My Genealogy Hound

BAILEY, THOMAS, banker; residence Camp Point; was born in the town of Poland, Cumberland (now Androscoggin) county, Maine, Oct. 8, 1817; had no advantages for an education, except those obtained in the common schools of that State, from two to three months in the winter; left home on foot shortly after he was 21 years of age, with his entire outfit and assets tied up in a cotton handkerchief; went to Boston, and worked on a farm and in a brickyard in the vicinity until late in the fall, when he started for Illinois with a young man by the name of Drake; arriving at Buffalo, N. Y., they disagreed as to the route they should go, and separated. Mr. Bailey stopped in Geauga county, Ohio, and taught school during the winter; early in the spring he traveled to the Ohio river and took deck passage to Cincinnati; thence to St. Louis and up to Quincy, arriving in the latter city March 20, 1840; walked out to Columbus, then a flourishing village, and secured a school two miles west of the now village of Camp Point; taught school five years in Camp Point, Fall Creek, Ursa, and Concord; purchased the place on which he now resides in the fall of 1843; in 1845 he married Rebecca Seaton, and settled on his place the same year. Mr. Bailey has been identified, to some extent, in the improvement of the village of Camp Point; in 1855 he laid off a part of the town, and built several houses and stores; erected the foundry and machine shop; was one of four who built the Casco flouring mill; has been engaged in farming, merchandise and banking. In the winter of 1873, in connection with G. W. Cyrus, Esq., he purchased the material of the Enterprise, and commenced the publication of the Camp Point Journal. He disposed of his interest to Mr. Cyrus in the summer of 1876. In 1850 Mr. Bailey was elected the first Supervisor, and held the office four years; in 1876-8 was Chairman of the Board and one of the Building Committee of the new Court House; in 1858 Mr. Bailey was elected Justice of the Peace, and has continuously held the office until the present time.