Alexander Jackson Baird

Alexander taught school and music to pay his way through Cumberland College of Kentucky and in 1848 was ordained to preach. He was later president of that college. During the Civil War he was in charge of the shoe factory in Atlanta, GA making shoes for the Confederate soldiers and was also Pastor of the Central Presbyterian Church of Atlanta. He visited Generals Lee, Johnson and Jackson as Chaplin and preached to their armies. At the close fo the war he returned to Tennessee with his wife and two children, six free negroes, a few gray clothes adn $1.65. Most of his ministerial life was spent in Nashville, TN where he formed the Presbyterian Church with 12 members. It grew in five years to 1500 members. He was a delegate to the Pan-Presbyterian Council in Belfast, Scotland and had planned to go to the Holy Land afterward. On the day he was to have sailed, he died in New York City. He married Nellie Britton in 1850 near Clarksville, TN. They had three children.