- SUDDEN DEATH -
Dr. R.P. Baird Passes Away In Jessups, Ga.
A telegram received here Wednesday brought Intelligence of the sudden death of Rev. Dr. R.P. Baird at Jessups, Ga.  Dr. Baird was a prominent missionary of the Southern Presbyterian church to Brazil.

He was 55 years old and with his wife and daughter was spending his furlough in Fredericksburg, and representing mission work wherever called In the South.

He left here In seemingly excellent health on Friday last and had made several addresses in the mission cause. The announcement of his death was a shock not only to his family but to the many friends he has made while residing here.

Dr. Baird was a Mason and the telegram sent came from the Master of the Lodge in Jessups, Ga.

It is thought his body will be brought here. The Daily Star - March 10, 1909.
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- DR. BAIRD'S FUNERAL -
The funeral of Rev. Dr. R.P. Baird will take place at the Presbyterian Church Saturday at 2:30 p.m., conducted by Rev. J.H. Henderlite. The interment will be in City Cemetery.
The pallbearers - Messrs. J.W. Adams, J.E. Timberlake, M.L. Latbram, Dr. J.N. Barney, Paul Karsten, Jr., Mayo Smith, P.V. Daniel, Dr. J.P. Stiff. Pallbearers are requested to meet at Scotia Saturday afternoon at 2 o'clock. The Daily Star - March 12, 1909.
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(The following is loosely translated from Portuguese)

Rev. Dr. Reynold Price Baird

Pastor in Fortaleza and in the interior of Ceará

Reynold Baird was born on February 2, 1857, near Yorkville (now York), in the state of South Carolina. He was the third child of Rev. James Robinson Baird and Eliza Price Baird, of the same state. He was baptized by the well-known theologian and professor of Columbia Rev. James Henley Thornwell (1812-1862), who was a friend of his father's. 

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Rev. James Baird resided in Santa Barbara, Province of São Paulo, from 1868 to 1878, working with the Rev. William C. Emerson among the emigrant American settlers of the War of the Secession. Reginald studied at the International College of Campinas and São Paulo and professed the faith in the  Presby-terian Church of St. Paul on April 4, 1886.

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He married on September 30, 1887, with Mary Lucille Bankston, born in 1872 and in the Church of St. Paul on January 13, 1884. The marriage was officiated by the Rev. Edward Lane. Lucille was the daughter of Frank M. and Sarah Ellis Bankston of Brookhaven, Mississippi, who emigrated to Brazil in 1867. Lucille had two sisters, Mallie and Lilian.

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Reynold went to the United States, where he studied theology, graduating from the Seminary Columbia Theological Society, in South Carolina, in 1892. In the same year, he was ordered on September 30 by the Cherokee Presbytery. For four years, shepherded the Churches of Acworth, Mars Hill, and Smyrna, Georgia (1892-1896). He and his wife were appointed missionaries by the Foreign Missions Committee on 10 December of 1894. They went as missionaries to Ceará in July 1896, in order to assist the Rev. De-Lacey Wardlaw and his wife, who were not in good health. Before permanently to the Northeast, it seems that they were in Santa Bárbara, State of São Paulo, and took Lucille's sister, Lilian Bankston, who was also a teacher, and Charles, a nephew of Reynold. When they arrived in Recife, Charles died of yellow fever, and Lilian died of the same disease in Ceará. Just after of his arrival in Fortaleza, the missionary was affected by smallpox, reestablishing then.

