Biographies: B. W. Bailey, 1951, Winn Parish, LA Submitted by Greggory E. Davies, 120 Ted Price Lane, Winnfield, LA 71483 ********************************************** Copyright. All rights reserved. http://usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm http://usgwarchives.net/la/lafiles.htm ********************************************** From: December 6, 1951 Winn Parish Enterprise ("Know Your Neighbor" column) B. W. Bailey Has Many Years Service to Public B. W. Bailey was born of Irish and English parentage on July 29, 1868, six and one half miles south of Winnfield on a small farm. He was the oldest of six children, his father having died in 1885. He, his mother, and the other members of the family continued to operate the farm. The first school Mr. Bailey attended was at a little one room log house in 1874 one and a half miles east of the old homestead taught by a Methodist preacher named White. There are only four survivors who attended that school of only two months. They are Joab L. Durham, Mrs. Cynthia Bazar, M. M. Melton, and B. W. Bailey. There were no schools at that time except a two months public school once about every third year, and an occasional subscription school. Mr. Bailey's school education was extremely limited. Whatever education he acquired was largely self taught. Mr. Bailey moved to Winnfield on October 1, 1890 as manager of a branch store of the Winn Parish Farmers Union Cooperative Association, a farmers organization and continued as such until the mercantile interests of the organization were thrown into receivership. He has resided in Winnfield ever since, being the oldest resident except Perry Able, now living. The People's Party, a new political party, was organized at Cincinnati in February, 1891, the late H. L. Brian, representing Louisiana. Weaver of Iowa was nominated for president and Field of Virginia for vice president. In April, 1891, at a convention in Alexandria the People's Party was organized in Louisiana, B. W. Bailey being a delegate from Winn Parish. In February 1892 a convention was held in Alexandria and R. L. Tannehill, of Winnfield, was nominated for governor. Mr. Bailey was also a delegate to that convention. On December 8, 1892 Mr. Bailey was married to Penelope H. Dickerson, daughter of John J. Dickerson, a pioneer sawmill man and farmer. To that union was born a daughter, the only issue to the union, on February 20, 1894. She was named for the famous Kansas orator, Mary Ellen Lease. She was married to Mr. L. Rickerson in 1917. In early 1893 Mr. Bailey purchased the Winn Parish Comrade from the late H. L. Brian and continued to operate it as a People's Party paper until 1907 when he disposed of it. Mr. Bailey was elected to the Constitutional convention of 1898. He introduced only one bill, and that bill contained what later became known as the "granddaddy clause" in the constitution which enabled any voter who registered under that clause to cast his vote. The People's Party at a convention held in Natchitoches in 1894 nominated Mr. Bailey for congress from the fourth district. He made a vigorous campaign, carrying 9 of the 12 parishes, being counted out in the black belt. The People's Party at a state convention held at Alexandria in February, 1896, named a coalition ticket, headed by a liberal sugar planter republican, of St. Mary, by the name of Captain John N. Pharr. The ticket carried every white parish in the state including the Parish of Orleans. The returning boards in the black belt held up returns until it was known how many votes were needed to elect the Democratic candidate, Murphy J. Foster, also from St. Mary. In 1899 the police jury of Winn Parish ordered an election to vote a 5 mill tax for 10 years to the L. R. & N. Railroad to construct a line from Aloha to Winnfield. Mr. Bailey organized the voters and fought a vigorous campaign against the tax, defeating it. In 1900 Mr. Bailey was elected sheriff of Winn Parish on the People's Party ticket, the only office in the state on that ticket. In 1902 Mr. Bailey organized the Winnfield Oil Company, and drilled the first oil well in the state. It was a non-producer. Mr. Bailey after retiring from the sheriff's office in June 1904 together with his wife opened the Comrade Hotel on the site now occupied by Jitney Jungle and continued to operate it until going with the Bank of Winnfield in May, 1913, as president. He filled that position until 1933 when the Bank was reorganized. In 1917 Mr. Bailey was elected chairman of the Liberty Loan, the United States having declared war on Germany in April. Winn Parish over subscribed her quota in every call made by the government. In 1919, after the signing of the armistice with Germany by the associated powers, Mr. Bailey spearheaded a drive for the voting of a million dollar bond issue by Winn Parish for road improvement. The bond issue was approved and as a result today Winn Parish has more hard surface road mileage than any parish in the state in proportion to area and population. In 1920, Mr. Bailey organized the Lone Star Trail Association with the late Henry E. Hardtner as president. The Association had for its purpose the location of a transcontinental highway connecting the two oceans. An optical survey was made by the late H. L. Brian and J. M. Hughes, a Texas, from San Augustine to Los Angeles and marked by steel markers. The road is now completed, passing through Winnfield, holding practically to route thus surveyed. Mr. Bailey conceived the idea fifty years ago of the creation of a game and fish preserve by the damming of the Saline Bayou just below the confluence of the Saline and Black Lake bayous, converting the vast swamps of two bayous into a lake. His idea was to make it a federal preserve. He sold the idea to Representative Aswell who was a member of congress. He introduced a bill, asking for an appropriation of $50,000 and referred the bill to the agricultural committee. It returned a unanimous favorable report. Aswell wired Mr. Bailey the bill could not pass until the state legislature passed an act dedicating the state owned lands needed for the water bottoms. The legislature was then in session the first term of the late Huey P. Long as governor. The bill passed the lower house and was defeated in the senate. Mr. Bailey wired Aswell to withdraw the bill, which he did. Mr. Bailey lost the first round in the fight. Undaunted he returned to the fight, shifting from a federal to a state project. He succeeded in organizing sufficient force when the bill went before the legislature in 1928 that it passed, carrying an appropriation of $ 100,000. The damn across the Saline Bayou was completed in 1932 at a cost in the excess of $11,000 and the lake this created covered an estimated area of 35 square miles. These are the highlights of a man who has spent his life in Winn Parish, fighting for the development of __________, and a fuller recognition of the plights of the underprivileged, the abolition of poverty and the elevation of the intellectual development of all people. Mr. Bailey is a very confirmed believer in universal peace, but he is convinced there can be no peace with justice until the present ruling authority in Russia has been destroyed, either by the workings of internal or external forces, and the rule of the vast empire placed in the hands of the people administered on a democratic basis. It might be added in passing that Mr. Bailey is a man of wide reading experience, and that he is among the best posted men in the state on economics. Due to advancing age and ill health Mr. Bailey has retired from all public activity and spends his time at home with his family, chatting with the few friends who call upon him and reading current literature as well as to spend a little time with the classics.