I can trace my fathers family back to 1775 in Barre, Mass where the first Bailey enlisted in the Continental Army, this is from the First Parish Record Book, 1668-1818, Also known as John Bailey's Book one of John Baileys grandsons enlisted in the Army as a Doctors assistant after the Revolution thelarger portion of the Bailey family moved to Western New York and started a new town called Barre, New York. This ocurred in 1806, my great great grandfathers name was Obijah Bailey, he and his cousins cleared and farmed about 2400 acres. The area grew as other settlers moved into the area,and it exploded after the Erie Canal was created: First proposed in 1808, it was under construction from 1817 to 1832 and officially opened on October 26, 1825. In 1806 my great grandfather John Bailey was born, my great grandmother Polly Eaton was born in 1809. Pollys father was the area's only physician.
By 1845 the area was overcrowded and the family farms could no longer be expanded to allow all of the branches to have their own homesteads or to make enough money to support the now few hundred family members of all the cousins, parents, kids etc.
John and Polly decided to move west to start anew in 1840, they took with them their kids, some of the other cousins and their kids and Pollys father and brother, who was also a trained doctor, by the father of course. My grandfather Joshua Eaton Bailey who was born on November 4, 1833 was the eldest child. They arrived in western Michigan in the late summer of 1840 and bought 600 acres in an area now known as Dimondale in Eaton County, Michigan. In 1845 John bailey was killed felling trees on the farm. The farm prospered with the family all working it, and the money the doctors brought in.
In 1850 Joshua had gold fever as many men of that time period did, he left for the gold fields of California at the age of 17, he had a horse, a saddle, a 50 caliber rifle and a pack mule. He went thruChicago and picked up a wagon train headed west. He spent the next years stomping the area near Eureka California searching for gold, in the winter time he learned the dry goods business and found a warm bed and food by working in a sutlers store in Eureka, until 1861, when the Civil War broke out, and like many men of the time he enlisted in the Cailfornia 1st Volunteers.
He spent the Civil War mostly in the Arizona territories, he was at the battle of Apache Pass
An hour later we moved through the pass, entered upon the wide plain which separates it from the San Simon river, and reached our camp on that creek, without further trouble, about four o'clock p.m.
This area would eventually become the long term home of Joshua and his family after the war. Joshua stayed in the Army until May 1865 when he was discharged as a Corporal. He had no desire to return to gold digging or keeping store in Eureka, he went home to Michigan to see his mother and to learn how his brothers and cousins had fared thru the war, as they all had either enlisted or been drafted. Luckily all of the Baileys survived the Civil war with only one losing a right leg to a minnie ball and infection.
In 1866 Joshua returned to Arizona and went to work at the Yuma Army depot for a few years, and in 1874 he was given an opportunity to lead a wagon train of Mormon farmers to eastern Arizona to the San Simon area from his previous days, they wanted to start farming and he and a Mr Tuttle were willing to become partners in a dry goods store. Joshua had also become politically inclined by this point in his life, he chose to name the new town Safford, in honor of the territorial Governor Anson Pacely Killen Safford at the time.
Joshua was Arizona's answer to Texas Judge Roy Bean now my grand father was a colorful man, he never hung anyone, he was however the storekeeper, the postmaster, the Justice of the Peace, the town Marshall, the federal tax collector appointed by the President.
In 1884 he got a contract from the Overland Stage Company to provide a station for the Ox Bow Route was mandated by the southern Postmaster General. The new line be required to go through Fort Smith and then proceed through Texas to El Paso onward to Fort Yuma, California and then up to San Francisco. Termed the ox bow route, it added 600 miles many relay station 's and frontier forts to the original bids.
The station was built 20 miles south of Safford at Baileys Wells where he kept spare teams of horses, and farmed the bottom land near the river whicj he also sold to Fort Bowie and Fort Grant and in Tucson. In his spare time he also did some dilver mining in New Mexico where he had numerous claims.
He was also a partner in the Sunflower Canal system that had dug about 100 miles of irrigation canals in and around Safford, Thatcher and the valley where the San Simon did not naturally irrigate. He brought the technique from New York of course.
In 1899 he sold out all of his financial interests in Arizona and returned his family to Dimondale Michigan so they could be near his wife's family, my grandmother Ida Garber Bailey was quite younger than Joshua's 66 years and with the 5 children she did not want to be left a widow in the wilds of Arizona, in Feb 24, 1900 my father Melvin Lathrop Bailey was born, and his father died six weeks later on April 3, 1900.
My father and my Uncle were put into the 7th calvary and stationed in Douglas Arizona in 1914 after their mother died in 1912, their half sister lied about their ages and signed them in. She actually did them a favor, they spent 1916 chasing Pancho Villa with General Pershing, but since their 2 year enlistment was done in Nov 1916 they were not available to be drafted for WW1, and they missed that war fought in the trenches of France with Mustard Gas.
By WW2 they were both quite to old for service and they both worked for GM in lansing and were deemed essential they spent WW2 building tanks.
My brothers and I all served in the Army like the rest of our family, we all served as enlisted men, as far as I know we all made some level of a Non Commissioned Officers, my grandfather the lowest ranking one the Corporal or maybe it was my dad yea that was it his headstone says Private D Troop 7th Calvary at least it didn't say F Troop that would have been too much rofl. My brother and I both made the E7 promotion lists, my younger brother left as a SGT/E5. The Army has been good to the Bailey family over the past 235 years, I have cousins that have served in the Air Force, marines, navy and Coast Guard but my family has been OD green for as long as this nation has been the USA, and with my son entering the Army in June 2010, it will continue for another generation.
But think about it from my grand father to my son covers 177 years thats is quite some time span for 4 generations and my son is only 18.
this is a true American history if not strange with all this land and time here what the hell happened to all the money?