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Rev. Baird preached in many places in the interior of the state, including Quixadá, where, despite threats, received a whole family by profession of faith. It was also in Senator Pompeu, where he organized a con-gregation with about 40 members most of them from the Varela and Cortez families, who had been evangelized in Mossoró by Rev. Wardlaw. Baird left the congregation in the care of the worker Raimundo Ferreira da Silva, a young man from the Fortaleza Church who had taken a class in Bible and had already served in the Congregation of Baturité. In 1897, the Wardlaw couple  left the mission after eighteen years of fruitful work and the entire responsibility of the field fell on the Rev. Baird. In his pastorate was inaugurated the temple of Fortaleza, which was built by the efforts of the presbyter Dr. Albino de Faria. The cornerstone was launched on October 12, 1898. At that time, Baird received by profession of faith and baptism Mr. Joaquim Cândido de Sena, the paternal grandfather of the future Rev. Alcides Nogueira. Sena resided on the "Winner" farm, in the municipality of Cachoeira, in central Ceará, and was converted by reading the Bible and visiting a distant relative, a member of the Church of Fortaleza.

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After four years of intense work, the missionary's health was shaken, and in September of 1900, he had to return to the United States. After a brief rest, he attended the College of Medicine and Surgery, in Atlanta, graduating in 1902. Having declined several attractive invitations in his country, wanted to continue his work in Brazil, returning to Ceará in June of that year. Although you have never qualified formally to practice medicine in Brazil, the new profession was very useful for its missionary activities. The work was growing rapidly and new fields were being opened. Baird was untiring as a preacher and physician and obtained many fruits in his despite the opposition. Around 1906, Baird wanted to pay a visit to Humaita, where there was a small group of believers. He was stopped by friends who feared for his life. Events have

the wisdom of this attitude, for on the day it was expected there an armed mob awaited the arrival of the train. The evangelist Raimundo Ferreira da Silva had moved to Humaitá and there had done good evangelistic work, despite tenacious opposition. This evangelist was of Dr. Baird's influence on the small-town he had needed the missionary's medical services. Baird always supported Raymond, encouraging him and instructing him through letters, and giving him some financial assistance. After all, Baird went to Humaitá in December 1906, accompanied by two believers from Fortaleza and one from Baturité. It was welcomed by believers and visited by local authorities. Like this, even the opponents threw some stones. Seventeen people professed the faith and there was a collection in favor of the national missions.

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Rev. Baird attended the Synod meeting in 1903, in which he declared many years, having always preached in the shops, without challenge, the mediation of Christ. Said that every good man is a Mason because the institution is the essence of the basic principles of love, charity, and fraternity. According to him, the apostles and Jesus Christ themselves had principles. Freemasonry was widespread among the American Southerners - in the Campo Cemetery, in Santa Bárbara, there are many tombs with Masonic symbols.

Baird was a good speaker, endowed with a strong voice that dominated and pleased the audience.

His friends described him as an efficient, godly, and cultivated pastor, gifted with a kind and hospitable character, and a dedicated father and husband. It enjoyed a very good concept in the society of Ceará. In March 1907, the active missionary was suffering from a serious illness and, with great difficulty, arrived in the United States in September. His sheep in Brazil greatly felt their departure and prayed greatly for their recovery. The family set residence in Fredericksburg, Va., and Baird improved enough to several trips by the south divulging the cause of the foreign missions. On the evening of 9 March 1909, when he was traveling to make some lectures at the invitation of the Executive Director of the Florida Synod, died suddenly on the train in the town of Jesup, Georgia, at 52 years of age. He was buried in Fredericksburg on the 13th. The Baird couple had only one daughter, Geraldine P. Barnes.

Bibliography:

• Lessa, Annaes , 172, 257s, 509s, 669.

• Ferreira, History of IPB , I: 453, 577; II: 103.

• The Missionary (April 1907), Calvin Porter Collection.

• Ministerial Directory, PCUS / PCUSA (1898).

• Christian Observer , Louisville, Kentucky (17-03-1909), 1.

• "Rev. Reginald Price Baird, MD, " Christian Observer (06-30-1909), 15.

• Bear, Mission to Brazil , 47s, 224.

• Jones, Rest Soldiers , 183, 235, 242, 328.

• Ribeiro, Evangelical Church and Brazilian Republic , 155-159.