Dana Reed Bailey Biography


	This biography appears on pages 1371-1373 in "History of South 
	Dakota" by Doane Robinson, Vol. II (1904) and was scanned, 
	OCRed and edited by Maurice Krueger, mkrueger@iw.net.

	This file may be freely copied by individuals and non-profit 
	organizations for their private use. 

	Any other use, including publication, storage in a retrieval 
	system, or transmission by electronic, mechanical, or other 
	means requires the written approval of the file's author.


	DANA REED BAILEY, one of the distinguished members of the bar 
of Minnehaha county, and county judge, is a native of the old Green 
Mountain state, having been born in Montgomery, Franklin county, 
Vermont, on the 27th of April, 1833. He was reared to the sturdy 
discipline of the farm and after completing the curriculum of the 
district schools, he continued his studies in Leland Seminary, at 
Townshend, Vermont, and finally completed his education in Oberlin 
College, Oberlin, Ohio, in 1858. He taught three terms in the district 
schools, was for six months an instructor in a select school, and later 
was a teacher in the Beekman school, at Saratoga Springs, New York, for 
one year. In June, 1856, Judge Bailey began reading law and in the 
following year entered the office of the late Chief Justice Royce, of 
the supreme court of his native state, under whose preceptorship he 
continued his technical reading for some time. He then entered the 
Albany Law School, at Albany, New York, where he was graduated in April, 
1859. In the following month he entered upon the practice of his chosen 
profession, locating in Highgate, Vermont, being there established in 
practice until the 1st of September, 1864. In that place he held for two 
years the office of town agent and for an equal period was trustee of 
the United States reserve fund. He was also deputy collector of the 
United States customs at Highgate, having charge of the office for three 
years and three months, while for six months he acted as special agent 
of the war department. In 1863 he was appointed secret aid of the United 
States treasury department, serving in this capacity for three years. On 
the 1st of September, 1865, Judge Bailey opened a law office in St. 
Albans, Vermont, and on the 3d of the following February he entered into 
a professional partnership with Park Davis, while a year later H. C. 
Adams became a member of the firm. The subject was a delegate to the 
Republican national convention in 1868, and was a member of the state 
central committee of the party in Vermont two years. He served two years 
as state's attorney of Franklin county, and in 1870 was elected a member 
of the state senate, being chosen as his own successor two years later 
and serving with marked ability and distinction, having been chairman of 
the judiciary committee, while by vote of the joint legislature he was 
appointed one of a committee of five to investigate the Vermont Central 
Railroad, which investigation was not concluded until July, 1873. He was 
for two years a member of the board of school directors of St. Albans. 

	In 1869 Judge Bailey became identified with the interests of the 
west, having, in 1871, laid out the town of Baldwin, St. Croix county, 
Wisconsin, of which he was the original proprietor. He there built the 
Matchless flouring mills and was the owner of three sawmills and half-
owner of two grain elevators. He had in the meanwhile taken up his 
permanent abode in the town and for a decade was there engaged in the 
manufacture of flour and lumber and in farming and merchandising as 
well. For several years he maintained a large herd of high-grade 
shorthorn cattle, selling the same in 1877, in the Chicago market, for 
the highest average price offered for any herd in the United States in 
that year. 

	In 1874 Judge Bailey removed to Baldwin, St. Croix county, 
Wisconsin, where he served three years as president of the municipal 
council as treasurer one year and as school director for seven years. In 
1877, at the Republican district convention, he was nominated by 
acclamation for the state senate, as representative of the twenty-fourth 
senatorial district, comprising seven counties, and in the county in 
which he resided he received in the ensuing election all the votes cast, 
with the exception of fifty-seven, the total vote being three thousand 
one hundred and thirty-one, while the Republican nominee for the lower 
house of the legislature had only ninety-nine majority in the county. He 
was chairman of the judiciary committee in the senate during the session 
of 1879. In 1880 the Judge was elected a member of the board of county 
commissioners of St. Croix county, and was re-elected in each of the two 
succeeding years, resigning his position on the 19th of December, 1882, 
at which time he was also chairman of the board, and on the 21st of the 
same month he arrived in Sioux Falls, South Dakota, where he has ever 
since maintained his home. From the time of his arrival until March, 
1884, he had charge of the Dakota business of the Northwestern Mutual 
Life Insurance Company, of Milwaukee, and on the 11th of the month last 
mentioned he opened a law office here, in the Masonic Temple, being the 
first tenant to occupy rooms in the new building, and here he actively 
resumed the practice of his profession. In January, 1886, he formed a 
co-partnership with Park Davis, who had been his professional colleague 
in Vermont many years previously, and in 1888 William H. Lyon became a 
member of the firm, which was known as Bailey, Davis & Lyon, and which 
held a foremost position among the legal associations of the territory 
and state during the entire time of its existence. Judge Bailey served 
as city attorney of Sioux Falls from 1885 until 1889, and on the 21st of 
August, 1890, upon the resignation of Charles O. Bailey, he was 
appointed state's attorney for Minnehaha county, retaining this office, 
by subsequent re-elections, until 1895, when he resumed the private 
practice of his profession. In November, 1900, he was elected county 
judge of Minnehaha county, serving for a term of two years and being 
then re-elected, in 1902, for a second term of equal duration. In the 
territorial days the Judge was for two years a member of the Republican 
central committee of the territory, and in 1895-6 he was a member of the 
state agricultural board. In 1899 he edited and published a history of 
Minnehaha county, a valuable contribution to the history of the 
territory and state in the field covered, and the work is considered 
authoritative, gaining distinctive commendation from those most capable 
of judging its true merits. Judge Bailey has ever been a staunch 
advocate of the principles of the Republican party and has been 
prominent in its councils in the three states in which he has lived and 
labored so effectively. Fraternally he is identified with the Masonic 
order.