Bailey, James Fordyce

BAILEY, DOOLITTLE, SEYMOUR, ABERCROMBY, BRADISH, BAGGS, READ

Posted By: Gary Norris (email)
Date: 11/28/2012 at 13:14:37

James Fordyce Bailey was born August 22, 1815, in Westmoreland township, Oneida county, New York. On the 11th of June, 1845, he married Cornelia Doolittle, the ceremony taking place at Hampton village (now called Westmoreland village), Westmoreland township, Oneida county, New York. The same day his brother, John Bailey, married Emily Seymour in Kirkland, Oneida county, New York, at the home of her sister, while his sister Janna Bailey married Dr. Ralph Abercromby Severance at the Bailey homestead. His brother-in-law, Rev. Amzi D. Barber, performed all these ceremonies. James Fordyce Bailey was one of a family of nine children, seven sons and two daughters. His parents were Eliphalet and Nancy (Bradish) Bailey. His father, one of the early settlers of Westmoreland, was a prosperous farmer and took an active part in public affairs. The paternal grandparents of our subject were James and Lucy (Gay) Bailey, who lived in Lebanon, Connecticut. During the Revolutionary war the grandfather acted as a guard for a few days. The grandmother lived to attain the age of ninety-two years. Mr. Bailey of this review was descended from John Bailey, who came from Chippenham, England, being shipwrecked at Pemaquid (now Bristol), Maine in the great storm on the 15th of August, 1635. He settled first at Newbury, Massachusetts, and in 1639 became one of the founders of Salisbury, Massachusetts.

