Background
Baird was born in Derry, Ireland, in 1817. His parents brought him to Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, in 1821.
manufacturer locomotive builder
Baird was born in Derry, Ireland, in 1817. His parents brought him to Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, in 1821.
The boy attended school until he was about fifteen; he then went to work in a brick-yard and was later for a time employed as assistant to a professor of chemistry in the University of Pennsylvania. At the age of seventeen, he entered as an apprentice the copper and sheet-iron works of the New Castle Manufacturing Company, where he remained two or three years.
For a time following he was superintendent of the New Castle railroad shops. In June 1838 he was made foreman of the sheet-iron and boiler department of Baldwin's locomotive works at Philadelphia. Twelve years later he left this employment and with his brother John went into the marble business. In 1854 he bought from Matthias W. Baldwin an interest in the Baldwin works, the firm becoming a partnership under the name of "M. W. Baldwin & Company. " On Baldwin's death (September 7, 1866), Baird became sole proprietor. The next year he reorganized the firm, taking as partners George Burnham and Charles T. Parry and changing the name to "The Baldwin Locomotive Works, M. Baird & Company, proprietors. "
In April 1873 he retired from the firm, closing out his interest for $1, 660, 000. For a time he was inactive, but the jewelry firm in which one of his sons was a partner having failed, Baird bought the son's interest (1876) and assumed management of the business, which he conducted until his death. His fortune, despite the great shrinkage of values following the panic of 1873, was estimated at $2, 000, 000.
Baird was a skilled mechanic, with a turn for experimentation. He has been sometimes represented as a notable inventor, but his gift in mechanics seems rather to have been a talent for making practical the inventions of others. The first spark-arrester, with which his name is associated, may have been quite as much the invention of Richard French as his own; but the substitution of a deflector of fire-brick for the plate of destructible metal first employed is credited to him alone. To this knack of improving technical processes was added great executive ability.
He had wide business interests outside of his special line, having been a director of several railroad and manufacturing companies as well as a director of the Central National Bank and an incorporator of the American Steamship Company.
He was a kindly, generous man and made many gifts to welfare organizations.
Quotes from others about the person
The Iron Age, on his decease, spoke of him as one who had "won distinction and fortune by honest and intelligent application, " combined with natural mechanical gifts, and said that the success of the Baldwin works was "largely due to [his] energy, skill and honesty. "
He was married three times, and a large family survived him.
