Biography of William W. Bailey Franklin Co, AR

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        Date: 16 Aug 1998
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SOURCE: History of Benton, Washington, Carroll, Madison, Crawford,
Franklin, and Sebastian Counties, Arkansas. Chicago: The Goodspeed
Publishing Co., 1889.

Capt. William W. Bailey. Among the leading merchants of Franklin
County, Ark., may be mentioned Mr. Bailey, whose establishment is
situated at Altus. He was born in Tippah County, Miss., near
Springhill, June 27, 1834, and is a son of Edmund I. and Lydia D.
(Mullins) Bailey, who were natives respectively of North Carolina and
Tennessee, and died in Shelby County, Ala., in 1841, at the age of
sixty-six years, and Ripley, Miss., in 1837, at the age of forty
years. They were married and lived in Giles County, Tenn., for a
number of years, and while there the father served as sheriff of the
county one term. They afterward located in Tippah County, Miss., where
the father became the first clerk of the county, which position he
held until 1840. He was appointed by Gen. Jackson to survey Northern
Mississippi, and followed that occupation throughout life. He was a
prominent and popular man of his day, and was a soldier in the War of
1812, and was a stanch Jacksonian Democrat. He was noted for his
liberality, and gave his money freely to the poor and unfortunate. He
was a Mason of the first degree, and his marriage was blessed in the
birth of five children: Elvira, who became the wife of Joel H.
Roberts; Edmund I., a resident of Wilcox County, Ala.; Annie J., wife
of Col. John McCarty, who was a well-known commander of the Twenty-
sixth Mississippi Infantry, Confederate States Army, and is now living
in Texas; Capt. William W., and Lucy, wife of Otis Lewis, a prosperous
planter of Catahoula County, La. William W. Bailey was taken to be
reared by Hon. John W. Thompson, a warm personal friend of his
father's, from whom he received his start in life, and made his home
with him until the latter's death, on the 21st of June, 1873, at the
age of sixty-six years. He received a very liberal education in the
schools of Ripley, Miss., and March 28, 1861, enlisted as a private in
Company B, Ninth Mississippi Infantry, Confederate States Army, and
served twelve months. He was then mustered out of the service in
April, 1862, and was appointed by Col. [p.1224] James L. Autry as
adjustant-general of the post at Vicksburg, and in June, 1862, became
adjutant of the Seventh Mississippi Regiment, serving with the rank of
captain for two years, and before the close of the war served as
adjutant for several regiments. At the cessation of hostilities he was
captain of Company C. Second Mississippi Cavalry, and had participated
in many battles, among which were Cumberland Gap, the siege of
Vicksburg, being the man who took the reply to the Federal soldiers
that "Mississippians never surrender:" Pensacola, Iuka, Corinth,
Moscow, Tenn., Harrisburg, Miss., and many others. He was never taken
prisoner or wounded, but had a horse shot from under him at Salem,
Miss. After the war he returned to Ripley, Miss., where he studied law
under Judge John W. Thompson, being admitted to the bar in 1866 by
Alexander M. Clayton. He immediately formed a partnership with his
preceptor, and practiced law in Ripley until 1881, when he came to
Altus and engaged in merchandising, and in 1884 became chairman of the
Democratic Central Committee of Franklin County. He is president of
the joint stock company of the Methodist Episcopal College at Altus.
On the 14th of September, 1864, he was married to Ruth E. Sellers, who
was born in Rutherford County, N. C., September 27, 1839. She was a
niece of Judge Thompson's, and was reared by him. Her union with Mr.
Bailey was blessed by three sons: Edmund I., a general merchant at
Alma, Ark.; George S., at home, and John W. T. Mr. and Mrs. Bailey are
members of the Methodist Episcopal Church, and he is a stanch
Democrat.