The Bailey Family History

Written at least in part by Ellen Maria Bailey (second child of George and Elizabeth Bailey).

On a farm in Avebury, Wiltshire, England a maid whose name at present is unknown lived in the year 1790. For in that year a little son was born to her, who afterwards bore the name of Joseph Bailey. Two other children were also born but when or what their names were is not known. JOSPEH BROWN, the owner of theafore said farm and Father of these three children (born out of wedlock) was born at Avebury, Wiltshire, England in 1765. Why Joseph took the name of Bailey is not known yet; it might have been his Mother’s maiden name or he might have been raised by a farmer by that name of Bailey. This remains to be proven. AT any rate, he grew up and joined the English Army at the age of 17 years. The following is his Army record: This record was obtained from the British War Office:

“JOSEPH BAILEY enlisted in the 2^nd Battalion, 62^nd Foot on January 8^th, 1807, at Denizes. He served in Channel Islands, France and Ireland. Promoted to Corporal on December 25, 1813, on reenlistment. Promoted Sergeant in February 1814. On the disbandment of the Battalion there he embarked for Halifax, Nova Scotia, America on the 1^st of May 1817 to join the First Battalion there. He served with the Regiment in Canada and the West Indies from July 1817 to the end of 1823. Reverted to Private on 25^th of June 1819 through drinking. He returned to Ireland with the Regiment at the end of 1823. Promoted Corporal the 30^th of July 1825. Promoted Sergeant on 25^th of November 1826, Reverted to Private March 16, 1827. Served in Ireland until 1830 when he went to the depot at Cahtham, England and was discharged there on the modified Pension on August 10, 1830.”

While he was quartered in Canada at the age of 28 years, he married Ann Smith, on July 18, 1818. Ann Smith was the daughter of Joseph Smith and Catherine Anderson. She was born October 30, 1800 at Charlottown, Prince Edward Island, Canada. While at Hailfax, Nova Scotia, Canada, three daughters, MARY ANN, SARAH, ELIZABETH were born. While at Emerskillen, Ireland, ELLEN, another daughter was born. A son ROBERT was born at Templemoor, Ireland. This son only lived six years. CAROLINE, the next child was born July 28, 1830 at Chatham. She died at the age of seven years. The next three children were sons; GEORGE BROWN born 15^th of February 1833; WILLIAM born 30^th of October 1836; and REUBEN JOSIAH born 10^th of July 1838. All born at Bath, Somerset, England. William died 26^th of August 1837. Reuben Josiah lived and immigrated to Utah, U.S.A., when he was 22 years old. While living on a farm at Spanish Fork, Utah he was cleaning a gun which accidentally discharged, the wadding entering his hip causing blood poisoning from which he died in October 1860. The Father, Joseph Bailey died 1^st November 1850 in England. His wife Ann immigrated to Utah. Ellen Bailey Lambourn came to Utah and settled in Lake Town, Utah. She died ________________ George Brown Bailey was christened in Bath Abby, he being the first son of the family to live was given more advantages, he was sent to a boys school or College, after receiving a fair education for those days, he was apprenticed to learn a cabinet-makers trade. He was baptized into the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints the 26^th of May 1851. He was ordained a Deacon March 1852 by Elder Duff. While attending Church he met Elizabeth Young who had been baptized into the Church the year previous, 1849. They were married at the home of the brides Mother, Anna D. Young by Elder John Alexander, 10^th of February 1853. Her Father had immigrated to Utah the year before. On 20^th of February 1853, the young couple then only twenty years old, with Anna Young and her other children: Ann, Aaron, and Caroline left Bristol for Liverpool (26 Feb 1853) where they remained one month waiting for a ship to sail for America. This greatly reduced their savings, had they remained in their home they could have been earning money instead of spending it.

They at last set sail on the Ship “Falcon”. The family arrived in New Orleans the 17^th of May 1853 after a six-week voyage on the ocean. They traveled up the Mississippi River to Keokuk, Iowa. They then took to wagon and oxen and came by way of Thanisville, to Salt Lake City, Utah arriving 8^th of October 1853. They traveled in the Appleton Harmon Company. It took them three weeks to make preparations and three months to cross the plains.

