F. E. BAIRD, farmer, life insurance agent, &c.; P. O. Cynthiana.
... Francis E., who is the subject of this sketch, was born in Harrison County, Oct. 16, 1846. His boyhood days were spent about the homestead, working on the farm and attending the district schools, where he acquired a good practical knowledge of such branches as are usually taught in our common schools. When about nineteen years of age his father sent him to the Wesleyan College at Millersburg, Bourbon County, where he finished his education. He left school without any means, and at once began teaching for a livelihood, a profession he followed about three years, during which time he ranked among the leading and most popular teachers in Harrison and Bourbon Counties. His last school was a ten month's term at Kiser's Station, 4 miles north of Paris, on the K.C.R.R. Discovering that the confinement to which a teacher is necessarily subjected, was seriously affecting his health, he heeded the counsel of a medical friend, in whose ability and judgment he had implicit confidence, and at once quit the school room to embark in some branch of business that would admit of more freedom and recreation, if not prove more remunerative. For some time after this, our subject, engaged in various kinds of traveling business; and in the spring of 1872, bought a small store in Ruddel's Mills, Bourbon County, where he engaged in merchandising.
On Oct. 10th, 1872, he was married to Miss Maggie F. Howard, only daughter of Eli Howard, a prominent farmer of Bourbon County. Maggie F. was born Jan. 25, 1856. The spring following his marriage, Francis E. sold out his store and engaged in agricultural pursuits. In the fall of 1876, he bought a little place of 124 acres on the Colville Pike, in Bourbon County, known as the Alex. Patton farm, and moved to the same in March, 1877. After devoting his entire attention to farming here for two years, he was induced to engage in the life insurance business in which he was very successful. In 1880, he was promoted to the position of State Agent for one of his companies, and was given exclusive control of Tennessee, where he succeeded in establishing the merits of his company upon such a basis as to attract the attention of all similar instructions trying to operate in that State. In the spring of 1881, he bought what was known as the Dr. Bright place, located on the same pike and less than a mile of his other place, where he immediately moved and continued farming in connection with his other business. In the fall of 1881, when a corps of historical writers were inducted to undertake the publication of a history of several counties of the famous blue grass region of Kentucky, our subject was recommended to the managers of the enterprise as a man every way suitable and competent for the various and difficult duties connected with a work of that character. In this new field of labor he began with the same zeal and energy that has characterized his successful career thus far in life, and today it is universally conceded by his co-laborers, that he ranks among the most careful and efficient writers belonging to the force. He has been prominently connected with the Masonic Order since he was old enough to become a member; has filled all its offices; has been Master of his lodge, and its honored delegate to the Grand Lodge for six or seven consecutive years, and is thoroughly conversant with the esoteric work and masonic jurisprudence. He and his estimable wife are connected with the M. E. Church South, and in politics he is a Democrat. In his marriage, Mr. Baird realizes that he has been extremely fortunate, having obtained for a life companion a lady of most exemplar character, pleasing address, and rare good judgment, and one, withal, of whom it may be truly said, she knows her every duty and how best to fulfill it.
