The Biographical Dictionary of America/Baird, Charles Washington

BAIRD, Charles Washington, clergyman, was born at Princeton, N. J., Aug. 28, 1828; son of Robert and Fermine Ophelia A. (Du Buisson) Baird. His father was a missionary and temperance orator. He was graduated from the University of New York in 1848. as class poet, and took a three years' course of study at the Union theological seminary, New York. After his graduation in 1852 he was ordained as minister in the Presbyterian church, 1853. and made chaplain of the American chapel in Rome, Italy, which office he retained until 1854, and in 1859 became pastor of the Bergen Hill Reformed Dutch church in Brooklyn, N. Y., going from there to Rye. N. Y., in 1861, where, until his death, he was pastor of the Presbyterian church. The University of the city of New York conferred upon him the degree of A. M. in 1860, and that of D. D. in 1876. He was a member of the American historical association, of the New York. Rhode Island, Westchester and Virginia historical societies, the Huguenot society of America and the Huguenot society of London. He is the author of "Eutaxia, or the Presbyterian Liturgies" (1855); "A Chapter of Liturgies" (1856); "A Book of Public Prayer" (1857); "Chronicle of a Border Town. History of Rye, Westchester Co., New York, from 1860 to 1870" (1871); " History of Bedford Church" (1882); "History of the Huguenot Emigration to America" (2 vols., 1885); "The Scholar's Duty and Opportunity," an oration (1886), and several translations, addresses and magazine articles. He died at Rye, N. Y., Feb. 10, 1887.