"The Baileys of Baileytown", Norman Walter Bailey, 1945

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140. John Herr Bailey (Enos L.,55 James,17 Bagwell,2 Edward 1). He was
born July 8, 1876 in Baileytown. He married Elizabeth Lake Trout, who
was born May 26, 1881, on December 10, 1898 in the Methodist Protestant
Church in Millville. (For details of Elizabeth's ancestry, see Lake and
allied ancestries.) After having resided in Baileytown for some years,
the family moved to Mauricetown, where Elizabeth still lives. John lives
on Delsea Drive, Vineland.

John Herr Bailey's career has been a very distinguished one. Doubtless he
is one of the best known of the Bailey clan. Tragedy darkened John's life
when his mother died in 1882; John was only six at the time. He barely
remembers her-a fleeing vision of sweetness and tenderness, wiped away by
a single stroke of death. As John grew older he came to know the people
who had been closest to his mother very well. There was bearded Jonathan
Sutton who had adopted Mary Kennedy Bailey; there was his daughter Nancy
Jane Sutton, familiarly called "Aunt Jane". Jane's first husband was John
D. Herr. Close friends of the Herr's, Mary named her first born John Herr
Bailey. Today John Bailey has a magnificent portrait of John Herr over
his mantlepiece. The old goateed gentleman had a fine Swiss background,
descending from Rev. Hans Herr, the progenitor of the Herr family in America.

Sometime after John Herr's untimely death in 1874, Jane (Sutton) Herr
married Lummis Garrison. John Bailey came to know this household well in
the months preceding his departure for college. His first job was on a farm,
the Neil Campbell place, Later he helped his father threshing.

He went to school for some time in Haleyville. He'd decided that he wanted
to teach. D. W. Davis, Sr., the instructor there, lived in Shiloh, and he
recognized in John the will to learn, the eagerness to impart knowledge. He
gave John his chance to teach. For a time Mr. Davis stayed in Shiloh three
days out of five, and John taught. This is what I want to do; I want to teach,
John thought. But Mr. Davis told him that you have to go to college first.

When he was 21 John was enrolled in Alfred College in New York. He stayed
there a year, and it was to his credit, as in all of his undertakings,
that he was there that year by dint of his own earnings. As much as he
would have liked to, Enos was unable to help his son financially.

The loss of the desire to teach, and a marriage pulled John out of college
and abruptly back to the confines of Baileytown. Jobs varied in the next
few years: he helped his father, worked on the Hampton farm, even thought of
going into railroading. It was the transition period from young manhood to
complete settling down. John's own family was growing and something definite,
solid, was needed.

But no matter what, John did not want to be a farmer. All about him he saw
Baileys and sons of Baileys toiling, sweating on their farms. Bagwell had
been a farmer, a good one too, and so had James (what excellent wheat,
potatoes, beans he had raised!). I asked John quite frankly why it was
that he had broken away, and created such a stir among the more stolid
Baileys. His answer was equally frank and laudable: "There was no money in
farming then." Besides he wanted to do something different; there was ever
some restless stirring inside of him, a stirring towards an unknown. What?
So John decided to start a little crate factory in Baileytown, a relatively
modest undertaking. Soon after this he found time to open a small store
there and one in Glassboro too.

Then in 1911 the big step was made--the family moved away from
Baileytown. John built a home and a larger, better factory for baskets
this time, a very ambitious plan. Backed by his own money, John had taken
the suggestion of Dorey Fisher, a friend, who had said that there was a
future in baskets. John thought it was a good idea, and it was thus that
the very nucleus of "Bailey baskets" was born. This tiny plant, so humble
in beginning, operated for twenty-five years, and it was entirely successful.

In 1917 John went into the wood and coal business too; both of these,
due to rapid expansion, were moved to Millville five years later.

The company "J. H. Bailey & Sons" by no means lost its identity when
it merged with two other basket factories in 1930. Rather, the Baileys
became all the better known. His eldest son, Ogden, was made manager of the
Vineland factory, Raymond and Carl of the other two. Son Paul was in charge
of sales. Under this sort of guidance the company grew and grew until its
reaches became farflung and important.

Today John is Treasurer of Jersey Package Company, President and Treasurer of
Bailey Coal Company. He is a member of the Knights of Golden Eagles, Masonic
Blue Lodge; and he is a 32nd Degree Mason. He is the subject of a lengthy
article in the Lewis Historical Publishing Company's latest book, The Story
of New Jersey. He has taken the keenest interest in the publication of this
Family History and has given unstintingly of his aid to see its completion.
Unimpeachable integrity, keenness of mind, and fairness of spirit have marked
John H. Bailey's rise to local renown. I wish that I had the space to tell
of "J. H.'s" fairness, his complete honesty. There was a record salesman
who used to work for him-how I'd like to relate his praises. John's son
tells me, "Just to show you how fair Dad is-". I go to see J. H. myself;
soon he is talking, and the first thing I hear is, "Just to give you an
idea of how honest my father was- Ogden speaking of John; John speaking
of Enos. What a heritage this is to receive! Surely we have a right to be
proud of its finest exponent, just as we are proud of all of its members.

