Justus Nathan Baird. Since his admission to the Kansas bar in February, 1909, Justus Nathan Baird has concentrated every energy upon the worthy task of building up a clientage and reputation at Kansas City, Kansas, and the esteem paid him by his fellow lawyers and the large practice he enjoys is ample evidence of his success. He practices in all the courts of the state and has offices in the Husted Building.
Mr. Baird is a graduate in law from the University of Michigan, and was influenced to locate in Kansas by the presence in this state of two brothers, both of them prominent and well known physicians. One of them is Dr. O. C. Baird, of Chanute, and a member of the State Medical Board and the other is Dr. J. Baird of Coffeyville.
One of nine children Justus Nathan Baird was born on a farm near Keosauqua in Van Buren County, Iowa, March 17, 1882. He is grateful for the fact that his life was spent in the invigorating and wholesome atmosphere of the country. His parents were Nathan and Lucinda S. (Jones) Baird, both natives of Ohio, and of New England and Pennsylvania Dutch ancestry. The respective families were established in this country in colonial days. Nathan Baird was an Iowa pioneer. He went from Ohio overland with or teams to that state in 1854 and took up a homestead of 150 acres of Government land. He used his oxen to break that land and later was joined by his parents in Iowa. He was married in Iowa to Miss Jones, and he lived on his farm until his death in 1900. The old homestead is still owned by his children. Nathan Baird was not only a successful farmer and stock raiser, but a man of much influence in his home community. He worked for the success of republican principles and candidates, though for himself he never sought office. His name became a byword for practical wisdom and for honest and upright character, and of course there were not wanting those who were willing to take advantage of his fairness and honesty. He brought up his children to frugal and honorable standards of life, and his name is a benediction to them all. He and his wife were members respectively of the Presbyterian and Methodist denomination. His widow still lives on the old Iowa farm.
All the children were trained to make the best of their opportunities, and several of them aspired to professional careers. Justus N. Baird after leaving the common schools entered the Iowa Wesleyan University at Mount Pleasant, where he remained three years, and in 1906 he graduated A. B. from the University of Iowa at Iowa City. He then entered the law department of the University of Michigan, where he was graduated LL. B. with the class of 1908, and at the same time was admitted to the Michigan bar. A few weeks later he arrived at Kansas City, Kansas, and has been in active practice since February, 1909. Mr. Baird has practiced alone.
Unlike many young lawyers he has shown no inclination to enter political life, though he is a stanch republican. He has held various chairs in the lodges of the Independent Order of Odd Fellows, is a member of the Knights of Pythias, and is always ready to help forward any public spirited enterprise. He and his wife are active in the Methodist Episcopal Church.
On October 19, 1911, Mr. Baird married Miss Amelia Ware. Mrs. Baird, who was born in Kansas, is a daughter of one of the greatest of Kansans, the late Eugene Ware, whose place as a great lawyer, a great post, and a public leader will always entitle him to a conspicuous position in Kansas history. Mr. and Mrs. Baird have one child, Justus N. Baird, Jr.