The mother of our subject bore the maiden name of Nancy Bradish and was born in Cumminton, Massachusetts, her parents being Dr. James and Irene (Townsend) Bradish. Her mother was twice married, her first husband being Dr. Clark. They took up their abode in Floyd, Oneida county, New York, in 1802. Dr. James Bradish was a surgeon at the siege of Boston in the Revolutionary war. Irene (Townsend) Bradish lived to attain the age of ninety-two years. She was a twin sister of Nathaniel Townsend and a daughter of David and Irene (Loomis) Townsend. The Loomis, Townsend, and Bradish families have been traced to New England pioneers of very early dates. Deacon John Bradish, the father of Dr. James Bradish, served as selectman in 1775 and was a member of the Revolutionary committee of correspondence for Hardwick, Massachusetts, from 1774 until 1777. Robert Bradish, the emigrant from England, was in Cambridge, Massachusetts, at least as early as August 28, 1635.
Cornelia Doolittle, who was born in Camden, Oneida county, New York, on the 28th of August, 1824, had two brothers and a half sister. She was the eldest child of Amzi Doolittle, Esq. And his first wife, Hannah (Cone) Doolittle, who was the widow of Andrew Bettis. Amzi Doolittle was born in Watertown, Connecticut and accompanied his parents on their removal from Plymouth, Connecticut. Subsequently he made his way to Camden, New York, and about 1825 went to the village of Hampton in New York, where he served as town judge until his health failed. He was a cooper by trade. The name Doolittle means "of Dolieta," a place on the Norman coast in France. Rudolph of Dolieta, a Normal noble who came over with William the Conqueror, is the progenitor of all the Doolittles in England. Cornelia Doolittle was born in England in 1619 or 1620. He was a Puritan and came to America at the age of twenty-one to escape the tyranny of Charles I. As early as 1640 he was in Boston, Massachusetts. He removed to New Haven, Connecticut, prior to 1642 and was the chief executive officer of that town in 1644, when scarcely twenty-five years old. For many years he served as selectman and was seven times deputy to the general assembly at Hartford. He was one of the founders of Wallingford, Connecticut, and held almost every office of honor and trust in the town. Several times he acted as representative to the general court at Hartford. He was made a sergeant in 1673 and at the time of King Phillip's war was a member of the vigilance committee.
Cornelia Doolittle was descended from Daniel Cone, who was probably the emigrant. The first mention of Daniel Cone in this country that has been found is in 1657. He was one of the founders of Haddam, Connecticut. Lieutenant James Cone of East Haddam, Connecticut, the great-great-grandfather of Cornelia Doolittle, served under Sir William Pepperwill in 1745. He was a member of the legislature of the colony from 1747 and 1749. The great-grandfather of Cornelia Doolittle was Sylvanus Cone, who participated in the French and Indian wars and also in the Revolutionary war, being a minuteman at Bunker Hill. Hannah (Cone) Doolittle, the mother of Cornelia Doolittle, was born in Westmoreland township Oneida county, New York. Cornelia Doolittle had some Scottish ancestry. She lived in the Hampton village of New York from the time she was about a year old until her marriage except that after the death of her mother, in 1834, her father resided in Plymouth, Connecticut, for a few years. She attended the Ladies Seminary at Utica, New York, and subsequently taught public and private schools. She also sang in the church choir.
James F. Bailey, whose name introduces this review, left Westmoreland in 1853 and took up his abode in the vicinity of Auburn, New York. He and some of his brothers were planning to move farther west where they could obtain more land and they wished to find a place where their children would have good educational advantages. Happening to notice Mr. Grinnell's article in the New York Independent with reference to the new colony to be founded in the west, they wrote to Mr. Grinnell making inquiries. James F. Bailey came to Grinnell, Iowa, in October, 1854, and in February, 1856, went back to Auburn, New York, for his wife and children, with whom he returned to Grinnell in the following May. When the question arose of increasing the price paid for the land on condition that the college should be located in Grinnell within a certain time, he voted for the increase and cheerfully paid the increased price on his land. Not a few students were helped by the opportunities he gave them to work for their board and room. On first coming to Grinnell he brought with him a horse power sawmill, setting it up near the present site of the Colonial. While sawing the second board the mill broke. He and his brother John then went to Muscatine and purchased a steam engine. Bringing the boiler here was a very difficult task, as the roads were poor and the sloughs unbridged. They now had a good saw and grist mill combined, located on what is at present block 4 of Bailey's Addition. Coal could not be obtained and they were obliged to haul all of the fuel for the mill a distance of seven miles from their timber land in Rock Creek, Jasper county. They sawed some of the lumber for the first schoolhouse and also some of the first houses. He conducted the mill for eight or ten years and during this period had brought his farm under cultivation, eventually becoming a prosperous farmer and stock-raiser. His house was a station on the "underground railroad" for escaped slaves and with his team he carried a number of John Brown's party to the next station. He was one of those who stood guard on the night of the of the "Sugar Creek" war. Some time later, on his way to the coal banks, he fell in with some of the participants in that skirmish, who declared lustily that they would yet wipe out every abolitionist. Upon being told that he was an abolitionist and that they might wipe him out, they concluded they were not ready. He welcomed the coming of the Rock Island Railroad, for he knew what it was to haul wheat forty miles to Marengo and sell it for thirty-five cents per bushel. He gave three hundred dollars in labor and money to help build the Iowa Central Railroad. He was one of the stock holders of the land company for the Benzonia (Michigan) colony and at one time owned four hundred acres of land there. He was a member of the Grange and a stockholder in the Grange store. His political allegiance was given to the republican party, while in religious faith he was a Congregationalist. He was, moreover, a strong temperance man and advocated the suppression of the liquor traffic. He won a host of friends and had a wide acquaintance in all the surrounding county.
James F. Bailey lived in several houses in Grinnell. In April, 1864, he moved to the corner of his farm west of West street and north of Eleventh avenue, where he resided until his death. At the time of his demise he owned two hundred and forty acres of land, a part of which was afterward platted by his children and called Bailey's Addition. Another portion was platted by his daughter, Mrs. Joanna (Bailey) Baggs, and called Baggs' Addition. Mr. Bailey died on the 1st of February, 1888, and was buried in the southwest corner of lot 67, Hazelwood cemetery, Grinnell. His wife, Cornelia (Doolittle) Bailey, died in Grinnell on the 9th of January, 1893, and was buried beside him. They had seven children, six daughters and one son, four of whom were born in New York and three in Grinnell. Joanna Elizabeth, who was graduated from Iowa College of Grinnell in 1868, married George Thomas Baggs on the 31st of May, 1877, and is still a resident of Grinnell. Mary Irene died at the age of two years. Ella Cornelia gave her hand in marriage to Elmore Chapman Read on the 27th of May, 1872, and makes her home at Parsons, Kansas. Irene Conklin, who was an artist, passed away on the 24th of August, 1877, when twenty-three years of age. Gertrude Laurinda, who was graduated from Iowa College in 1879, resides at Grinnell. Jennie, who completed her course in Iowa College in 1883, also makes her home in Grinnell. William Doolittle was graduated from Iowa College in 1891 and from the law department at Yale University at New Haven, Connecticut, in 1893. He is now a member of the law firm of Washburn, Bailey & Mitchell of Duluth,, Minnesota, and has an immense practice. On the 12th of June, 1901, he wedded Miss Ora Ida Gridley.
Four of the brothers of James F. Bailey lived in Grinnell for a time. John Bailey came from Auburn, New York, to Grinnell in June, 1854, and went to Glen Arbor, Michigan, in the fall of 1857. Rev. Charles Eliphalet Bailey came from Weymouth, Ohio, to Grinnell in the fall of 1856. While in Weymouth he conceived the idea of founding a Christian colony and a Christian college in the west. In November, 1857, he was preaching at Ontario, Illinois. In October, 1858, Rev. Charles E. Bailey, John Bailey, Horace Burr and Mr. Wolcott founded Benzonia, Michigan, and a college was chartered in 1862. Horace Clark Bailey lived in Grinnell several months in the summer and fall of 1857. He went to Glen Arbor, Michigan, in the fall of 1857, intending to help his brothers found a new colony, but died in Glen Arbor on the 11th of June, 1858. Lorenzo Bailey came from Auburn, New York, to Grinnell in May, 1856, and removed to Benzonia, Michigan, in 1866.
Two cousins of James F. Bailey, brothers, lived in Grinnell a few years and died in this city. Edwin S. Bailey, who came to Grinnell from Antwerp, New York, in the fall of 1855, conducted a store and passed away on the 23rd of March, 1864. Alfred Bailey came from Antwerp, New York, to Grinnell in the fall of 1856. He conducted a hotel on the corner west of Main street and south of Fifth avenue, which was named the Bailey House. His demised occurred on the 26th of March, 1858.

History of Poweshiek County Iowa
- A Record of Settlement, Organizations, Progress and Achievement, Vol. II
written by Prof. L. F. Parker.
Published by The S. J. Clarke Publishing Co., in 1911
Pages 196-201