fffffif?I llfuf c: - rF Bi cM> CSliJillik-JllX PURCHASED FRQ.M Knapp \v~nd 31 ^ if BAIRD AND BEARD FAMILIES Gen. Sir David Baird, Son of Sir WilliamWilliam of Newbyth. Created Baronel in 1809. Married, 1810, Preston Campbell, of Fern Tower, County Perth. Died without issue, 1829. Baird and Beard Families A GENEALOGICAL, BIOGRAPHICAL, AND HISTORICAL COLLECTION OF DATA jf. I j£X*> BY FERMINE BAIRD CATCHING5 BAIRD - WARD PUBLISHERS NASHVILLE, TENN. \ \ ?lSj Copyright, 1918, by Fermine B. Catchings. ^ • • • • • > • • • • *• 4 * « .* •. ^ DEDICATION. I dedicate this compilation to the spirit of freedom, civil and ecclesiastical, born in the sturdy, courageous Scots, who, like the "eagles of their craigs," were keen- sighted, strong and fearless. The spirit of democracy which at that distant time protested against autocracy of church and state, having the courage of its convic- tion, tried to find freedom in Ireland, and later found it in the United States. Many of these men as "younger sons" left home, friends and comforts to stand for what is shaking the whole world today (a hundred and fifty years later) to its foundation. Here this strong offspring of liberty today stands ready to help the Old World take its stand for the same r great principle—like David, having not the armor of Saul, but coming in the name of the Lord God of Israel, not to kill, but to protect the great brotherhood of man. PREFACE. I have never worshiped ancestors and think the old saying is often true: "Ancestry is like the potato—the best part under the ground." I am too democratic to wish to tack on to royalty, except royalty of character. My only object in beginning this research was to find who my father's people were in Scotland and Ireland, and as much regarding them as I could. I have a certain feeling of grateful acknowledgment of their sturdy, fearless standing for their principles and liberty, coming to such a new and distant land, many of them in sail boats, having lost by confiscation what money they had had trying to save the cause they felt was right. I feel a respect for the man who could use his practical intelligence in earning an honest living, so the blacksmith, the weaver, as well as the professor, warrior or missionary, are all recorded with equal care. In searching for my own people, many others of different lines re- sponded, so the data grew to include many branches; but as they seem to have sprung originally from the same source, I will record them. I do not claim that all I have recorded is absolutely correct, but after careful study I have grouped some as possibly belonging to the same family, judging from given names, localities, counties from which they emigrated, and times of emigrating, and the claim in old letters of re- lationship. Not one person can hope, to bring order out of chaos, yet each can do his best, and I hope there are those who, having data which I have not, may take the threads of this unfinished skein and, with what they have, untangle and make it into a complete whole. My information has been gathered from old colonial records, many genealogical histories at New York Library, old letters, with copies of Bible records, and records of wills, deeds, marriages and baptisms. My first thanks for valuable records are to James Powers Baird, of Uniontown, Pa., who spent many years gathering data; Mr. R. A. of Miss. BaIRD, Early Grove, ; Miss M. E. BAIRD, of Bon Air, Va. ; Mr. David Baird and Mr. Froman, of New Jersey, and Mr. George W. Baird (Rear Admiral), of Washington, D. C., and Mrs. Torrey, of Baird, Miss. Much historical and geographical information has been gained from "A Chronicle of the Bards," by G. O. Seilhamer. To one and all I return thanks. Fermine B. Catchings. "A HINDRANCE TO GENEALOGY." "Nothing strikes the genealogist of 1903-4 so forcibly as the vast amount of wasted power which has been expended over the subject (genealogy). I believe the curse which has affected our genealogical inquiry has been the desire for definiteness. Investigator after investigator has traveled precisely the same road, but, unlike most travelers, he has too often failed to vouchsafe to posterity the results of his observations. Had he been content to print, or at any rate to leave in a form that could be manipulated by others, the result of his work, genealogy would stand on a far better basis than it does today. — "For example, all the research being put on the ducal line of the Gordons— for one hundred and fifty years, which 'was identical with the nation's history' and nothing written of the numerous branches who were content to remain on the borders; and the more important cadets in the North remained without historians at all. "By the way of a footnote I cannot help mentioning the enormous activity of American genealogists. Here is a people busy with the world of affairs in a way we scarcely understand; and yet the merest amateurs there find time to in- fact is to vestigate their history with relentless energy. The a useful reminder those who regard antiquarian and antediluvian as interchangeable words."