washington College, and so continued through the remaining seventeen years of his life. This was but a return to a position which he had before held for twenty consecutive years, commencing with 1812, under the presidency of Dr. Matthew Brown. During all of this latter period lie acted as collector and a portion of it as treasurer of this institution. In this, too, his youngest son was his assistant, and succeeding to the financial trust was in full charge of the resources of the board until his death in 1887. In 1848 he was chosen to the office of justice of the peace, and discharged its duties for five years. But the office which he most of all valued was that of ruling elder in the Presbyterian Church of Washington, to which, aft-er election by the people, he was ordained and installed October 3, 1847, along with James Boon, Joseph Henderson and Dr. Robert It. Reed. In that sacred office he was ever discriminating, constant and true to duty, and during most of the time was the efficient clerk of the Session. His appreciation by the ministry and eldership beyond his own particular church, may be inferred from his unanimous appointment by the Presbytery of Washington, as one of its commissioners to the General Assembly, which held its sessions in Nashville, Tenn., in May, 1855. The character of Mr. Baird was very marked. In him seeming opposites were wonderfully blended. Decision even sometimes to sternness if not bluntness, was joined with a tenderness of heart seldom surpassed. He was brave to utter fearlessness in avowing and maintaining his convictions, and yet modest, diffident and deferential to the judgment of those in whose wisdom and truth he confided. He would suffer loss rather than forsake a principle or betray a friend. He was not slow to maintain his own rights with a heroic spirit, but he was ever more ready to forego his own ease and interest in doing a kindness. No parent more strictly exacted obedience, whilst no one could exceed him in a father's sympathetic love. He was solicitous for the spiritual welfare of the young, an earnest teacher in the Sabbath school, and, during several periods, its superintendent. He loved the sanctuary with its sacred word and ordinances. The family altar never fell into neglect in his home, nor did the religious instruction of his children. With his last breath he uttered affectionate words of parting to his beloved wife and children, as well as fit counsels to all that came to his bedside. His expressions of good will toward his fellow-men were hearty, and his prayers for the coming of the Lord went up before him to the heavenly throne. On November 2, 1860, he breathed out his life in the sweet peace of Christ, and two days later his body was gently laid to rest in the ''city of the dead." He had through grace finished his earthly course of seventy-five years, anil even then was beholding the Lord's I face, and was satisfied with His likeness. His widow survived him until July 16, 1872, when she departed this life in her seventy-ninth year. She was greatly beloved in life, not only within her own large circle of relatives but by a still greater number, between whom and herself, during long and affectionate intercourse, ties had been formed which are stronger than death. The loveliness of her manners and disposition which made her girlhood so attractive, was thus carried into the responsible relations of wife and mother. She was equally at home among the refined and the lowly; modestly diffusing the light of her own genial spirit over all around her, and receiving back the largest rewards of confidence and love. Her words of encouragement and hope fell tenderly upon sorrowful hearts. As a daughter, sister, wife and mother, her affection, illustrated by her daily words and acts, wrote its own history upon the memories of those bound to her by those tender ties, which must prove as lasting as the soul. She was kind, tender and thoughtful in all that related to the welfare and happiness of each and all of them. She was a mother in the fulness of love and care to a succession of orphaned children, chiefly nephews, nieces and grandchildren, which seldom finds a parallel. From the time of her marriage, down through the threescore years during which she had a home, there was no time when the blessings of that home were not shared by one or more of this class. In her time of greatest need, she always had somewhat to give, when the Master's cause appealed to her for help. In this, as in a multitude of other ways, did her unselfish preference of the good and happiness of others over any gratification of her own, appear. Mrs. Baird was born and reared, as she also spent most of her life and died, on the same premises. She was the fourth daughter of John Wilson, Esq., who died in 1847, and Mrs. Catherine Wilson, who died December 15,1857, who, with their firstborn child, immigrated from Ireland to this country in 1786. After a residence of three years in Philadelphia they settled in Washington, Penn., in 1789, and here, after a long life, they came to their rest among the dead. Of five sisters, all of whom lived to widowhood and advanced age, and were blended into closer union by means of common circumstances and experiences, three were called away within the brief space of seventeen months. Mrs. Martha Wishart (widow of Dr. John Wishart), the second sister, died March 1, 1871, in the eightieth year of her age; on August 2, 1872, the eldest sister, Mrs. Mary, widow of David Acheson, fell asleep as she neared the venerable age of eighty-five years; Mrs. Margaret Wilson died July 21, 1876; Mrs. Catherine W. Todd, on January 5, 1877, and John K. Wilson on July 4, 1883.

Text taken from page 250 of: Beers, J. H. and Co., Commemorative Biographical Record of Washington County, Pennsylvania (Chicago: J. H. Beers & Co., 1893). Transcribed August 1997 by Jean Suplick Matuson of Plano, TX as part of the Beers Project. Published August 1997 on the Washington County, PA pages at http://www.chartiers.com/.

[ Back to Beers Table of Contents] [Back to Beers Project Page]