Seth Bailey, Jr., was born January 24, 1778, in Easton (or West Bridgewater), Massachusetts, the son of Seth Bailey and Deborah Packard Bailey. It appears that Seth, Jr., first traveled west in 1798 with the Silvanus Ames family and lived at Parkersburg, Wood County, West Virginia (then Virginia), for two years. The James family was living nearby, and Seth and Mary "Polly" James were married November 15, 1801.
Most James genealogies indicate that Polly James was the daughter of Captain John James, who owned large tracts of land in western Virginia, including what are now Vienna Island and Neal Island. His wife was Esther Denison, and their children were Susanna, Anne, Esther, Hannah, Abigail, Polly, William, John, Thomas, and Simeon. The son William was killed in 1791 during the Big Bottom Massacre at Stockport, Ohio.
Caleb Bailey, the brother of Seth, Jr., had married Anne, sister of Polly James, July 24, 1791, in Washington County, Ohio (probably Belpre). A family story was told that Caleb made a trip to England, where he purchased three silk dresses. The first, a sky blue brocade, was presented to Anne, a green brocade was given to her sister Hannah, and a black one was for her sister Polly.
Polly James was born July 28, 1779, at Stonington, Connecticut. Her parents brought her to the Northwest Territory in 1790, when she was about 11 years old. The James family lived at Farmers' Castle in Belpre, Ohio, during the Indian Wars of 1791-1795. Polly was described as "bright and active," and she was often a winning participant in the girls' knitting races while confined to the garrison. John and Esther James later built a blockhouse on Backus' Island off the Belpre shore and lived there until the arrival of the Blennerhassetts, about 1798.
For a wedding present, Captain James gave Polly an island in the Ohio River, just below Briscoe's Run on the West Virginia side, and about six miles below Marietta on the Ohio side. Now known as Vienna Island, it was formerly called "James Island." Seth Bailey usually referred to it as "my wife's island," and certain early navigators' maps labeled it so. Seth and his "handsome, blue-eyed, fair-haired" wife moved onto her island in 1802, where they built a cabin, and started a family.
Clearing the island of its dense growth of timber was a labor-intensive chore, and winter set in before shelter could be built for the livestock. Fortunately, a huge sycamore, 17 feet at its greatest diameter, was discovered to be hollow. With a door cut into the side, the giant tree made a convenient stable for a horse, a cow, and a yoke of oxen. This tree later caught fire and burned, but Seth continued to find it useful, planting corn in the remaining snags.
In 1804, Seth decided to return to Massachusetts and bring his parents back to settle in the west. It is thought that he took Polly and their daughter Maria to stay with the James family, then living at Stillwell Creek, about six miles from Parkersburg, West Virginia. At his return to New England, Seth worked for a season in the harvest field to earn enough money for the Bailey's trip west, which was made with ox teams in the fall of 1804. Seth Bailey, Sr., and Deborah Packard Bailey, along with many of their children, settled in the area of Vienna, West Virginia.
Although the soil on Seth and Polly Bailey's island was unusually fertile and produced an abundance of crops, life on an island had its risks. During one of the many Ohio River floods, Seth was busy taking stock to safety on the mainland while the river was rapidly rising. He went back to the island for Polly and the children and found them sitting on the bed, surrounded by water.
Land was soon acquired on the Ohio shore, and the Baileys built a house opposite the head of the island, a few miles below the squatter settlement of Nogletown, in 1805. The frame for the house was made at the headwaters of the Ohio and floated downriver on a raft. A row of young cedar trees were planted in front, which eventually formed a beautiful avenue. It was among the first homes to be constructed in what became Warren Township.
Seth's son, William Dennison Bailey, said that in the early part of the nineteenth century, his father packed salt from the Scioto salt works back to Warren Township. It was a 140-mile round trip, and Seth was usually gone for about a week, traveling on foot both ways. He took a few horses with pack saddles and could load six bushels (300 pounds) of salt on each horse.
There were no roads, simply narrow trails wide enough for the horses to walk single file. He used to follow along the trail behind the horses, carrying an old musket with a flint lock, and a piece of punk to strike fire when he went into camp at night. Sometimes he would travel till after dark in order to reach a good camping place. The wolves were very abundant and would commence howling soon after dark in order to reach a good camping place. The wolves were very abundant and would commence howling soon after dark, first on one side, then on the other, then in front and behind him. The woods were alive with them.
When returning and ready to go into camp he would lay the bags of salt and pack saddles in a pile near the fire and turn the horses loose to graze. Sometimes the wolves would gather around the horses and drive them back until they stood with their heads over the bags of salt close to the fire. When brought to the Ohio River that salt was worth 16 cents a pound or $8.00 a bushel.
