My Genealogy Hound

Thomas B. Bailey is one of the prosperous general merchants of Bradley County, Ark., and by his superior management and rare business ability and efficiency, he has done not a little to advance the reputation the county enjoys as a commercial center. Thomas J. Bailey, his father, was born in Alabama, and when a young man removed to Georgia, and while following his trade of carpenter and wheelwright in Hancock County, met and married Miss Mary White, who, on July 21, 1850, bore him the subject of this sketch. In 1860 they removed to Bradley County, Ark., and here Mr. Bailey passed from life in 1866, his widow still surviving him and making her home with her son, J. M. She and her husband became the parents of eight children, two daughters and three sons now living, Thomas B. being their fifth child. Bradley County has always been his home, and he has always resided in the vicinity of Warren, in which place his education was received. He remained with his parents until he attained his majority, then worked at the carpenter’s trade for six years, then began clerking in a mercantile establishment in Warren, continuing ten years. On August 23, 1888, he opened his present establishment, and with his stock valued at about $5,000, he does an annual business of about $12,000. On December 25, 1884, he was united in marriage to Miss Beatrice Weir, who was born in Lanark, Bradley County, Ark., in 1867, she being a daughter of Rev. B. C. and Lorinda Weir, the former being a pioneer Methodist preacher of this vicinity. Mr. and Mrs. Bailey have two sons and a daughter: Ernest M., Edward C. and Maude E. Mr. Bailey is a Democrat, casting his first presidential vote for Horace Greeley, and belongs to Warren Lodge No. 35, of the K. of P. He and wife belong to the Methodist Episcopal Church, and are worthy citizens of the county.