Andrew Daniel Baird (1839-1923) was born in Kelso, Scotland and immigrated to Brooklyn, N.Y. with his parents in 1853. Baird worked as a stone cutter until the outbreak of the Civil War, when he enlisted in the Union Army as a member of the 79th Regiment of the New York Volunteer Infantry, known as the Highlanders. After the War, in which he had risen to the rank of Major, Baird returned to Brooklyn and entered into a prospering partnership with his former employer. Baird also became involved in local politics, being elected to the Board of Aldermen in 1876. Later, he took on positions of leadership in several prominent local businesses and organizations, serving as a trustee, Vice President, and President of the Williamsburgh Savings Bank; Director of the Eastern District Hospital; Chairman of the Building Committee of the Brooklyn Public Library; President of the New York and Brooklyn Stonecutters' Association; and President of the Trustees of the Industrial Home on South Third Street. Baird was married to a Miss Warner, who died in 1875, and with whom he had two sons and a daughter. He married Catherine Lamb in 1884.
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Source:
- MacDougall, Donald John.
Scots and Scots' Descendants in America. New York: Caledonian Publishing Company, 1917.
From the guide to the Andrew D. Baird and New York Volunteer Infantry, 79th Regiment collection, Bulk, 1861-1865, 1860-1913, (Brooklyn Historical Society)
