Page 1 of the Mrs Baird's Story

This a transcription of page 1 of the Mrs Baird's Story. I've also updated the original Mrs Baird's Story post with page one.

The Mrs Baird's Story

They came to Texas in a chair car and brought Fort Worth its first steam popcorn machine. The story of the Baird family and the baking business they started.

In 1901 William Allen Baird, then a young man of 33, came to Texas to "look around" and see what kind of opportunities the Lone Star State might hold. Back in Tennessee he and wis wife Ninnie had operated a bakery and restaurant at Trenton and later a bakery at Covington. He liked what he saw in Fort Worth, decided to introduce the first steam popcorn machine in the city, and called his wife in Tennessee and told her to bring the family.

The family boarded the train for Texas in May, 1901. The steam popcorn machine had cost $425, so the family rode in the chair car section. Mr. Baird and his wife Ninnie had four children then. They were Bess, 11; Dewey, 9; Hoyt, 4; and Roland, 1.

Arriving in Fort Worth, the family moved into rented quarters on East Belknap. Mr. Baird set up his steam popcorn machine at the corner of 7th and Main in downtown Fort Worth. Painted bright red and fitted with lots of brass, the popcorn machine had a clown and a steam whistle on top. It was quite an attraction. Eight months later, Mr. Baird bought a second machine and put it at 5th and Main. Dewey, the oldest son, operated this machine.

A restaurant on Exchange Avenue was put up for sale. Mr. Baird, who had operated restaurants in Tennessee, con-

Cochran Renamed to West Tucker

According to the Sanborn Fire Maps, in Fort Worth, Texas, Cochran was renamed to West Tucker. I researched this because the publication The Mrs. Baird's Story says, on page 3 of the publication.

The family now lived at 512 Hemphill, on the corner of Hemphill and Cochran.

The address of 512 Hemphill today is still in the same place. I just wanted to verify the renaming of the street.

Ninnie Baird Becomes an Orphan

Ninnie Baird's father, Elisha Harrison was killed in May of 1882 leaving her an orphan, her mother having passed away in 1874. I received a newspaper article that details the story of the killing.

From an unknown newspaper, dated May 6, 1882.

Shot Dead in the Road.

Last Monday evening, three miles north of Trenton, Elisha Harrison was found dead in the Trenton and Dyer Station road, about 7 o'clock, with a pistol shot wound in the left side. A coroner's jury was summoned, Esq. H. C. Pearce presiding, and the following state of facts was developed: Elisha Harrison had been postmaster at Dyer Station for some years past and up to last winter and fall, when he ws removed. He had made threats before the day of the killing against all concerned in having him removed, and on that day said in Trenton that he intended "cursing out the whole set," and mentioned the name of H. J. Marcum as one of those he intended cursing out. Late in the evening, Harrison left town on horseback and is supposed to have stopped on the road where the killing took place and he hitched his horse and then went to meet Marcum as he came up. and he was found about fifty yards from his horse, back towards Trenton, and his hat was found midway between his horse and his body. Harrison was found with an open knife in his pocket with the point down. Suspicion pointed at once to Marcum. He left Trenton with some plow handles he had bought in town, was overtaken by a man named Kelly, who took him in his buggy until their roads separated, about half a mile from the place where Harrison was found dead. A gentleman living near the place of the killing heard some loud talking and soon afterwards, heard a pistol shot. He went down the road and saw a man he didn't know walking rapidly away with plow handles on his shoulder. Marcum has since given himself up, but we have not heard the result of the trail.

Concho Street Renamed to East Myrtle

According to the Sanborn Fire Maps, Concho Street was renamed to East Myrtle in Fort Worth, Texas. Theodore A. Lipps, the first non-family employee of Mrs. Baird's Bread lived on that street. I've updated the post, The First Baird Employee with this information.

Pages 2 and 3 of The Mrs. Baird's Story

I stumbled upon another researcher of the Baird family and was provided with pages two and three of The Mrs. Baird's Story. I've transcribed those pages here, and have added them to the original post of The Mrs. Baird's Story.

...
sidered going back in the restaurant business. He decided this one was a good buy. It might also be good business, he reasoned, to buy "run down" restaurants, fix them up, operate them, and then sell them. So he sold his popcorn machines and bought the restaurant. In those days of slow transportation, you had to live near the place you worked. So the family moved to Rosen Heights.

