Bank cashier (then equivalent to manager) at the United States' first peacetime bank robbery in 1866, at the Liberty Savings in Liberty Missouri.

Greenup Bird was born in Glasgow, Barren county, Kentucky on Oct. 30th, 1809, the only child of John & Katherine Bird. He removed with his father about 1816 to Tennessee, and in 1818 they moved to the "Boone's Lick Country," (then territory of Missouri) where they settled at Franklin, Howard County, Missouri. At the age of about 13, Bird quit school and began working in various stores.

He came with his father to Clay County, Missouri and settled at Liberty on March 31st, 1831. In 1843, they moved to a farm where Kearney now stands, and remained on it about one year, returning to Liberty in December, 1844. Bird was elected Clay County Clerk in 1846, and served until 1852. In 1855 he quit the mercantile business and sold out to Wm. A. McCarty. In July, 1858, Bird accepted he position of cashier of the Farmers' Bank (Branch at Liberty) and continued there until 1864. In 1864 he removed to Leavenworth, Kan., and became cashier of the First National Bank, resigning in 1865, and returning to Liberty to become cashier of the Clay County Savings Association.

On February 13, 1866 Jesse James committed the first daylight bank robbery in peace time. This was at the Clay County, Missouri Savings Association, Liberty, Missouri. Greenup Bird was the cashier. ("Cashier" in those days was something similar to the bank manager.) Greenup Bird and his son, William, also an employee of the bank, were locked in the vault and the James Gang made off with approximately $60,000.

In the Spring of 1866, he moved to Chillicothe, Mo., and became cashier of the Chillicothe Savings Association, with Dr. J.B. Bell (now of Kansas City) as president. In 1874 he resigned as cashier at Chillicothe, and removed to Kansas City in the spring of 1875, where he lived until his death.

Mr. Bird was married at Franklin, Howard county, Missouri, March 11th, 1830, to Eleonora McCarty, who died in 1840. There were four children of this marriage: John Bird married Kate Kelly of Tennessee; James P. Bird never married, he lived in Liberty many years and was a bookkeeper at the old Liberty flouring mill on Mill Street; Kate Bird, married Rev. Jeoffrey C. Thornton; Greenup Bird, Jr. married Miss Sarah (Sallie) Morton, daughter of Dr. W. S. and Mrs. Morton of Liberty. He was for some years cashier of Darius Gittings' bank. He later moved to Kansas City and lived there until his death in 1903.

In 1842 Greenup Bird married for a second time to Catharine Wilson, a daughter of Wm. Pixlee, one of the pioneer settlers of Clay county. There were seven children of this marriage: Margaret, or Maggie, as she was called, who became the wife of Judge James E. Lincoln; Mary Bird who married Alexander M. Dockery, of Gallatin, Mo., governor of Missouri, 1901-1905; Clara, wife of Witten McDonald of Kansas City, lumberman, banker and one time owner of the "Kansas City Times"; Ida, who died at the age of 16 years; William, who married Miss Mattie Vincell of St. Louis; George, unmarried; and Carrie, married H. C. Orr of Kansas City.