Bailey, E. S.

BAILEY

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Date: 2/18/2003 at 09:48:44

E. S. BAILEY
Major E. S. Bailey, I first met at a session of the Supreme Court in 1867 or 1868. There was hardly a term of that Court in which cases from his district were heard, from that time until my removal to Kansas City in 1886, that he was not present. Our acquaintance ripened into congenial friendship. I was always glad to meet him, and often recall him from among the hosts of the past with pleasurable emotions. He was one of the most delightful and lovable of men; serene in disposition, pleasing in manner, highly interesting in conversation. He had been a soldier in the War of the Rebellion and passed through many scenes of the great conflict, but "grim visaged war" had left no visible impression on the placid face that miniatured the kindly qualities within. He was highly educated, a college graduate, and possessed intellectual endowments and literary accomplishments of no common order, but no man could be more unpretentious of his gifts. He was always the same modest, approachable and kindly gentleman. As a lawyer, he stood in the front ranks of the profession and was distinguished alike for his skill and ability. Of unimpeachable integrity, he had the confidence of the courts, as well as that of his clients. He was employed in cases of the greatest importance. He was especially well versed in the laws relating to corporations, 
(Page 950) and was frequently employed in cases involving their construction. For many years he was the legal representative at Clinton of the Chicago & Northwestern Railroad Company, and of the Chicago, Milwaukee & St. Paul Railroad Company.
He had a wide and lucrative practice. He was a native of Ohio, born in 1827. In his veins he carried the blood of the Revolution. His grandfather, Silas Bailey, was an officer in the Colonial Army.
From the biblical names given, they must have been a religious people, for the Major's first name, I am told, was Eli, his father's Jacob, and his grandfather's Silas.
Great pains were taken in the education of Major Bailey in his youth. He was well tutored in the preparatory schools and graduated from Union College, Schenectady, New York, in 1849. He studied law under James W. Nye, afterwards the distinguished Governor of Nevada, and its United States Senator, was admitted to the bar of New York, in 1855, came West the following year, settled at Dewitt, Clinton County, Iowa, and entered upon the practice. Four years afterwards he removed to Janesville, Wisconsin, engaging and continuing in the practice there until the outbreak of the Civil War, when he enlisted as a soldier in a Wisconsin regiment, was commissioned Major, and afterwards Lieutenant Colonel. Though entitled to the latter rank, he was always perfectly content to be called Major Bailey. In 1860 he returned to Clinton County, settling at Clinton, where he remained, and died when but little past his prime, at the age of sixty-five, in 1892. He was a Republican in politics, and though not a partisan, frequently attended the State Conventions of that party. The last time I had the pleasure of seeing him was at the State Convention which nominated Buren R. Sherman for Governor, in 1883. He was appointed by the President of the Convention, David B. Henderson, of Dubuque, as one of the committee to notify and escort Governor Sherman to the stage or platform. I hope to again meet him in the Elysian Fields. Nathaniel A. Merrell was one of the early lawyers of Clinton County, and for many years a prominent one in that part of the State. He was conspicuous, both as a lawyer and a law maker, and left a deep impression upon the laws and jurisprudence of the commonwealth. He was a prominent leader in the Democratic Party, a man of force and high character. Despite the generally prevailing Republican majority, he was frequently chosen to represent his constituency in the State Legislature. In the fall of 1871 he was elected to the House of the Fourteenth General Assembly. In the fall of 1873 he was elected to the Senate and served in the Fifteenth and Sixteenth General Assemblies. In the fall of 1877 he was elected and served in the Senate of the Seventeenth and Eighteenth General Assemblies.
At the close of his Senatorial service in the fall of 1883, he was elected to the House and served in the Twentieth General Assembly. In the fall of 1895 he was elected again to the House and served in the Twenty-Sixth General Assembly.
(Page 951) Through this long experience he became conversant with the course of legislation.
He took a prominent part and materially aided in the work of revising the Code of 1873. During his legislative service he was regarded as an acknowledged leader and representative of his party, and he well deserved this confidence. Political considerations, however, did not influence whatever his legislative work; he was far above that; his views were statesman-like, broad, just and practical. In the politics of the State at large, he was looked up to as a leader worthy of being followed. He had great influence in party councils, and had his party been in the ascendency throughout the State, he would have received its highest public honors. He was well calculated to be a leader, for, in addition to his natural sagacity, and practical wisdom, he had a commanding and inspiring personality.
He was robust, erect, tall, with an open face and fresh complexion, that carried a magnetic influence. His old friend, E. H. Thayer, editor of the Clinton Age, thus wrote of him on the occasion of his death: No prominent man in Iowa politics was ever more popular with the masses. 
He was one of those big-hearted men whom everybody loved and respected. To his friends he was as true as the needle to the pole. A noble man, broad gauged and great, he has gone to enjoy the reward which such men are promised in the "book of books." As a lawyer, he exhibited the qualities of an able and successful one. He was a forceful advocate, strong, persuasive and had great influence with a jury. As a counselor, his advice might be confidentially relied upon. He was born in Lewis County, New York, in 1829, reared on his father's farm. subsequently taught school, studied law with his brother, Eliada S. Merrell, a prominent lawyer and judge of Lewis County, was admitted to the New York Bar in 1855, and in the following spring came to Clinton County, settling at Dewitt, where he continued to reside until his death. He was of New England and Revolutionary stock. His parents were natives of Connecticut, who went from that State to New York. His paternal grandfather was a soldier in the Revolutionary War, and his father, a soldier in the War of 1812. At the legislative session of 1896, he was one of its most active and laborious members, and it was thought that his great exertion in that body impaired his health, which gave way and he died at the close of that year, at the age of sixty-seven.
The last time I saw him was while he was a member of the House in 1884. For much of the particular data embraced in this sketch, I am indebted to the notice in the "Clinton Age," hereinbefore referred to. 
Source: Recollections and Sketches of Notable Lawyers and Public Men of Early Iowa. Author: Edward H. Stiles. Des Moines. The Homestead Publishing Co.,1916