George Bailey was ordained a Teacher in November by Bishop Hunter. He served as a Teacher for two years and was ordained a Seventy in June 1855 by A. Raligha in the Fifth Quorum. The family lived in the 19^th Ward in Salt Lake City; in a home on the lot that Isaac Young had provided for them until after his death which occurred September 26, 1854. He died of blood poisoning after cutting his thumb while skinning a poison cow. This home was taken away from them because Isaac Young did not live long enough to pay back to the Perpetual Emigration Fund, the price of his emigration. George Bailey went to see President Brigham Young about it. He told them to let it go and he would be blest ten-fold. After leaving President Young’s office, he met a man by the name of John Ebbe who asked him if he didn’t want to buy a farm out on Mill Creek. He replied that he didn’t have any money and that their home had just been taken from them. Brother Ebbe told him that he didn’t need money down but he made arrangements in trade. George Bailey had three years in which to pay for the farm which was ten-fold what he had lost as Brigham had told him. During the summer of 1855, they lived out on their farm at Mill Creek in a wagon Box. Their first child was born and learned to walk in the wagon box. His name was Joseph Hyrum – born 14 September 1854. Deer and other wild animals also Indians used to walk by their humble home. One day a neighbor woman came to see them. She asked, “Be you the woman what lives up in the willer?” This neighbors name was Eliza Winegar. George would walk into Salt Lake, a distance of six miles, to work at his trade every Monday morning. He would return on Saturday night after having left his little timid English wife who had never been outside a big city before she left England. She would spend the week alone with her baby in the wagon box. The next year 1856 another child ELLEN MARIA was born. They built two rooms of adobe, when the walls were up to a square it turned cold and it became necessary for them to move into Salt Lake City for the winter. They moved back in the summer and put a roof on the house, some doors and windows in. In this house seven other children were born namely: GEORGE SMITH, ELIZABETH DAVIS (Twins), ISAAC YOUNG, ANNA, REUBEN J., DAVID, and CHARLES.

A cloudburst occurred in 1861 in Mill Creek Canyon which washed a deep gully under the north room of their little adobe home. The cloudburst also covered a young peach orchard with gravel. The orchard was just a year old. In 1867 George Bailey married Elsie Marie Andrews as his Plural wife. They all lived together in the little adobe house until 1870 when they built a large frame house and painted it pink. In this large frame house three more daughter were born to the first wife; CARLINE, RHODA, and ALICE. Also the second wife had seven children. Both of George Bailey’s wives lost one baby at birth. Both families lived comfortably, both wives helping with each other’s babies. They were all nicely settled in the new home when the dreaded disease, diphtheria swept through the family. From the 28^th of January 1878 until the 24^th of February it raged, and when it had spent its force, the first wife had buried three sons and two daughters; the second wife lost one son and a daughter. Elsie had but one child left. The following summer Joe, the eldest son who was married and living in Salina, died of diphtheria. In 1886 the Polygamy raid by the United States Government took place. George was arrested in April 1886 and was sent to the Utah State Penitentiary to serve six months and was charged a fine of $3000 cash fine for taking care of Elsie and her children. While he was in prison the two women built a two-room house for Elsie on a 20-acre field, which they had bought some years before. Here two more sons were born to Elsie. In 1888 George was again arrested for unlawful cohabitation as it was called in the courts of that time, and was sentenced to six months in the Penitentiary with no fine. He got one month off for good behavior and after five months he returned home in March 1889. Mr. George Dow, the warden of the Utah Penitentiary was one of nature’s noblemen. He treated the Latter-day Saints like gentlemen and showed them every courtesy that was in his power to do so. George and his family all worked together cutting peaches and drying them and extracting honey from the bees, which he raised on the farm. He was a dear lover of flowers and had a beautiful garden. He also raised many kinds of fruit. He was clerk of the Mill Creek Ward for 25 years and he also led the choir for many years, as he was able to read music well. He would learn the tunes himself and then teach them to the choir. As it was the only way as they only had one book with the music in and several books with the words in; so George Bailey taught the choir the tunes by ear.

