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David Baird
DAVID BAIRD, merchant, P.O. Edwardsdale, was born in Airdrie, Scotland, February 17, 1835, and is a son of Alexandra and Ellen (Hunter) Baird, also natives of Scotland. In 1837 his parents emigrated with their family to Cape Breton, Nova Scotia, where they remained until 1850, when they moved to Jeansville, this county. From there, after a short sojourn, they proceeded to New Mines, same State, and in 1856 the parents moved to Illinois, where they passed the remainder of their lives.
At the age of fourteen, our subject began life for himself, working in the mines at New Mines, Pa., where he remained until 1854, in which year he moved to Jeansville, same State, and worked in a sawmill. From there he went to La Salle, Ill., where he worked in the mines until 1860; then returned to New Mines, and continued mining there until the breaking out of the Civil war.
On April 23, 1861, he enlisted at Harrisburg, Pa., in Company I, Fifteenth P.V. He was at the battle of Falling Water and the skirmish on the Martinsburg road, where he and thirty-eight other members of the company were taken prisoners. He was taken to Winchester and thence to Libby Prison, July 18, 1861, where he was confined until the folloiwng October, when he was removed to New Orleans Parish Prison; thence in the early part of February, 1862, he was taken to Salisbury Prison, Salisbury, N.C., and was there confined until May 28, when he was removed to Goldsborough, and from there to New Berne, where he was paroled and sent to New York. On June 12, 1862, he was discharged at Harrisubrg from the service on account of disability caused by imprisonment.
Returning to New Mines, he here remained for a short time, and then proceeded to Belleville, Ill., where he engaged in mining, remaining there until 1864, in which year he returned to Pennsylvania and followed mining at Plymouth until 1867, when he went to Yorktown and from there to Arnot, same State. In 1868 he came to Kingston, where he mined until 1883, since when he has been engaged in the mercantile business.
Mr. Baird was married in 1872 to Miss Anna, daughter of Frederick Metzler, of New York, and of German descent. Mr. Baird was once a very active member of the Greenback party, but at present he is identified with the Republicans. He was a delegate to the national convention held, in 1880, in Chicago, and was treasurer of the same in this county; also delegate, two terms, for the State convention in Pennsylvania.
Source: History of Luzerne County, Pa.; H.C. Bradsby; 1893.