Children:

231.  i. Ogden Lore, b. August 1, 1899.
232.  ii. Paul Boyd, b. August 21, 1902.
233.  iii. Carl Louis, b. April 7, 1904.
234.  iv. Verna, b. October 21, 1905.
235.  v.  Pearl, b. August 22, 1907.
236.  vi. Raymond, b. September 11, 1909.
237. vii. Florence Mary, b. February 29, 1912.
238. viii. John Herr, Jr., b. August 23, 1919.



173. Walter Jerrell Berry (Henry A.,89 Harriet (Hager) Berry,30 Matilda
(Bailey) Hager,9 Edward,2 Edward1). The first-born of Henry and Emma was
born on November 5, 1882. He married Brownie Mahetibel Douglas Seekford in
1902. Brownie was born on October 2, 1880. (For more about her ancestry, see
Seekford Ancestry). Walter was captain of many large oyster boats, and was
well-known in South Jersey. He and his family lived in Port Norris. He died
on April 15, 1936, and was buried at Haleyville. His widow still survives.

Child:

i. Emma Virginia, b. December 21, 1902. She married Ogden Lore Bailey
(231), son of John Herr and Elizabeth Lake (Trout) Bailey. For more about
this couple, see Ogden Lore Bailey (231).



231. OGDEN LORE BAILEY (John H.,148 Enos L., 55 James," Bagwell, 3
3Edward). He was bom August 1, 1899, the first child of John and Elizabeth,
in Haleyville. He married Emma Virginia Berry (173) daughter of Captain Walter
Jerrell and Brownie M. (Seekford) Berry, on January 26, 1924. Emma was born
December 21,1902. Rev. Linwood R. Berry, brother of Emma's father, officiated-
Ogden, along with his brothers Paul, Carl and Raymond, has followed in the
footsteps of his father, John H. Bailey, in the organization of the basket
industry of South Jersey and Maryland. Today he h General Manager of Jersey
Package Company, President of Berlin Veneer Works and Vice-President of
Bailey. Coal Company. He is a member of the Board of Trustees of the First
Methodist Church in Mill- viHe. He is a member of the Masonic Lodge, being
a 32nd Degree Mason, a member of the Fraternal Order of the Eastern Star
and of the Miliville Board of Trade. Both he and Emma live in Miliville today.

Children:

278.  i NORMAN WALTER, b. October 11, 1926.
ii. NANCY VIRGINIA, b. July 25,1944. She was named for her great-great-great
grandmother, the first Nancy Bailey. She is one of the youngest to trace
her name back to Bagwell's wife.



278. NORMAN WALTER BAILEY (Ogden L., John H., Enos L.,55 James,11 Bagwell,3
Edward 1) . He was bom in Miliville, New Jersey, October 11,1926, the eldest
son of Ogden L. and Emma Virginia (Berry) Bailey. He was graduated from
Friends' Central School, of Philadelphia, in June, 1944. The same summer he
started the regularly prescribed pre-medical course of study at Swarthmore
College, in which he is still engaged.

"Norman W. Bailey has the distinction of being one of the young- est
authors of a family history. Because of a desire to piece together the
various family connections, he became interested in genealogy at a very
early age. The spark, once ignited, soon became a blaze, spreading into
unexpected reaches with the speed of a forest fire. The idea of a family
history eventually consumed his interest, and, with this end in mind,
he began corresponding with ever more and more distant members of the family.

"During the past four years he devoted most of his spare time to this project,
and the amount of information he gathered assumed vast proportions. Indeed,
it is certain that he knows more about the Baileys of South Jersey than any
person alive. He has been helped in this task by a marvelously retentive
memory; he can give whole lines of the family, complete with names and dates,
without re- ferring to any of his notes. Many is the time I have seen him
leaf frantically for minutes on end through his volumnious notes, search-
ing for some elusive piece of paper, which he could exactly visualize in
his mind's eye, but which he was then totally unable to find.

"His most extensive research and concentrated effort have come in the past
year. Nineteen forty-four came, and with it his enrollment in Swarthmore,
which was then operating under an accelerated schedule. In spite of the
huge demands that this placed upon his time and energy, he was able to
successfully carry forward plans for the Bailey genealogy—plans that had
emerged from hazy nebu- losity to definite materialization by the spring
of this year. Many was the night he stayed up until two or three o'clock in
the morning in order to write a letter to some distant member of the family.

"His devotion to his work, especially in the last few months, can- not be
overemphasized. He has spared no effort, left no stone un- turned, in his
efforts to present a complete picture of the Bailey family. And even more
than this, it has been his single-hearted and sincere wish to make this book
a little different than the usual run of family histories. I am sure that
he has accomplished this. His success is due in large part to bis complete
sincerity—his wish to make the long-dead and forgotten members of the
family live again for the reader, not to make a succession of lifeless,
shadowy forms file one by one through the pages. I am deeply grateful for
having had the chance of associating with him and helping him in any way
possible during the last few months of this work. He has blazed a trail for
others to follow. Surely the task of writing "The Baileys of Baileytown"
could not have been placed in more com- petent hands."
-A. Ross Eckler,
June 8,1945.

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