On November 4, 1895 after a lingering illness of three years he passed peacefully away and was laid to rest in the Salt Lake Cemetery. This cemetery overlooks the City of Salt Lake which he loved so well, and where he had lived for so many years as a faithful Latter-day Saint. His posterity is spread over Utah, Idaho and California.

(Here a new page starts on the photocopies and the narrative changes. It is suddenly 1^st person. I think it was written by Ellen Maria, and I’m not sure who wrote the above section. You can see that I left misspellings in, and that certain words are spelled differently in the sections above and below. MSS)

Father had plenty of work in Salt Lake City; but received little pay. He would walk home twice a week, get up early the next morning and walk back seven miles and work ten hours a day. One evening he failed to bring home a parcel that he had promised to mother, as he had been unable to collect any money. Because Mother felt so badly, he laid off the next day, got two bushels of corn from a man who was indebted to him; took the corn, (it was shelled) into town and bought five yards of factory and three yards of bright yellow calico to make baby dresses for me. I, Ellen was born next day. Mother was very sorry to bring another soul into the world of poverty, toil, and sorrow as she was experiencing it at that time. I was such a poor, sickly little thing that she felt that it was a judgement on her for complaining before I was born. They subsisted on roots greens and none to much of those. Most of their bread was made from bran that had been sifted so many times that it fell apart after two hours baking. The winter I was born, as I stated before was one of the hardest in mother’s life. Often they did not have enough to eat, even of roots and herbs. One night they went to bed without any supper, after praying that a way might be opened up whereby they might obtain food. Shortly afterwards, they heard a knock on the door; upon opening it they discovered a sack of flour. Several days later a neighbor told them that he had gone to bed and was impressed to get up and take the flour to them as he felt that they were without food.

The next year crops were better. Then the cloud of an invasion by an army of the United States hung over the valley. Mother took the wagon cover and made a shirt, a cap and a pair of trousers for father to wear when he went out with the State Battlion to meet Johnson’s army. Before leaving, they put as much of their possessions as they could into the wagon and put the rest in a box to be burned if the soldiers remained in the Valley. They hid this box in a dugout while they were away. Then the family moved to the Fish Trap, in the Jordan Narrows. Everybody was at a high tension and every nerve was on a high pitch; so when Rueben Bailey came in one day and cracked his whip, mother thought it was a gun. The shock put her to bed and her life was desparied of. The neighbors sent word to father and he walked the distance of 18 miles in less than three hours. After the soldiers arrived, and the misunderstanding corrected, food and clothing were more plentiful and the problem of obtaining food was simplified a little.

The family moved back home on April 13, 1859 a pair of twins were born. They were so small that they were regarded as a curiosity. People came from all around to see them. One day, Brother John Scott came in. He held them both on his left arm and in the name of Israel’s God promised mother that they should live to be a father and mother in Zion. The boy, George S. Bailey weighed four pounds at a month old; and the girl, Elizabeth D. Bailey, was smaller. George had a family of 12 children; and Elizabeth was a mother of 7 children. Both of them lived to be past 75 years of age. (Elizabeth is still living at 81 years of age and still in good health.)

I remember once that our fire had gone out and we had no tinder. The tinder was made by burning a rag. We kept our tinder and flint steel in a sardine can. This day Father loaded his gun with powder and a rag and shot it. The rag ignited and we soon had a good fire burning. Father planted four acres in fruit trees that spring, nearly all of them peaches. This was a fortunate move for later the peaches brought in many dollars, and in 1869 we cut and dried 1300 bushels of peaches and sold them at forty cents a pound to Mr. Teasdale. Soon after the trees were planted Father’s brother accidently shot himself in the leg and died in a few days. He and his Mother were living in Spanish Fork at the time, so Father took us there to help take care of his Mother’s farm. The children were just getting over the measles so the trip was anything but pleasant. While they were fording the Provo River the wagon box floted off the running gear with Mother and children in it. No one was hurt but all were very frightened.

That fall when the grain was nearly ripe, the Indians drove their ponies into the fields. They dared the farmers to drive them out. There were too few white men to attempt it, but Brother O.K. Turber persuaded the Indians to take them out, so bloodshed was averted at that time.

