Sedgwick County KSGenWeb

Portrait And Biographical Album of Sedgwick County, Kan.

Chapman Brothers 1888

Pages 920 - 922

JOHN A. BAILEY. Few people remain long in Sedgwick County without becoming familiar with this name, which is borne by one of its earliest pioneers and most enterprising men. His fine farm, which comprises the east half of section 11, has been brought to a good state of cultivation, and several acres around the group of farm buildings are devoted to apple and peach trees besides the smaller fruits. Adjacent are two fine groves, and a spring of living water at each end of the farm furnishes this indispensable element to the live stock, of which Mr. Bailey makes a specialty.

            Mr. Bailey went out with the first surveying party employed by the Government to determine the section lines, and at the time the first seven buildings were put up in this neighborhood. With the exception of our subject the families who occupied these are all gone. There was then but one road from Medicine Lodge to Wichita, and the prairie was covered with wild cattle. Mr. Bailey, during the first few years of his residence in this locality, often went out and killed buffalo within a half mile of the site of his present dwelling. The graceful antelope frequently bounded over the plains, and other wild game was plentiful. Over the ground where these wild creatures roamed unrestrained now reign the fat and well-kept herds of our subject, who deals largely in Durham and Devonshire cattle, and as a breeder of fine horses has attained an enviable reputation. At the head of his stables is a Cleveland bay, which has taken nine first premiums at the various State and county fairs, and is one of the finest animals west of the Mississippi. Mr. Bailey, upon coming to this State in 1873, pre-empted first a quarter-section, and his daughter, Mary E. Smith, secured at the same time also a quarter-section, which she subsequently sold to her father, and which he has since retained. About 200 acres have been broken, the balance being devoted to grazing.

            The subject of this sketch, a native of the Empire State, was born in Washington County, March 15, 1834. His parents, Nathaniel and Jane (Dunning) Bailey, were natives respectively of England and New York State. Nathaniel Bailey was born in 1802, and departed this life at his home in Washington County, N. Y., in the spring of 1842. The mother was born in 1818, is still living, and a resident of LaSalle County, Ill. Nathaniel Bailey was a carpenter and millwright by trade, and both parents were members of the Free-Will Baptist Church. Of their four children, John A., of our sketch, was the eldest. Two died in infancy unnamed. Hannah is the wife of James Anderson, and the mother of four children; they are living on a farm in Ophir Township, LaSalle Co., Ill.

            After the death of her first husband Mrs. Bailey was married to William Graham, and this union resulted in the birth of three children, two of whom died in infancy, and the third, George, died when a lad eight years of age. Mr. Graham departed this life in Washington County, N. Y., and the mother was married the third time, to Henry Merwin, who died in 1876. She now remains a widow, and makes her home with her daughter, Mrs. Hannah Anderson.

            John A. Bailey completed his education at the High School in Poultney, Vt., and then returning to his native State remained there until a youth of seventeen years. Thence proceeding to LaSalle County, Ill., he engaged there farming until the fall of 1873, and in the meantime was married to Mrs. Elizabeth (Vangieson) Smith, who was born in Monroe County, N. Y., in 1832, and became the wife of our subject Nov. 12, 1869. Mr. and Mrs. Bailey have one child only, a son, Alvoran D., who was born Nov. 9, 1870, and is now the able assistant of his father in the operations of the farm.

            The wife of our subject is the daughter of Cornelius and Ellen (Lake) Vangieson, and remained with her parents until her marriage to James Smith, which took place in New York on the 12th of May, 1852. Of this union there were five children: Mary Ellen was born Feb. 13, 1854, and after being thoroughly educated in the common school and the High School of Wichita, engaged as a teacher; she makes her home with her mother. William was born June 9, 1856, and died on the 15th of the same month; Ida L. was born Aug. 24, 1857, and is the wife of Samuel Halderman, who is farming in Afton Township; of their five children one is deceased. Olive A. was born June 3, 1860, and died in October, 1874, in this State; Cornelius E. was born Feb. 7, 1863, and married Miss Lucy, daughter of Philo M. and Lydia A. Herron, a history of whom appears elsewhere in this volume. They are the parents of three children, and Mr. Smith is numbered among the prosperous farmers and stock-raisers of Afton Township.

            Mr. James Smith, on the 12th of October, 1864, during the progress of the Rebellion, enlisted in Company H, 11th Illinois Volunteers, and at the battle of Mobile received a sunstroke, which resulted in typhoid fever, but too ambitious to go to the hospital he grew worse and never reached home. He died at Springfield while on his way home.

            Mr. Bailey, after the outbreak of the late Civil War, enlisted as a Union soldier in Company D, 64th Illinois (First Battery, Yates Sharpshooters), and at the battle of Farmington, Miss., a few months later, was seriously wounded by the explosion of a shell between his feet, which caused partial paralysis of the lower limbs. This it is hardly necessary to say unfitted him for further service, and he was obliged to accept his discharge in less than two years after his enlistment. He had in the meantime met the enemy in several other important engagements, including those of Ft. Pillow, Shiloh and Corinth, which have gone down in history as among the hardest fought battles of the war. Mr. Bailey was for a time detailed as an orderly at the headquarters of Gen. Rosecrans. He receives a pension of $8 per month from the Government. He has been a stanch adherent of the Republican party since its organization. Mrs. Bailey is prominently identified with the Baptist Church at Clear Creek. He belongs to Post No. 123, G. A. R., at Garden Plain.

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