— (J. M. Bullock's Historical Review.) SOME PRESENT-DAY HAPPENINGS, 1917. Excerpts from the Christian Science Monitor (1917). Before taking up the record of the past I would like to call atten- tion to some of the fruits of the stand our fathers took, in establishing democracy in this country a hundred years ago, by excerpts from a current newspaper: "Little more than a century ago a British army, acting under one of the malicious and senseless orders of George III, was burning Washington; this year Mr. Balfour, the British minister, addressed Congress, and our President, Mr. Wilson, made a new precedent in the annals of Congress by attending the House to hear him." In this year [1917] when it was impossible to remain out of the war, the question whether a volunteer or a regular army should be sent to France must remind everyone of the fact that, in the crisis of the American Revolution, two French generals came to the United States—the one Lafayette, the head of a body of volunteers, the other Rochambeau, in command of the French regular troops. At a dinner at which M. Jusserand was present, he said, "It's General Rochambeau 's visit General Pershing is returning." This is the year when the beautiful statue of Lafayette was unveiled by Rene Viviani, of the French Mis- sion, and when such an ovation was given Marshal Joffre. At the time the dis- tinguished British Mission landed, the Stars and Stripes was floating beside the Union Jack from the Victoria Tower at Westminster for the first time. President' Wilson says: "To such a task we can dedicate our lives and our fortunes, everything that we are and everything that we have, with the pride of those who know that the day has come when America is privileged to spend her blood and her might for the principles that gave her birth and happiness, the peace which she has treasured. God helping her, she can do no other." He dedicated, as the Chief Executive of the nation, the energies of this country to the prosecution of the war. Without a single dissenting voice in either house, the Congress of the United States has passed a bill providing for the issuance of $7,000,000,000 in bonds, the proceeds of which are to be used in helping to defray the cost, to itself and to its sister nations, of carrying on a defensive war against military autocracy. The people of the United States do not hesitate a moment when the choice lies between billions and an ideal, between anything material which they possess and the realization of world democracy. Sooner or later democracy will have to realize the fact that it must fight out the battle with autocracy. Neither can make terms with the other, for the simple, obvious fact "there is not room for both of them to live at peace in the same world." "He has sounded forth the trumpet that shall never call retreat." The envoys of the Allies went in the Mayflower to Mt. Vernon to pay tribute to Washington. 10 SOME PRESENT DAY HAPPENINGS France sent by them a bronze palm to be placed on the tomb. Mar- shal Joffre, the spokesman, said: "I respectfully salute the great soldier and lay upon his tomb the palm we offer our soldiers who have died for their country." Mr. Balfour said: "There can be no spot on earth where any word on the subject of 'liberty' can have greater meaning than at the tomb of Washington. Great Britain sent a bronze wreath, with the inscription, 'Dedicated by the British Mission to the immortal memory of George Washington—soldier, statesman, patriot—who would have rejoiced to have seen the country of which he was by birth a citizen, and the country which his genius called into existence, fighting side side to save " by mankind from subjection to military despotism.' A telegram from Donald B. McMillan (formerly one of Peary's lieutenants), leading the Arctic exploration, says: "Blocked again at Cape Herschel, I found a way through the mountains into Baird's Inlet. Here at Eskind Point the walls of three stone houses and remains of a boat marked the site of the first encampment of Greely's party. Before turning back I searched the cape carefully for records and boat of British expedition of 1876.