Sometimes he paid for it in money, but ordinarily he would exchange a tow linen shirt or pair of tow pantaloons for a bushel of salt. The workmen needed these garments as much as he needed the salt, as there were no stores out there at the time. These garments were made from flax which he had raised, broken and hatcheled, and which my mother had spun and woven and made into garments.
Seth Bailey, "a man of robust physique, tireless energy, sound business habits and wise benevolence," erected a forge on his farm and learned the blacksmithing trade. With his hammer and anvil, he supplied tools and utensils for the community and "occupied rainy days at making nails. His example was followed by many of the young men in the neighborhood, and pounding nails became a common occupation." According to a granddaughter, Lucy Dennison Bailey, a favorite maxim of Seth's was, "rest is a change of employment," and he often said that he "did not know what it was to be tired."
In 1821, Edward T. Hayward wrote from his brother Rotheus' home in Waterford, Washington County, back home to his parents, Joseph and Lydia Hayward of Easton, Massachusetts, and mentioned a recent visit with their old neighbor, Seth Bailey, Jr. Edward said that Seth "appeared verry glad to hear from our countrey," and described Seth's farming activities:
I took a walk with him over his farm and on to his island. Tell Elisha Mr. Bailey says he has catched forty gray sqerels in an hour when they were swimming from the island to the shoar. He has an excelant farm and says he thinks he shall have two thousand bushels of corn this year. Also that he raised 90 or 100 bushels on one acre last year. He fatted forty seven hogs and sent them to New Orleans.
Polly James Bailey and her domain were described by a neighbor, Julia Cutler (1814-1904), in an essay:
Mrs. Bailey was rather a contrast to her strait forward husband. She liked to manage - perhaps to maneuver a little. She had lived in the garrison and was used to a crowd, and did not object to "twenty in family." She gave employment, food and shelter, and something more, to many a destitute person; and half a score of orphans, relatives or otherwise, were well brought up in her house. To accommodate these, and their many visitors, room after room was added to the original house until it became, to the uninitiated, an unthreadable labyrinth, and then as need required, additions were made to the spacious loom house and various outbuildings were erected, which adorned the back door premises until they soon presented the appearance of a small village.
Mrs. Bailey was a diligent and successful ruler of her large house-hold. She always had work ready for idle hands to do, & to this fact, and to her counsels, and a wise use of praise & censure, it is due that no occasion for scandal ever occurred among the young people brought up under her management. She never forgot that she inherited Dennison blood, and was "as good as any body." She had in early days, glimpses of the elegant festivities at the Blennerhassett Mansion, and she liked, for the delectation of the young people, to give an occasional spread herself.
Although so energetic and capable, Mrs. Bailey was in modern phrase "just a bundle of nerves," requiring very careful handling, which her indulgent husband readily accorded her. She was the first lady in the place to keep her own carriage. True, there were other carriages in the settlement, but they were for the common benefit of the families owning them. Mrs. Bailey's carriage only went and came at her beck, and conveyed those only she saw fit to thus honor.
Seth and Polly's large family consisted of eleven children, all "brought up with good moral principles, and industrious habits, working early and late." In addition to their own children, Seth and Polly raised many nieces and nephews, as well as an orphan girl. During the sickly seasons of 1822 and 1823, when nearly every family in Washington County experienced death, the Bailey family lost not a member and brought them all through without the aid of a physician.
The Bailey homestead was a center of hospitality and social life in early Constitution. Whenever there was a neighborhood gathering, such as a logging bee, a barn raising, or a corn husking, the Bailey sons, "men of fine physique," were there to help. The Baileys were known as excellent singers, and they participated in the church choir and the local glee clubs. At every merry sleigh ride, they joined in the fun, providing "a splendid and capital driver."
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| Map of a section of Warren Township along the Ohio River in 1875, showing Vienna Island and some of the Bailey's property. Atlas of Washington County, Ohio, D. J. Lake, published by Titus, Simmons & Titus, Philadelphia, 1875. |
The first school house in Constitution was built on the Bailey farm in 1810. Constructed of logs, it was replaced later by a brick structure. It was in the school building that the neighborhood's Presbyterian Church was formed in 1828. In 1837, when an actual church was built, the Bailey's donated the land and helped build it. It was from their farm that the land for a public cemetery was provided.
Polly Bailey died September 5, 1852, "after a lingering illness, which she endured with exemplary patience and submission." Seth followed her in death on March 7, 1861. "One of the most respected and esteemed of the citizens of this county," Seth was described as "a man of untiring energy and industry . . . just the man to grapple with the difficulties and hardships of pioneer life." Polly and Seth were buried in the cemetery, now called "Gravel Bank" or "Riverview," that was laid out on the Bailey farm.
