Business Toast of the Town

The article, "Business Toast of the Town" at the D Magazine web site has some interesting information on the early history of Baird's Bread, as well as some insight into the Baird children in later years. It was published in November of 1984, nearly 25 years ago when Hoyt was 87 years old. It details a few items that other articles don't mention. The only incorrect item I've noticed is the last name of Ninnie. The article lists it as Henderson, when her maiden name was really Harrison.

It mentions Ninnie being an orphan, learning to bake bread from an aunt. In other research, I've found that a few accounts tell of Ninnie becoming an orphan (her mother died earlier, when Ninnie was five years old) was because her father, Elisha Harrison, was killed in an argument over the job of Postmaster of Dyer, Tennessee. The details of this story can be found on this post at RootsWeb.

The article also helps establish the date of the combination bakery / storefront being built by 1912, but skips the move from the Hemphill home she lived at in 1908, to the Cactus home in 1910.

In case you missed the link above, you can find the entire article here.

First Bakery Photo

I've scanned the original article, Mrs. Baird's First Baked Bread in Kitchen Stove, which contains a photograph of "Mrs. Baird's first bakery". The scans now accompany the original article and I'm also including them with this post.

This "bakery" no longer exists, but was probably located at 1811 Washington. If you recognize this photo and have any further information about it, please contact us.