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Submitted: 2/13/22 • Approved: 2/13/22 • Last Updated: 2/16/22 • R490389-G490387-S3
Robert Walter
October 12, 1864-August 13, 1946
Dovie Jane
August 7, 1869-June 25, 1914
*Photo, courtesy of Mary (Coggin) Russell
*Information, courtesy of Edith Guynes Stanley
*Obituary Robert Walter
R. W. Baird made his third move from East Texas to the Panhandle before he finally "took root" on the plains. He came first to the T Anchor Ranch, with headquarters at Canyon, in the early spring of 1886. The first trip from his native Grayson County was made on horseback.
Jim Moore was ranch boss, and Cal Walker was wagon boss. Baird went with Walker in driving one of two herds of steers from the T-Anchor to market at Kiowa, Kansas, for shipment to the Chicago market that spring. The following winter he spent with two other cowboys in a line camp dugout located three or four miles down the creek from the present site of Hereford.
After the spring roundup, he joined the LX's crew and helped drive a herd of steers to their Montana ranch near the Canadian border. They swam the Missouri River, drowning 16 steers.
Near the end of the year of 1888, he rode back to Grayson County and married his school-days sweetheart. In the summer of 1892 he loaded his wife and two sons, Fred and Horace (Mike), into a covered wagon and again headed for the high plains. This time they located on a half section five miles northwest of Canyon. Farming and ranching on a small scale proved unprofitable; so he went back to Grayson County after a year or two.
Finally deciding he had had enough of East Texas chills and fever and five-cent cotton, Baird made his third move to the high plains in 1900. He and three other men came in a covered wagon; he filed on two sections of land southwest of Hereford, just across the line of Castro County. He built a house, broke out and planted a few acres of land, as required by the homestead law.
Leaving his wagon and team with a neighbor, he returned to Grayson County to load his household furniture, livestock, and farming implements into an emigrant car headed for Hereford. He and the two boys came with the car, and Mrs. Baird came by passenger train a few days later.
One of the first things young Fred Baird recalls was seeing his father riding a black horse and hauling water in a keg from a creek near their house.
Baird moved his family to Hereford in the fall of 1901 to put the boys in school. He and L. R. Bradly established a grain and coal business in Hereford. He was elected sheriff and tax collector of Deaf Smith County in 1910 and served in that office for three terms. Mrs. Baird died in 1914, and after his term of office expired, R. W. Baird made his home on the ranch with his son, H. C. (Mike) Baird, until his death on August 14, 1946. He had been born in Grayson County, Texas, on Oct. 12, 1864.
Fred and Mike Baird attended school in a wooden building located where Central School now stands. Later they attended the Christian College in Hereford. They recall that there was a great deal of school spirit, with the entire student body joining in all activities. They played on the first football team organized in Hereford at the college in 1910. The following year Fred was enrolled at West Texas State Normal College at Canyon and played against the first high school team in Hereford, including Mike. Records show that Hereford High School defeated the West Texas Buffaloes twice that year.
The Baird boys were among the young people enjoying recreation provided by the then clear, flowing Tierra Blanca Creek. Fred recalls going swimming with Otho Price on March 15 one year. The water was clear but cold; so the daring swim lasted just long enough for the boys to find a good place to climb out.
Fred Baird spent some time in the army and worked at Dallas, El Paso, Louisiana, and other places. He returned to Hereford in 1930, worked on a ranch, then as an accountant. He served as deputy sheriff for six years, starting in 1937, then served as county judge for four years. For many years he served as school tax assessor-collector, retiring from that post in 1961.
Mike Baird was married to Mary Hill in June, 1916. He carried on a successful partnership with his father in the cattle business for some 30 years, adding two more sections to the ranch, which he still operate. He and Mrs. Baird moved to town from the ranch about 1960, buying a home at 111 Douglas. They have one son, J. R. (Bob) of Seattle , Wash. , and one daughter, Mrs. Mary Ann King of Corpus Christi , Texas , and eight grandchildren. (A History of Deaf Smith County, by Bessie Patterson, 1964
Contributed on 2/13/22 by neldapat
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Record #: 490389