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Show FANNY EMMORETT SESSIONS JAMES HYRUM BAIRD MARGARET ELLEN RANDALL The Families of James Hyrum Baird 1890 James Hyrum Baird lived a short time in Morgan County, dividing his time be¬tween his two families located in Mountain Green and Morgan City. He was married to Fanny Emmorett Sessions, mother of 18 children; and Margaret Ellen Randall who had 10 children. James Hyrum Baird was born 5 February 1848 in Quincy, Illinois, a son of Sam¬uel and Matilda Rutledge Baird. His parents joined the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Marion, Perry County, Alabama, and moved to Nauvoo, Illinois in about 1840. Unable to make an adequate living in Nauvoo the Bairds purchased a house boat and moved to Quincy where they lived for several years. Samuel became Captain of a freight boat traveling between St. Louis and New Orleans. Matilda moved with her children to St. Joseph where a small Branch of the Church was located. Samuel wrote periodically to his family, counseling them to stay close to the Church and take care of each other. Following one river trip down stream, a nurse wrote to the family and report¬ed that Samuel had contracted yellow fever. His son, James, took a boat to New Orleans in an effort to locate his father, but to no avail. He was told that during the terrible epidemic, which took countless lives,the dead were buried in a trench or common grave. James returned home and the father was presumed dead. In the Spring of 1863 the family was finally outfited for the trip across the plains, arriving in Salt Lake City the Fall of that year. Food was scarce and that Winter James Hyrum walked the streets looking for 208 |