BAILEY, William B., Lafayette Parish, Louisiana
Submitted by Mike Miller


**********************************************
Copyright.  All rights reserved.
http://usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm
http://usgwarchives.net/la/lafiles.htm
**********************************************
 

WILLIAM B. BAILEY, LAFAYETTE.--William B. Bailey, editor and publisher of the Lafayette
Advertiser, was born in this place July 29, 1839.  His father was a native of Tennessee and his
mother of St. Landry parish, Louisiana.

William B. Bailey served an apprenticeship in a printing office, and at the opening of the civil war
enlisted in the Girard Artillery, Confederate States service, June 18, 1861.  His field of operations
was chiefly in Virginia.  In the following engagements he was a participant:  Seven Days' Fight
around Richmond, Harper's Ferry, Second Bull Run, Fredericksburg, Gettysburg, and battle of the
Wilderness, September 9, 1863.  Mr. Bailey was captured and held prisoner until the following
June, when he joined Lee's army just before the battle at Appomattox Court-house.  He was
present at Lee's surrender.  When the war closed Mr. Bailey found himself in the condition
characteristic of the Southern soldier, penniless and far away from home.  He walked through
portions of North Carolina, South Carolina and Georgia, finally reaching home in Lafayette
parish, June 26, 1865.  Shortly after his return home he became partner in the management of his
present newspaper, the first copy of which was issued September 22, 1865.  Three years later Mr.
Bailey became the sole proprietor of the paper, and has edited and published it up to the present
time.  The Advertiser is a weekly paper well patronized.  In politics it is conservative, though
strictly democratic.  The paper is especially devoted to the interest of the section of the country in
which it circulates.  Mr. Bailey was married in 1866 to Miss Wella Queene.  They are the parents
of four daughters.  Mr. Bailey is a Free Mason.  He and family are members of the Catholic
church.

Southwest Louisiana Biographical and Historical, Biographical Section, pp. 201-202.  Edited by
William Henry Perrin.  Published in 1891, by The Gulf Publishing Company.