One day, my Brother Joe took several of the neighbor women and Mother to the Payson Bottoms to gather saleratus. I stayed home and was to keep the door locked. My curiosity over came my prudence; for when some friendly Indians came up I opened the door and gave them all the bread we had in the house. That same fall, Joe with two other boys were herding sheep on the Bench, when they saw some warriors approaching, taking hold of hands, they rand for home. Joe was the smallest and in the center. An arrow was shot that went over his head and between the heads of the other two.

During the winter, Mother and Joe went to the mill, when they came home they could not get into the dugout that they lived in because Father had it full of Indians. Mother and Joe could not get near the fire. One day I, with the other children were sliding on the ice, I had no shoes but would slide for awhile and then sit on my feet to warm them. Father watched me for a while, and then turning with tears in his eyes said, that he would make me some shoes from the tops of his boots. I had shoes that year.

An Indian started to molest Mother. She threatened to throw hot water on him. The other Indians made fun and called him a squaw for being frightened. Indians troubles were so bad that we had to abandon the farm in Spanish Fork and move back to Mill Creek. While we had been in Spanish Fork a cloudburst in Mill Creek Canyon had carried rocks over the orchard, and washed a channel under the north room of the house. They tore this down and built two small rooms back of the south room.

Mother learned to spin and weave cloth to clothe her children. The men scoured the sheep, before shering. They drove them into the streams and rubbed them with sand. It was hard work to do this and often the sheep were sheared without it. Then all bits were picked out by hand, the wool washed in cold or warm water and greased for carding. Getting grease was a problem, the lard was usually gone, so we often went without butter to eat and used it on the wool. It took only one pound of butter to grease ten pounds of wool. When it was ready, it was taken to the carding machine. They took two pounds out for carding it. Mother made lye with ashes, this she used to make soft soap with scraps of fat that she had saved during the winter months. The wool she colored black with logwood and copper, red with madder root, blue with indago and chamberlye, yellow with peach leaves and alum or rabbit brush blossoms and alum, brouwn with oak brush bark, and green she colored blue, then yellow. She learned coloring of wools from Sister Gardener, who had learned from Indians in Canada. One spring, Mother did not have time to spin, and she could not buy cotton warp in town, so she hired the Gardener girl to do it for her. The girl could spin four skeins a day. Each skein had ten knots, each knot had forty threads two yards long in it, and she was paid ten cents a skein for filling and twelve and one half cent for warp.

One child had been born in Spanish Fork, and three more were born in the old house. Every woman had all that she could do, but they had to help each other. Medical help was out of the question and mid-wives were scarce, so Mother began helping her neighbors. She kept no record; but often said she felt sure that she had brought more than a hundred babies into the world.

Every fall the men and boys would haul logs from Cotton Wood Canyon for fuel during the winter.

On February 8, 1868 father married Elsie Andrews, a Danish girl. I was glad for all the men around had more wives than Father; they had bigger homes and more dishes. Our peaches began bearing the following year, and our financial straits were passed. We purchased our first stove that year. One day, more than a year later, all of us went out into the yard to look at a bird’s nest and someone discovered a swarm of bees in a small tree near by. We caught them and they were the fore-runner of an apiary that brought in thousands of dollars during the rest of Father’s life. Father, Mother, and the boys worked with the bees while Elsie took charge of the house and the smaller children. Everything was peace and harmony; the two women lived in the same house and as happy as Mother and Daughter.

After the peaches and the bees began swelling the bank account, Father built a larger home. They were just nicely settled in it when the dreaded disease Diphtheria, swept thro the family. From the 28^th of January until the 24^th of February, 1878 it raged, and when it had spent its force, Mother had buried 3 sons and 2 daughters; Elsie had buried a son and a daughter. She had but one child left. The following summer, Joe, my oldest Brother who was married and living in Salina, died of Diphtheria. This was almost more than they could bear.

In 1886, Father was sent to the State Penitentiary, with many more men for unlawful cohabitation. While he was there, his two wives built a two-roomed house for Elsie; where she lived until she deserted her husband and six children for another man. The children lived with my parents for the next three years. Father died on November 4, 1895 and the children were taken by their Mother to her home. The next to the youngest would not go, so Mother cared for him until he married.

Retyped by Marci Stay Stringham on January 1, 2003. Taken from photocopies.