[1][2] She studied with private tutors in her youth and attended Julia A. Tevis's Science Hill Female Academy in Shelbyville, Kentucky.

[3] At the age of fourteen, she was converted to the Baptist faith through her grandfather Francis Davis and an elder, George Waller.

She and her brother, John T. Davis each served as associate president of the college for four years, before Baird moved to Lancaster, Schuyler County, Missouri.

Baird taught at the Springfield High School for seven years, while her husband, a surveyor by trade, served in the Confederate States Army.

Jesse's exposure to the conditions during the war of camp life and long marches, caused health problems.

[10] In addition to administering the school, Baird taught arithmetic and history, though the fees charged were inadequate to cover the costs of running the establishment, according to one of her former pupils, Robert Coontz, who would become a rear admiral in the United States Navy.

[8] The couple moved to Mexico, Missouri to take up the post and continued with Homer as business manager and Baird serving as the school principal and teacher.

[9] In 1903, the Bairds moved to Denver, Colorado, where her daughter Itonia was teaching French at West High School.