His most famous speech was that made at the opening of the Brooklyn Bridge in 1883.
In 1878 he organized, and became president of, the Brooklyn Bureau of Charities.
In1882-1886he was mayor of the city of Brooklyn, being twice elected on an independent ticket; and by his administration of his office he demonstrated that a rigid "merit" civil-service system was practicable - in September 1884 the first municipal civil-service rules in the United Service were adopted in Brooklyn.
His brother, Charles Washington Baird (1828-1887), a graduate of New York University (1848) and of the Union Theological Seminary (1852), and the minister in turn of a Dutch Reformed church at Brooklyn, New York, and of a Presbyterian church at Rye, New York, also was deeply interested in the history of the Huguenots, and published a scholarly work entitled The History of the Huguenot Emigration to America (2 vols., 1885), left unfinished at his death.
Children's magazines originated with the Young Misses' Magazine (1806) of Brooklyn; the New York St Nicholas (monthly) and the Boston Youth's Companion (weekly) are prominent juveniles.
