Charles Olin Bailey Biography


	This biography appears on pages 214-218 in "History of Dakota Territory" 
	by George W. Kingsbury, Vol. IV (1915) 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.

	This file is part of the SDGENWEB Archives. If you arrived here inside
	a frame or from a link from somewhere else, our front door is at

	http://usgwarchives.org/sd/sdfiles.htm



				CHARLES OLIN BAILEY.  

	Charles Olin Bailey was born in Freeport, Illinois, July 2, 1860. 
He is the oldest son of the late Judge Joseph Mead Bailey (former chief 
justice of Illinois) and Anna Olin Bailey. He comes of old New England 
stock and is in the ninth generation from James Bailey, who settled at 
Rowley, Massachusetts, about 1640. On his mother's side he is in the 
seventh generation from John Olin, who settled in East Greenwich, Rhode 
Island, about 1678. Among his ancestors are William Bradford, who came 
over in the Mayflower and was the second governor of Plymouth colony, 
and Captain John Mason, the noted Indian fighter and the hero of the 
Pequot war of 1637.  

	Mr. Bailey received his early education in the public schools of 
Freeport, Illinois. In the fall of 1876 he entered the University of 
Rochester, Rochester, New York, at which institution he graduated in 
June, 1880, with the degree of A. B. He was a member of the Alpha Delta 
Phi fraternity, of which his father, brother and two sons have also 
been members. In July, 1880, he entered upon the study of law in the 
office of Neff & Stearns at Freeport, and in March, 1881, he became a 
student in the office of Rosenthal & Pence in Chicago. In May, 1881, he 
entered the law department of the Chicago & Northwestern Railway 
Company as garnishee clerk, where he continued his legal studies under 
Burton C. Cook, the general solicitor and Augustus M. Herrington, the 
solicitor, of that company. He was admitted to the bar in 1882. He has 
been admitted to practice in the states of Illinois, Iowa, Nebraska, 
South Dakota and the territory of Dakota. On October 25, 1893, he was 
admitted to the bar of the supreme court of the United States, his 
admission being moved by General John M. Palmer, then a United States 
senator from Illinois.  

	In March, 1883, Mr. Bailey removed to Eagle Grove, Iowa, where he 
became a division attorney for the Chicago & Northwestern Railway 
Company on its Northern Iowa Division. In 1884 he was elected the 
member of the Iowa democratic state central committee for the tenth 
congressional district. Upon the election in that year of President 
Cleveland, he was placed in charge of the distribution of the federal 
patronage in the thirteen counties of his congressional district. In 
1885, he was reelected a member of the state central committee. In the 
same year he was elected mayor of the city of Eagle Grove.  

	In January, 1886, Mr. Bailey removed to Chicago, where he formed 
a law partnership with Allan C. Story and William G. Witherell. This 
partnership was dissolved at the end of a year and Mr. Bailey came to 
the territory of Dakota, taking up his residence at Sioux Falls, April 
1, 1887. His younger brother, the late Joseph Mead Bailey, Jr., had 
preceded him to Sioux Falls and was engaged there in the banking 
business.  

	After locating at Sioux Falls, Mr. Bailey opened a law office and 
practiced alone until July, 1887, when he formed a partnership with 
Herbert Taft Root, under the firm name of Bailey & Root. This 
partnership was dissolved in February, 1888 In the fall of 1888, Mr. 
Bailey was nominated as the democratic candidate for district attorney 
of Minnehaha county, Dakota. At the November election he was elected to 
that office by over five hundred majority, running over one thousand 
five hundred ahead of his ticket and being the only democrat elected in 
the county. In 1890, while he was serving as district attorney, a local 
option law went into effect in his county. Mr. Bailey at once applied 
to the board of county commissioners for an appropriation sufficient to 
enforce the law. His request being refused, Mr. Bailey promptly 
resigned his office. He did not propose to attempt, without adequate 
financial resources, to enforce a law upon which there was a strong 
division of public sentiment and, on the other hand, he was not willing 
to continue as the public prosecutor of his county and permit the laws 
to be violated. Since then he has not held nor sought any public 
office. For some years he continued to take an active interest in 
politics and from 1894 to 1904 he was the chairman of the Minnehaha 
county democratic central committee. He declined a further reelection 
in 1904 and has ever since devoted himself to his profession.  

	In January, 1890, Mr. Bailey entered into a law partnership with 
the late Captain William H. Stoddard and William H. Wilson, under the 
firm name of Bailey, Stoddard & Wilson. In 1891, Mr. Wilson withdrew 
from this firm and the business was continued under the name of Bailey 
& Stoddard. In January, 1892, this firm was dissolved and Mr. Bailey 
formed a partnership with John Howard Voorhees, under the name of 
Bailey & Voorhees. In July, 1895, Judge Frank R. Aikens and Harry E. 
Judge joined the firm, the name being changed to Aikens, Bailey & 
Voorhees. In October, 1897, Judge Aikens and Mr. Judge withdrew and 
formed the firm of Aikens & Judge and the name of Bailey & Voorhees was 
resumed Since that time there has been no change in the firm name, 
although the membership of the firm has several times changed by the 
admission and withdrawal of various partners. It is at present composed 
of Charles Olin Bailey, John Howard Voorhees, Peter G. Honegger and 
Theodore Mead Bailey.  

