Born and raised in the South Mountain area of Burke County, North Carolina. Jonathan David Baird worked professionally as an archaeologist between 1994 and 2014. As an undergraduate, he attended Western Carolina University. He has a master's degree from Fort Hays State University in American history, focusing on the frontier and frontier mythology during the late 18th and early 19th centuries. He also has a master's degree in English literature from Fort Hays. His focus of study was the influence of Darwin's theory on late 19th-century Gothic horror literature.
In 2014 Jonathan was elected and served for two years as one of the district supervisors for Soil and Water in Burke County, North Carolina, only leaving due to his move out of the district.
Jonathan has an avid interest in sword fighting and fought at the world championship, Battle of the Nation's 2017, in Barcelona, Spain. His interests also include traditional skills, primitive technology, and ethnobotany.
In 2018 Jonathan completed the MFA program in writing at Lindenwood University and is currently working towards his Ph.D. in American history at the University of North Carolina Greensboro. His research focuses on the diaspora of tri-racial populations out of Virginia in the late 18th and early 19th century and the continuing family connections between Melungeon(tri-racial) groups throughout Appalachia into the early 20th century.
Jonathan has written for and edited several fiction anthology collections. He also has an academic work entitled A Wolf in Petticoats: Essays Exploring Darwinism, Sexuality, and Gender in Late Victorian Gothic Horror.
Jonathan is a Melungeon. Melungeon's are a tri-racial group (Portuguese/European, African, and Native American) who lived in isolated communities in the Appalachian Mountains.