Lewis County has the distinction of being the birthplace of one of America's premier civil engineers.
Think of such structures as the Lincoln Memorial; the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier and the Arlington Memorial Amphitheater; and the Flatiron Building in New York City.
So how is a Lewis County native tied to such well-known and distinguished landmarks, you may ask?
Through a man named James Baird, who was born in Vanceburg in 1873.
According to a reprint of a 1953 news article published in the Lewis County Herald, and sent to members of the Lewis County Historical Society recently in its monthly newsletter, Baird's ancestry in Lewis County dates to 1795.
It was in that year, according to the news article, that James Baird's great-grandfather, Moses Baird, built the first house in what is now the city limits of Vanceburg. Moses Baird came to Lewis County from Mason County with Joseph Vance and Duncan McArthur to boil salt at the wells at Dry Run. According to the article, Moses Baird eventually sold his land and moved "across the river and bought the entire acreage from the McCall farm down to Sulphur."
James Baird's father, Lyman Beecher Baird (1833 - 1907), a native of Ohio, returned to Vanceburg, where he operated a hardware store and grocery. James's Baird's mother was Frances Amelia (Halbert) Baird and he had one older brother, Charles.
According to the news article, the Baird family left the area around 1888; it appears the two boys moved to Chicago with their mother so they could attend college and their father sought "opportunities" in Kansas and Oklahoma "afforded by what then was the new West."
According to information found on Wikipedia, James Baird enrolled at the University of Michigan, where he earned a bachelor's degree in civil engineering in 1896. He played football at Michigan and was quarterback from 1892 - 1895. He was the team captain in 1894 when the Wolverines beat one of the teams from the East, Cornell, for the first time.
He served as assistant coach at Michigan from 1897 to 1898.
Following graduation, James Baird worked at the Guaranty Construction Company in Chicago; then he worked for Moulton-Starrett Company in Columbus, Ohio, and Pittsburgh. In 1899, he began his career at the George A. Fuller Company, where he was employed for 23 years. The George A. Fuller Company was a leading builder of skyscrapers and is credited as the inventor of the modern contracting system.
While employed at the Fuller Company, James Baird directed the erection of the Flatiron Building, which is the first steel-frame skyscraper in New York City, located at 175 Fifth Avenue in Manhattan. The building opened in 1902.
His career with Fuller took him to Boston and then to Washington, D.C. in 1904 as a district manager. He became vice president in 1910 and president in 1922. James Baird is credited with the supervision of such projects as the Lincoln Memorial and the Arlington Memorial Amphitheater in 1916; the Commodore Hotel in 1919 (now the Grand Hyatt in New York City); the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier in 1921; and the Freer Gallery of Art in 1923 (part of the Smithsonian Museums).
His career shifted in 1925 when he started his own construction company, the James Baird Construction Company Inc. His firm built several notable buildings: the Folger Shakespeare Library in Washington, D.C.; an addition to the Corcoran Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C.; the dome at St. Bartholomew's Episcopal Church in New York; two buildings at the University of Michigan Law School; the Ferncliff Mausoleum in Hartsdale, New York; the 10 original buildings of Madeira School in McLean, Va.; the (R.J.) Reynolds Building in Winston-Salem, N.C.. Baird's firm also constructed the Brooklyn printing plant building of The New York Times.
An avid golfer, James Baird donated his 590-acre farm in Pleasant Valley, N.Y., to the state of New York in 1939. The land was converted to an 18-hole golf course, designed by Robert Trent Jones. The James Baird State Park opened in 1948.
James Baird and his wife, Cornelia Curtis moved to Tucson, Ariz., in 1936 due to ill health. They remained in Tucson for the remainder of their lives. James Baird died in May 1953, days shy of his 80 birthday. His wife died in 1962. The couple had two sons, John C. Baird and Charles Baird.
For citizens of Lewis County, near or far, the reprint of the Baird article by the Lewis County Historical Society can also serve as a resource of family genealogy, since the article cites the following as first cousins and relatives of James and Charles Baird, the sons of Lyman Beecher Baird: Judge William C. Halbert, Mrs. Lillie Halbert Parker, George Barkle, of Cabin Creek, Carter Halbert, Russell Halbert, Harvey Parker Jr., Mrs. Doris Pugh Johnson, Ray Pugh, Bruce and Miss Jenny Lou Barkley, and Miss Florence Hendrickson of Tollesboro.