	The firm of Bailey & Voorhees enjoys the most extensive practice 
of any law firm in South Dakota, a practice not confined to Sioux Falls 
and Minnehaha county alone but extending throughout the entire state. 
The firm has a large corporation practice and also does an extensive 
commercial law business. It occupies practically the entire second 
floor of the Bailey-Glidden building for its offices and employs a 
large corps of clerks and stenographers. The law library of Mr. Bailey 
(the collection of which was commenced by his father, the late Judge 
Joseph Mead Bailey, in 1856) is the largest law library in the Dakotas 
and one of the largest private law libraries in the United States. It 
contains upwards of ten thousand volumes of textbooks and reports.  

	In June, 1887, shortly after coming to Sioux Falls, Mr. Bailey 
was appointed attorney for the mercantile agency of R. G. Dun & 
Company, a position which he has ever since held. He has been the 
attorney in South Dakota for the Illinois Central Railroad Company ever 
since that road was built into Sioux Falls in the fall of 1887. Since 
1890, he has been the counsel in South Dakota for the Western Union 
Telegraph Company. He is also counsel for the American Surety Company, 
the American Express Company, Wells Fargo & Company, the Adams Express 
Company, the Sultzberger & Sons Company, and many other corporations. 
He is the local legal representative at Sioux Falls of the Chicago, 
Milwaukee & St. Paul Railway Company. In March, 1907, he was appointed 
receiver of the Missouri River & Northwestern Railway Company and held 
that position until the receiver,s sale of that road in 1909. He has 
been employed in many important litigations during his residence in the 
state and of the thirty-three volumes of South Dakota reports which 
have been issued since the admission of the state there are but two 
volumes which do not contain reports of cases in which he has acted as 
counsel. His name also appears in the reports of the supreme courts of 
Illinois, Iowa and of the territory of Dakota, of the appellate court 
of Illinois, of the supreme court of the United States and of the 
United States circuit court of appeals.  

	Mr. Bailey has taken much interest in Masonry.  He is a past 
master of Minnehaha Lodge, No. 5, A. F. & A. M.; past high priest of 
Sioux Falls Chapter, No. 2, R. A. M.; thrice illustrious master of 
Alpha Council, No. 1, R. & S. M.; past eminent commander of Cyrene 
Commandery, No. 2, K. T.; past venerable master of Khurum Lodge of 
Perfection, No. 3, A. &  A. S. R. He is also a member of Albert Pike 
Chapter of Rose Croix, No. 2, A. & A. S. R.; Coeur de Leon Council of 
Kadosh, No. 2, A. & A. S. R.; Occidental Consistory, No. 2, A. & A. S.; 
Jasper Chapter, No. 8, O. E. S.; and El Riad Shrine, A. A. O. N. M. S. 
He received the thirty-third degree of the Scottish Rite at Washington 
in October, 1909. He was grand commander of Knights Templar of South 
Dakota, 1909-10. He is also a member of Granite Lodge, No. 8, Knights 
of Pythias; and of Sioux Falls Lodge, No. 9, I. O. O. F., and Royal 
Purple Encampment, No. 1, I. O. O. F.  
Mr. Bailey is a charter member of the Minnehaha County and the South 
Dakota Bar Associations and has been for many years a member of the 
American Bar Association, of which he has served as vice president for 
South Dakota. He is a member of the Dacotah and of the Minnehaha 
Country Clubs of Sioux Falls, of the Iroquois Club of Chicago, and of 
the Alpha Delta Phi Club of New York. He is a member of the Sons of the 
American Revolution and the vice president of the South Dakota Society 
of that organization. In religion he is an Episcopalian.  
Mr. Bailey has taken great interest in horticulture and also in 
historical and genealogical researches. His private library of some 
five thousand volumes is rich in historical literature.  

On March 28, 1887, Mr. Bailey was married in Chicago, Illinois, 
to Mary Emma Swan. They have had children, as follows: I. Theodore Mead 
Bailey, born at Sioux Falls, January 14, 1888, was educated at 
Dartmouth College and at the University of Michigan, at which hatter 
institution he graduated in 1910. He attended the South Dakota State 
University Law School and was admitted to the bar in 1911. He married 
Miss Marguerite Wadsworth, September 3, 1912, and is now a member of 
the firm of Bailey & Voorhees. II. Charles Olin Bailey, Jr., born at 
Sioux Falls, April 19, 1890, graduated at Bowdoin College in 1912 and 
at the Law School of the South Dakota State University in 1914. He is 
now connected with the law office of Bailey &; Voorhees. III. Anna 
Elida Bailey, born at Sioux Falls, December 24, 1892, is a member of 
the class of 1915 of Wells College, at Aurora, New York. IV. Joseph 
Mead Bailey III., born at Sioux Falls, July 27, 1895, died at Sioux 
Falls, April 28, 1898. (The above sketch is corrected to December 1, 
1914.)