Joseph Mead Bailey, Jr. Biography


	This biography appears on page 1821 in "History of South 
	Dakota" by Doane Robinson, Vol. II (1904) and was scanned, 
	OCRed and edited by Maurice Krueger, mkrueger@iw.net.

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	JOSEPH MEAD BAILEY, JR., was born at Freeport, Stephenson county, 
Illinois, November 7, 1864. He was the third son of Joseph Mead Bailey 
(former chief justice of Illinois) and Anna Olin Bailey. He attended 
the public schools of his native city and also the Mount Morris 
Academy, of Mount Morris, Illinois, and the preparatory school of the 
(old) University of Chicago. In 1881 he entered the University of 
Rochester in the class of 1885, but on account of ill health was 
obliged-to leave college before finishing his course. Subsequently the 
degree of Bachelor of Arts was conferred upon him by the University of 
Rochester as of the class of I885.

	After leaving college "Joe" Bailey, as he was commonly and 
popularly known, became engaged in adjusting the claims of Iowa, 
Illinois, Ohio and other states against the government under what is 
known as the swamp land act. He also became interested in land 
speculations in northwestern Iowa. In 1884 he came to Sioux Falls, 
Dakota, and obtained from the territorial authorities the contract for 
the convict labor in the territorial penitentiary. In 1885 he organized 
the German-American 'Loan and Investment Company, which in 1887 was re-
incorporated as the German-American Loan and Trust Company. Among the 
stockholders of this company were many prominent men, among them 
General John A. Logan and William Windom, formerly secretary of the 
treasury. In 1886 the private bank of Hills & Beebe, of Sioux Falls, 
was incorporated as a national bank under the title of the Citizens' 
National Bank, and J. M. Bailey, Jr., became its vice-president. In 
1888 the Citizens' National Bank was consolidated with the Minnehaha 
National Bank of Sioux Falls and he became the president of the 
consolidated institution, he being the youngest national bank president 
in the United States at that time.

	In 1884 Mr. Bailey was one of the pages in the Republican 
national convention at Chicago. In 1888 he was one of the delegates to 
the Republican national convention at Minneapolis from the territory of 
Dakota. In 1889 he was appointed by Governor A. C. Mellette as 
treasurer of the territory of Dakota and held this position until the 
admission of the state of South Dakota, in November, 1889. At the 
Republican state convention at Mitcheil in 1890, he was a candidate for 
the Republican nomination for state treasurer. After one of the hardest 
political contests ever carried on in South Dakota, he was defeated by 
W. W. Taylor, who subsequently defaulted with the major portion of the 
moneys in the state treasury. Had the result of the nominating 
convention been different, the state would have been spared the most 
disgraceful episode in its history.

	Mr. Bailey was active in all matters pertaining to the welfare of 
Sioux Falls, the city of his residence, and served as a member of the 
school board and upon various other organizations instituted for the 
purpose of furthering the material interests of the city. In 1890 he 
was appointed by President Harrison as one of the commissioners to 
examine the coinage of the mints of that year.

	J. M. Bailey, Jr., was married in June, 1886, at Aurora, 
Illinois, to Corolyn Currier Tanner. He died September 12, 1891, at the 
home of his father at Freeport, Illinois. At the funeral, which was 
held at Freeport, there were in attendance many of his friends and 
business and political associates from South Dakota. He left no 
children. His widow is remarried to John Kimberly Mumford and now 
resides in New Jersey. His mother, Anna O. Bailey, is still living and 
resides at Freeport, Illinois. His only living brother, Charles O. 
Bailey, is a practicing lawyer of Sioux Falls.