Henry Samuel Baird was the territorial Attorney General of Wisconsin during 1836-1839, appointed by Wisconsin territorial governor Henry Dodge

Henry Dodge

Henry Dodge was a Democratic member of the U.S. House of Representatives and U.S. Senate, Territorial Governor of Wisconsin and a veteran of the Black Hawk War. His son was Augustus C. Dodge with whom he served in the U.S. Senate, the first, and so far only, father-son pair to serve concurrently....

.

He is known as "Father of the Wisconsin Bar."

Born in Dublin, Ireland

Ireland

Ireland is an island to the northwest of continental Europe. It is the third-largest island in Europe and the twentieth-largest island on Earth...

, Baird moved with his family, at age five, to Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania

Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania

Pittsburgh is the second-largest city in the US Commonwealth of Pennsylvania and the county seat of Allegheny County. Regionally, it anchors the largest urban area of Appalachia and the Ohio River Valley, and nationally, it is the 22nd-largest urban area in the United States...

. He worked in various law firms in Ohio and Pennsylvania including the law firm of the future governor of Ohio Reuben Wood

Reuben Wood

Reuben Wood was a Democratic politician from the U.S. state of Ohio. He served as the 21st Governor of Ohio.Wood was born near Middletown, Rutland County, Vermont. While living with an uncle in Canada, he was conscripted into the Canadian Army at the outset of the War of 1812, but escaped across...

 before moving to Wisconsin Territory

Wisconsin Territory

The Territory of Wisconsin was an organized incorporated territory of the United States that existed from July 3, 1836, until May 29, 1848, when an eastern portion of the territory was admitted to the Union as the State of Wisconsin...

, to Green Bay, Wisconsin

Green Bay, Wisconsin

Green Bay is a city in and the county seat of Brown County in the U.S. state of Wisconsin, located at the head of Green Bay, a sub-basin of Lake Michigan, at the mouth of the Fox River. It has an elevation of above sea level and is located north of Milwaukee. As of the 2010 United States Census,...

, where he was admitted to the bar in a special ceremony in the courtroom of territorial judge James Doty. Baird was involved with Indian affairs negotiating land transactions with the Indian tribes: the Menominee

Menominee

Some placenames use other spellings, see also Menomonee and Menomonie.The Menominee are a nation of Native Americans living in Wisconsin. The Menominee, along with the Ho-Chunk, are the only tribes that are indigenous to what is now Wisconsin...

 and Ho-Chunk

Ho-Chunk

The Ho-Chunk, also known as Winnebago, are a tribe of Native Americans, native to what is now Wisconsin and Illinois. There are two federally recognized Ho-Chunk tribes, the Ho-Chunk Nation of Wisconsin and Winnebago Tribe of Nebraska....

 tribes; Baird also served in the Wisconsin Territorial Council, the upper house of the Wisconsin Territorial Legislature and was the first president of the territorial council; he also served in the first Wisconsin Constitutional Convention of 1846. He served as mayor of Green Bay, Wisconsin twice, in 1861 and 1862.

At age 24 he married the 14-year-old Elizabeth Fisher, his favorite student, on Mackinac Island

Mackinac Island

Mackinac Island is an island and resort area covering in land area, part of the U.S. state of Michigan. It is located in Lake Huron, at the eastern end of the Straits of Mackinac, between the state's Upper and Lower Peninsulas. The island was home to a Native American settlement before European...

 in Michigan, on August 24, 1824, and they moved to unsettled Wisconsin Territory. Baird brought his wife from Mackinac Island, by ship, to Wisconsin Territory. Elizabeth Baird, his wife, later wrote of life in territorial Wisconsin in "Reminscences of Life in Territorial Wisconsin." Henry became the first practicing lawyer in the territory.

Henry's law office, the Baird Law Office

Baird Law Office

The Baird Law Office in Green Bay, Wisconsin was built in the 1830s in Greek Revival style, which was then popular as one of America's first architectural styles that explicitly rejected British practices. The small one-story building measures just 16 x in size and served historically as a...

, is a small Greek Revival

Greek Revival architecture

The Greek Revival was an architectural movement of the late 18th and early 19th centuries, predominantly in Northern Europe and the United States. A product of Hellenism, it may be looked upon as the last phase in the development of Neoclassical architecture...

 building that he purchased in 1841. The building was moved and is preserved at Heritage Hill State Park.