In the book's own words, not ours, with obvious scanning errors fixed. Families often supplied these stories to the publisher, so check key dates.
Born 1829, Belmont county
From Biographical records of Linn County, Iowa .. (1901)
JAMES BAILEY.
This well-known retired farmer residing in W'hitter, was born in Belmont county, Ohio, on the 21st of March, 1829, a son of
James and Sarah Bailey. The father, who was a' native of the Old Dominion, was married in North Carolina, and at an early day went to Ohio, traveling in a one-horse cart, accompanied hy his wife and two chil- <:iren. Thev were among the pioneers of Belmont comity.
The subject of this sketch was reared in the county of his nativity, and when a young man went to Morgan county, Ohio, where he married Rhoda Patten, a native of that county and a daughter of John Patton, one of its first settlers. Like Abraham Lincoln, Mr. Bailey was engaged in split ng rails the first year after his removal to Morgan county and then engaged in farming, owning at different times three farms in that county. Selling his property there in 1867, he came to Linn county, Iowa, and for three years engaged in farming on rented land. At the end of that time he purchased eighty acres in IMarion township and built thereon a good house. After paying for his property he bought eighty acres more, and still later purchased a tract of forty acres, making a good farm of two hundred acres, to the improvement and cultivation of which he devoted his energies until 1895, when he sold that place and bought forty acres at Whittier. He has since disposed of all of this at a good profit with the exception of nine acres which he retains for his home, and is now erecting thereon a very pleasant and convenient residence.
Mr. Bailey lost his first wife in 1880. By that union he had three children: John H., a farmer of Marion township; Alice, wife of J. E. Kreidler, a hardware merchant of PTillerton, Nance county, Nebraska; and Lydia J., wife of Sidney Benjamin, a farmer of Xance county, Nebraska. On the 21st of
March, 1882, Mr. Bailey was again married in Linn county, Iowa, his second union being with Miss Rachel Engle, a native of Guernsey county; Ohio, but whose early life was principally passed in Linn county, Iowa. Mr. Bailey cast his first presidential vote for Zachary Taylor, but has been a stanch supporter of the Republican party since its organization. He is a strong temperance man and a belief'er in the principles of prohibition, but not wishing to lose his vote he has never affiliated with that party which is so far in the minority. Both he and his wife are members of the Friends church of Whittier, and are people of prominence in the community where they reside. Mr. Bailey has been a member of the school Ijoard and has also filled the office of road supervisor. Having started out in life for himself with no capital, he deserves great credit for the success that he has achieved, having by his own labor and enterprise accumulated a comfortable competence, which now enables him to spend his declining years in ease and quiet, free from the cares and responsibilities of business life.
As printed in Biographical records of Linn County, Iowa .. (1901). See the original pages. Wording is the original; obvious scanning errors have been corrected, and a few may remain.
The printed record stops around 1901. We trace your line from there down to you, with every source cited.