Will County IL Archives Biographies.....Bailey, Daniel  
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Deb Haines ddhaines@gmail.com May 5, 2007, 1:41 pm

Author: Portraits & Bio Sketches, 1890

DANIEL BAILEY and his good wife are among the oldest pioneers now living in 
Will County. Coming here more than forty years ago, they have witnessed the 
great change wrought by the hand of man in bringing it from a state of nature 
to its present condition as one of the richest and most highly developed 
counties in Northern Illinois, and they may well take pride, in what they have 
done to aid in producing this wonderful result. Mr. Bailey is a farmer and 
stock-raiser, one of the most prosperous of that class of people who have had 
the upbuilding of Channahon, where he has had a home since he came to this 
county, and where he has a large farm from whose broad, fertile acres he 
derives a handsome income. Mr. Bailey is a native of Pennsylvania, from which 
State his parents took him to a new home in the wilds of Ohio, near 
Cincinnati. He was the fifth child in a family of nine, and when still a boy 
he came to Illinois with his father and mother, who located twenty-one miles 
west of Danville, in 1848. In 1850, our subject came to his present place, 
which then comprised one hundred and twenty acres of wild prairie, which he 
had purchased of Jasper Wilson. He put that into a fine state of cultivation 
by hard and persistent labor, and in time bought more land,purchasing some 
canal land and now has five hundred acres,the most of which was bought in the 
raw state, and is now under excellent improvement. Mr. Bailey is one of the 
substantial, moneyed men of Channahon, he having attained this position by his 
extraordinary industry, quick judgment, and in the judicious management of his 
interests. He and his family are well known and greatly respected in this 
community, which has been their abiding place for so many years, and their 
kindness, thoughtfulness and genial hospitality, have won them a high place in 
the regard of the many who know them. Mr. Bailey is a Democrat in politics, 
but votes for the man in the local elections. Mr. Bailey has been twice 
married. He was first wedded to Rebecca Boardman. Her parents were from the 
East, and Dr. A. Comstock was her stepfather. Mrs. Bailey died, leaving one 
son, Alexander. He is now living in Missouri and is married, and has three 
children, two sons and one daughter. Mr. Bailey was married to Mrs. John 
Brown, his present estimable wife, forty-two years ago. She was the daughter 
of Ransom and Sarah Zarley, natives, respectively, of Ohio and Kentucky. They 
were among the earliest pioneers of the county, coming from Pike County, Ohio, 
where Mrs. Bailey was born. She was married when very young to Mr. John Brown, 
of Onondaga County, N. Y. Her husband came to this State with Maj. Bourland, 
who had married a Miss Brown. This was in the year of the land sale and he 
bought land for other members of the family, purchasing nine and one-fourth 
sections in Jackson Township. Her husband died in that place, leaving her a 
widow with three children, Sarah, Mary and William, who are all living in 
Jackson. Sarah is the widow of Frank Dooley. She lives near her mother and has 
eight children, five girls and three boys. Mary is the wife of Seth Gibbon and 
they have three children, two sons and one daughter. William is married and 
has five children, four sons and one daughter; he owns and manages the old 
John Brown homestead, which his father bought at the Government land sale so 
many years ago. Mrs. Bailey's marriage has been blessed to her and our subject 
by the birth of two children; the eldest of whom is Calney, and Ella, wife of 
Henry Kipp, of whom see sketch. Calney Bailey resides on the homestead and 
assists his father in the management of his form land. He is an enterprising, 
progressive, young man and is well educated. He first attended the district 
schools, and then pursued a fine commercial course at Jennings Seminary. He 
was married in September, 1886, to Miss Hattie Barnes, daughter of Mathew and 
Mary J. (Purdy) Barnes, natives of New York; they were married there and came 
here in the winter of 1857, and still make their home in Jackson Township. 
Mrs. Bailey's parents located on a farm about two miles southwest of Joliet, 
and the place is still in the hands of the family. Mrs. Bailey can well 
remember the incidents of the Sauk War when the Indians came through this 
region and chased them from their homes. This was in the spring of the year 
when the settlers were putting in their crops with their clumsy tools and ox-
teams. While thus working they received word that the Indians were on the war 
path, and dropping their implements on the field they immediately started with 
their families and in ox-teams for Danville, all the people in the county 
leaving excepting three families who were foolhardy enough to stay behind and 
were all killed by the savages, excepting two young girls who were taken 
captives but were afterwards recovered from the Indians. Among the families 
thus leaving their home were the Scotts, Moores and Crutcherfields. Mr. Zarley 
and his family went as far as Iroquois, where they met the soldiers going in 
pursuit of the Indians and they returned with them as far as where Joliet now 
stands, and the soldiers putting up a block house on the west side of the 
river, they remained with them there for awhile. When the soldiers were 
ordered to join Scott, the Zarleys returned to Danville, and stayed there 
until the following September, when all the families went back to their homes, 
the men folks having gone there previously to see that everything was all 
right. During their stay in the block house in Joliet, they had considerable 
fun over a false alarm which was sent in to try the soldiers, and it found 
them in a poor condition to receive the enemy. At the time Mr. and Mrs. Zarley 
put their children under the feather bed in the wagons and told them to lie 
still, and the old gentleman took his gun and awaited the coming of the 
Indians. Mrs. Bailey and her sisters are the only survivors of the scare who 
took refuge in the block house where Joliet now stands, she being about ten 
years old at the time and her sister but a baby. That winter the pioneers of 
the county suffered with hunger as they neglected to lay in sufficient 
supplies. Mr. Zarley went to Danville and got his supplies for the winter, and 
his neighbors, the Scotts, Moores, Bilsons, and others borrowed of him with 
the expectation of paying back when they went for their load, but an early 
snow came and prevented them from going, and more severe snowstorms occurring, 
no one was able to get to Danville, so that provisions were very scarce. Mrs. 
Bailey says she can well remember the look of sorrow upon her mother's face as 
she heard her children crying for bread, almost starving. They had a little 
corn which they pounded up and each one was given a small allowance. They also 
had a few potatoes that were baked in the ashes and distributed amongst the 
almost starving children, the older ones, Mrs. Bailey and her elder brother, 
generously allowing the younger ones to have their share. After that winter 
the pioneers got along very well, as there were plenty of deer, prairie 
chickens and other game, besides fish of a superior quality in the rivers, the 
settlers catching them with a spear in the old days. The Pottawatomies living 
in the country then were friendly and John Zarley and his elder brother used 
to go hunting and fishing with them. While the war was being waged with the 
Sauks, they kept track of the settlers' cattle and helped to get them together 
on their return, as they were nearly as afraid of the Sauks as the whites were 
themselves. The Zarleys were great Methodists going to meeting as often as 
opportunity offered, often going a long distance. They made a square box and 
put it on the two front wheels of an ox wagon, in this they put two split 
bottom chairs and drove to meeting behind a pair of oxen. One of the young 
ladies who often accompanied them to the religious services, was a Miss Joliet 
Brown, for whom the city of Joliet was named.

Additional Comments:
Portrait and Biographical Album of Will County, Illinois, Containing Full Page 
Portraits and Biographical Sketches of Prominent and Representative Citizens 
of the County; Chicago: Chapman Bros., 1890 
 


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