A poem was published in The Marietta Intelligencer in memory of Seth Bailey, possibly composed by his daughter-in-law, Elizabeth Emerson Bailey, who was ready with a verse for every occasion:
To the fully ripened shock of corn,
As the reapers come in the harvest morn;
Thus to our sire have the angels come
To gather his sheaves and to bear him home.
Sons who are fathers, bend o'er his bier;
Grandchildren moisten his hair with a tear.
Grandchildren's children have slept on his breast.
Peace to his ashes - calm be his rest.
O'er the old hearth-stone so dear to us all,
Cometh a shade of the funeral pall.
Grant, Gracious Father, we never may trace
Discord or strife round that old trysting place.
Mourn we the patriarch passing away,
Who wisely and well hath accomplished his day.
And who weary and worn at its lengthening close,
Is glad to lie down to his quiet repose.
Yea, let us weep, for the tribute is due.
To the lov'd and the cherished, the good and the true;
While his freed spirit passing the boundary of time,
Shall mount on glad wings to a region sublime.
Children of Seth Bailey and Mary "Polly" James Bailey:
1. Maria Bailey - b. 6 April 1803, Vienna Island, Wood County, West Virginia; m. 18 March 1830, Marietta, Washington County, Ohio, to Frederic Shipman; d. 16 September 1889, Elmdale, Chase County, Kansas.
2. Elizabeth Bailey - b. 30 September 1804, Vienna Island; d. 10 January 1872, Constitution, Warren Township, Washington County, Ohio.
3. Seth Bailey - b. 9 September 1806, Constitution; m. 31 December 1833, Washington County, to Sarah McClure; m. 17 September 1839, Marshall County, West Virginia, to Mary Ann Scott; d. 27 May 1884, Coolville, Athens County, Ohio.
4. Charles Pease Bailey - b. 1808, Constitution; m. 28 September 1837, Washington County, to Harriet Chapman; d. 1 December 1879, Hampden, Prince Edward County, Virginia.
5. John James Bailey - b. 15 April 1810, Constitution; m. 7 January 1836, Washington County, to Mary Chapman; d. 9 May 1849, Washington County.
6. Susan Uhl Bailey - b. 20 December 1811, Constitution; m. 14 July 1841, Washington County, to George A. Ward; d. 2 March 1853, Constitution.
7. Bennett Cook Bailey - b. 28 November 1813, Constitution; m. 22 February 1844, Washington County, to Fannie Dickey; d. 21 September 1890, Newton, Harvey County, Kansas.
8. William Dennison Bailey - b. 24 May 1816, Constitution; m. 10 May 1848, Washington County, to Mary Annette Ward; m. 1 October 1850, Washington County, to Elizabeth Emerson; d. 10 April 1894, Marietta.
9. George Washington Bailey - b. 12 December 1817, Constitution; m. 13 November 1855, Vienna, Wood County, West Virginia, to Sarah Jane Stapleton; d. 26 December 1903, Marietta.
10. Augustus Stone Bailey - b. 19 November 1819, Constitution; m. 13 April 1852, Athens County, Ohio, to Julia Ann Johnson; d. 27 January 1899, Elmdale, Kansas.
11. Thomas James Bailey - b. 22 April 1822; d. 13 October 1882, Constitution.
Sources:
Account of the Fifth Annual Gathering of the Bailey/Bayley Family Association, Held at North Scituate, Mass, September 6th, 1897. Somerville Citizen Press, 1898. Article, "The Bailey Pioneers of the Northwest Territory, " by Lucy Dennison Bailey.
Ancestors and Descendants of Captain John James and Esther Denison of Preston, Connecticut, compiled by Clara Paine Ohler, Lima, Ohio, 1912.
Cutler Family Collection, Special Collections, Marietta College Library. Unpublished essay about early Warren Township settlers by Julia Perkins Cutler.
FamilySearch, familysearch.org, Washington County, Ohio, Probate Court records, including marriage and death.
History of Washington County, Ohio, published by H. Z. Williams & Bro., 1881.
The Marietta Intelligencer, September 15, 1852, p. 3, c. 3. Obituary of Polly Bailey.
The Marietta Intelligencer, March 13, 1861, p. 3, c. 2. Obituary of Seth Bailey.
Pioneers in Wood County, W.Va., Volume II, by John A. House, published by Wood County Historic Landmarks Commission, 1984.
Rotheus Hayward Collection, Special Collections, Marietta College Library. Box 1, Folder 7, Edward T. Hayward, Waterford, letter to Joseph and Lydia Hayward, Easton, Massachusetts, November 10, 1821.
West Virginia Division of Culture and History, wvculture.org, Marriage Records.
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