Biography of Edward Bradford Bailey, Monticello, Jefferson County, FL

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Transcribed from:  The History of Florida:  Past & Present, The Lewis Publishing Co., Vol. 
III, page 156, 1923.

BAILEY, Hon. EDWARD BRADFORD, of Monticello, has many years of commercial and public activity 
to his credit, and represents some of the distinguished names in Florida history.

He was born at Bradfordville, Leon County, near Tallahassee, December 20, 1854.  His father, 
Gen. WILLIAM BAILEY, was born at St. Mary's, Georgia, and served with the rank of major in 
the American Forces during the War of 1812.  He was a general in the Seminole Indian war 
of 1836, and when past the age of seventy he participated in the battle of Natural Bridge 
on March 6, 1865, in defense of the Florida capital at Tallahassee.  On his large cotton 
plantation in Jefferson County was operated the only cotton factory throughout the period 
of the Civil war.  His holdings were very extensive.  He was owner of the Walnut Hill and 
Hunter plantations in Leon County, and after the war sold these properties and centered 
his interests on the Lyndhurst plantation in Jefferson County, one of the finest properties 
in that section of the state.  He died December 27, 1867.  Green Cove Springs near Tampa 
were discovered by General Bailey during the Seminole war.  He was a member of the Episcopal 
Church.

Gen. WILLIAM BAILEY married ELIZA BRANCH, a native of Edfield, South Carolina, and daughter 
of JOHN BRANCH, who served in the United States Senate, was three times governor of South 
Carolina, was secretary of the navy in Andrew Jackson's cabinet, and during 1844-45, was 
governor of Florida.  ELIZA BRANCH BAILEY died in July, 1858, in Leon County.

EDWARD BRADFORD BAILEY was educated in private schools at Tallahassee, also at Athens, 
Georgia, and spent three years in the Virginia Military Institute at Lexington.  In 1870 
he began merchandising, and in 1876 became a member of the firm Denham & Bailey at Monticello. 
They developed a very extensive business as general merchants, cotton merchants, warehouse 
men, private bankers, and at one time owned 13,000 acres, 4,000 acres of which were in 
cultivation.  Mr. BAILEY was at one time also active in phosphate mining in Southern Florida.

He sold his mercantile interests in 1888, at the time he was elected to his first term in 
the Florida House of Representatives.  He was for two terms a member of the County Commission 
when good road improvements were inaugurated, and has been mayor of Monticello.  He served 
as a representative six sessions, was also a member of the Senate, and in 1921 again sat in 
the House of Representatives.  Mr. BAILEY is a Presbyterian.

At Monticello he married Miss CAROLINE DENHAM, a native of Jefferson County. Her father, 
JOHN DENHAM, was born in Scotland, came to the United States when a young man, and for many 
years was a cotton merchant and Florida representative of H. L. Rich & Company, a New York 
cotton firm.  Mr. BAILEY has eight living children:  JOHN D.; CAROLINE D., wife of Judge 
S. D. CLARKE, president of the Farmers and Merchants Bank of Monticello; EDWARD B., Jr.; 
MARTHA HAWKINS, wife of Dr. JOHN B. BRINSON, of Monticello; SARAH L., wife of T. B. CHISHOLM,
of Thomasville, Georgia; TERESSA (sic) REED, wife of GEORGE H. PALMER, of Florence, South 
Carolina; GEORGE R.; and WILLIAM BAILEY.