James Baird Weaver (1833-1912) was an American political leader of reform movements who twice ran for the presidency.

James Baird Weaver was born on June 12, 1833, at Dayton, Ohio. His family soon moved to the virgin prairies of lowa to farm. Weaver attended country schools. When gold was discovered in California, he longed to go west. In 1853 he accompanied a relative to the gold fields but soon returned disillusioned. He entered and graduated from Cincinnati Law School in a single year; then he opened law practice in Bloomfield, lowa, in 1856.

Weaver immediately became absorbed in local politics as a Republican opposed to the expansion of slavery into the territories. When the Civil War came, he volunteered as an officer and participated in the bloody battles at Ft. Donelson and Shiloh. At Corinth he assumed field command when his superior officers were mortally wounded, and he received a promotion to...