Watauga County North Carolina Biographies

An AHGP Project

Watauga County North Carolina

The Bairds of Watauga

Ezekiel Baird was the father of Bedent and William Baird, and came to North Carolina from New Jersey. William went West, where he died. Bedent married Mary, a daughter of Cutliff Harman, and lived one mile down the Watauga River from Valle Crucis on its left bank, where Walter Baird now lives, though Bedent's old house has been replaced by the present large frame dwelling. Bedent's sons were Alexander, who married Nancy Vanderpool, and lived on the waters of Brushy Fork; Franklin, who married Catharine Moody, daughter of Edward, who lived at what is now Foscoe. Franklin lived one mile down the Watauga, where James Church now lives, and just above Walter's; Palmer, who married, first, Elizabeth McBride, and lived on Beech Mountain, three miles from Bedent's; Blodgett, who moved to Tennessee and married a lady near Nashville. He was absent forty years before he was heard of at Valle Crucis. The next was Euclid, named for the geometrician, and he married Louisa Councill, daughter of Jordan Councill the first, and lived where ex-Sheriff W. B. Baird now lives.

Franklin's children were: Jackson, who married Tempe Shull; William, who married Sarah McNab; Susan, who married James Lowrance; David F., who married Elizabeth Wagner; Thomas Carroll, who went to Texas, where he died unmarried about 1861.

Alexander's children were: Bedent, who went West and married Susan Jane Merchant; Abram, who married Elizabeth Hartley; Warren, who married Rebecca Hartley; Ezekiel, who married Sarah Wilson; Jonathan, who died in the Civil War; Phoebe, who never married; Elizabeth, who married Hiram Wilson.

Palmer's children were: John, who married Miss Shupe; Andrew, who died in the Civil War, unmarried; Ann, who married Wm. Grimsley; Caroline, who married; Eliza, who never married.

Blodgett's children are not known to his Watauga relatives.

Euclid's children were: Benjamin, who married Celia Gragg; John, who married Emeline Shell; Hiram, who died in the Civil War; Thomas, who went West and died unmarried; Sarah, who married John Hackney; Charlotte, who married Eli Brown; Mary, who married Hiram Gragg.

Rittenhouse's children were: William B., who married Eliza Gragg.

David F.'s children are: Victoria, who married T. H. Taylor; Allie, who married J. M. Shull; Nora, who married D. C. Mast; Susan, who married Jack B. Horton; Emma, who married W. W. Mast; Lula, who married J. C. Moore; Thomas C., who married Emma Mast.

Source: A History of Watauga County, North Carolina with Sketches of Prominent Families, By John Preston Arthur, Richmond: Everett Waddey Company, 1915.

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