Santa Fe Restaurant

In 1903, Mr. Baird sold the Exchange Avenue restaurant and began operating the Santa Fe Restaurant across from the Santa Fe Depot. It was here, Dewey Baird often recalled, that as a boy of 12 he stood on a box to help his father make nickel pies. Then he and his father hauled the pies 8 or 10 miles in a lunch wagon to the Swift and Armour packing houses on Fort Worth's North Side. The family lived next door to the restaurant. Later that year, Mr. Baird sold the Santa Fe Restaurant and began operating a bakery on Jennings Avenue. The family moved to Daggett Street. The old Fort Worth (Central) High School was on the next block where the Justin Boot Company is now located.

With Mr. Baird now operating a bakery, his wife could take a short rest from her own baking chores. Usually she baked all the bread for her family and did it very well indeed. She had often helped her husband with the baking back in Tennessee. But now one of the boys could bring bread home each day from the bakery.

Her "vacation" from baking did not last long. The Little Chicago Restaurant, between 10th and 11th Streets, was put up for sale. Mr. Baird sold the bakery and bought the Little Chicago. The family moved to West Broadway. At the Little Chicago in 1904 you could get a full meal for 15 cents. Dewey helped his dad at the restaurant.

512 Hemphill

In the early part of 1905, Mr. Baird sold the Little Chicago Restaurant and began operating a restaurant on 15th Street. Hoyt, who was now 8, picked up the meat for the restaurant early each morning at H. E. Sawyer Grocery on South Main and took it to the restaurant on his bicycle. He started the fire in the stove and made hot cake batter. When his father arrived to start serving breakfasts, Hoyt went on to school.

The family now lived at 512 Hemphill, on the corner of Hemphill and Cochran. Mrs. Baird was once more baking all the bread for her family. She often baked more than she needed and gave the extra loaves to her neighbors. They liked her bread and she soon gained quite a reputation around the neighborhood for baking good bread. In fact, her neighbors urged her to bake enough for them too whenever she baked. And even in those days they referred to her bread as "Mrs Baird's Bread."

Finally, in 1908, Mrs. Baird decided to take her neighbors' suggestion. She would bake bread to sell. Her husband was still operating the restaurant, but his health was not good. He suffered from diabetes, and this was long before the discoveries were made that would mean so much to people with this illness.

Mrs. Baird started baking in her small four-burner wood-fired kitchen range. At first the boys delivered the freshly baked bread on foot after school. They carried the loaves in baskets. The baskets had hinged tops, which raised at each end, much like modern picnic baskets. Mrs. Baird put a clean flour sack in the bottom, put in the loaves of still hot bread, and then covered them with another clean flour sack. Each basket held about 6 one-pound loaves of bread. Later the boys used a bicycle to make deliveries.

As more people wanted to buy her
...

The First Baird Employee

Mr. Lipps being the first driver for the Baird business is referenced in a few articles about Mrs Baird's Bread.

On the Mrs Baird's Bread website in the story "Meet Mrs. Baird", it refers to him as the company's first employee. The hiring of Mr. Lipps happens on or after 1915 in the inferred timeline.

The first company employee, Mr. Lipps, who was not a Baird family member, was hired to drive the wagon.

In the Star-Telegram in 2002 the article "Bread Firm Asks Texas, Oklahoma Route Drivers to Buy Their Sales Territories" states Mr. Lipps was hired in 1915.

Mrs Baird's announced Wednesday what could be the most radical change in the way it distributes bread since 1915, when deliveries got too much for the founder's four sons and the first nonrelative, a Mr. Lipps, was hired to drive the wagon and its horse, Ned.

Finally, the document "The Mrs Baird's Story" says

A Mr. Lipps was hired to drive the wagon. Whenever he was ill, 13-year-old Hoyt relieved him as driver. Later Hoyt became the regular driver.

Hoyt was born in October of 1896, and would have been 13 in 1909, when the document says he relieved Mr. Lipps as a driver This infers that Mr. Lipps was hired on or before 1909.

As I'm finding with a lot of Baird history, there's conflicting evidence yet again. Two articles, including the official Mrs Baird's Bread web site state Mr. Lipps started around 1915. Then an official document, "The Mrs Baird's Story" shows him starting on or before 1909. The city directories infer him being a driver on or before 1911, and definitely driving for the Bairds by 1914, leading one to believe the old document "The Mrs Baird's Story" was more correct.

