BAILEY, James F.: Died 1906

BAILEY, DAVIDSON, MILLER, SHEPHERD

Posted By: Volunteer: Sherri
Date: 7/21/2013 at 09:52:21

Death of James Bailey.
**Handwritten: 1906

(By our Bentonsport correspondent.)

Last Friday James F. Bailey, a pioneer settler of the county, was buried in the cemetery at this place. He was 81 years past, and had resided in this county since 1854, excepting a short time he spent in California. He came to Iowa from Ohio where he was born, went to California, where he remained until 1857 when he returned to this county and began life as a farmer.

He married a Miss Davidson of Farmington. He was a very methodical farmer and owned a large farm one mile northwest of Bentonsport, which was long as in his possession was one of the best cultivated and most productive farms in the county. About 1897 his wife died, and in 1899 he was married to Mrs. Elizabeth Miller who survives. He and his wife have resided ever since in Bentonsport.

Mr. Bailey's health has been gradually failing for the past two or three years. On Sunday the 23, he felt worse than usual, but attended to his chores on Sunday evening. Monday morning found him with high fever, kidneys affected, unable to use his lower limbs, no apetite(sp). He lived until Wednesday afternoon, December 26, 1906, when death came.

When a young man in Ohio Mr. Bailey enlisted in the third Ohio Infantry to serve in the Mexican war, the regiment under the command of Col. Samuel R. Curtis, who later was a member of congress from the First District of Iowa and then a Major General during the Civil War. He was a member of the M.E. church, being one of its staunch supporters. He was a lifelong republican, an obliging and accommodating neighbor, a good citizen and a Christian man.

He leaves a wife and one daughter, Mrs. Henry T. Shepherd of Kansas City, Kansas, to mourn his loss. He was a member of the Masonic lodge of Bonaparte, and that order had charge of his funeral, Rev. Jones, his pastor preaching the funeral sermon.

Source: Van Buren Co. Genealogical Society Obituary Book C, Page 160, Keosauqua Public Library, Keosauqua, IA