Bird, Francis William, 1809 - 1894

Francis William Bird was from Dedham, Massachusetts.  A graduate of Brown University (1831), he removed to East Walpole where he founded a paper factory and served as a Massachusetts legislator and abolitionist leader.  In 1849, the Massachusetts General Court appointed Bird (as chairman), Whiting Griswold, and Cyrus Weeks a committee to investigate the number and circumstances of the Indians and Indian descendants within the Commonwealth.  He participated in a similar commission in 1869.  Obituary, Hon. Francis William Bird, The American Stationer, May 24, 1894, 993.  Bird Report. Image: Frances William Bird: A Biographical Sketch (Boston, MA.: Norwood Press, 1879), Frontispiece.