Curiosity drove me to check the Fort Worth City Directories to see if I could turn him up. I found his name to be Theodore A. Lipps, and in 1911 he lived at 517 Hemphill, which would have been across the street and a couple of houses down from where the Baird's lived at 512 Hemphill a few years before. The 1911 directory lists him merely as a "driver", but by the 1914 directory, he's listed as a driver for Mr. N. L. Baird. He is shown as living on Concho Street, which was renamed East Myrtle Street. The house would have been near East Myrtle and Yuma today (Allen Street turns into Yuma a few blocks after you cross I35 today).

By 1916, there is no entry for Mr. Lipps, which is also when the city directory lists Hoyt as the driver for Mrs N L Baird.

1909-1910
Lipps Theodore A., r. 1502 E 2th 3.

1911
Lipps Theodore A., driver, r. 517 Hemphill. 4.

1912-1913
Lipps Theodore A., r. 1412 E Myrtle. 3. Ph. Rose-
dale 1960

1914
Lipps Theodore A., driver Mrs. N. L. Baird, res
1412 Concho

1916
No entry for Theodore Lipps

Bairds in the City Directories

I finally made time to go through the Fort Worth City Directories to document the Baird names associated with the home at 1015 Cactus and the bakery at 1811 Washington. They are in five directories, 1911, 1912-1913, 1914, and 1916, and 1918.  They are listed in the 1909-1910 directory as living at 512 Hemphill and the business is not listed under the Bakeries section.

Some interesting notes from this compilation are

• The first time the bakery shows up in the business listings is 1911.
  
• The bakery at 1811 Washington shows up in the 1914 directory, with the name of the bakery being "Mrs. Ninnie L. Baird".
  
• Bessie Baird works at the E. E. Fosdick company, matching a section about Bessie in "The Mrs Baird's Story".
• Deward Baird moved out of the house, two streets over and a block south by 1916.
• W. Hoyt Baird was a clerk at the Fort Worth and Denver City Railway.
• A "Norman Baird" shows up in the 1916 directory.
• By 1916, W. Hoyt Baird quits his job at the railway and becomes a driver for the bakery.
  
• The name of the bakery in 1916 and 1918 appears to be "Mrs N L Baird".
  

1911
Baird Bessie Miss, steganographer, E. E. Fosdick & Co.,
    h. 1015 Cactus
Baird Deward, hlpr, h. 1015 Cactus
Baird Ninnie (Mrs. W. A.), bakery, 1015 Cactus, r.
    same, Ph. Rosedale 1511
Baird William A., r. 1015 Cactus. 8

Business Section

Bakeries

Baird Ninnie Mrs., 1015 Cactus

1912-1913
Baird Bessie O. Miss, steganographer, E. E. Fosdick &
    Co., h. 1015 Cactus.
Baird Deward C., baker, h. 1015 Cactus.
Baird Hoyt, clk, Ft. W. & D. C., h. 1015 Cactus
Baird Ninnie (wid. W. A.), bakery, 1015 Cactus, r.
    same, Ph. Rosedale 1511

1914
Baird Bessie O. Miss, steno E. E. Fosdick & Co.,
    bds 1015 Cactus.
Baird Deward C., baker Mrs. Ninnie L. Baird,
    res 1015 Cactus
Baird Ninnie L. (wid Wm. A.), baker, 1811
    Washington, res 1015 Cactus.
Baird W. Hoyt, clk Ft. W. & D. C. Ry, bds 1015
    Cactus

Business Section
Bakers
Baird Ninnie L., 1015 Cactus

1916
Baird
" Deward C. baker Mrs N L Baird, res
    1917 S Henderson
" Ninnie L. (wid Wm A), bakery 1811
    Washington av, res 1015 Cactus
" Norman, baker, bds 1015 Cactus
" Roland, baker Mrs N L Baird, bds 1015
    Cactus
" W Hoyt, driver Mrs N L Baird, bds 1015
    Cactus

Business Section
Bakers
Baird Ninnie L. Mrs. 1811 Washington

1918
Baird
" Deward C, baker Mrs N L Baird, res
    1106 W Bois d'Arc
" Ninnie L (wid Wm A), bakery 1811
    Washington, res 1015 Cactus
" Roland, baker h 1015 Cactus
" W Hoyt, driver h 1015 Cactus

Business Section
Bakers
Baird N. L. Mrs. 1811 Washington