My Genealogy Hound

JOHN M. BAYLEY. Any list of the old settlers of Buffalo county, however long, would be incomplete without mention of the name of John M. Bayley, of the town of Gibbon. Any record of the early experience of the first settlers of the county would be lacking in interest as well as historical accuracy that did not include the personal reminiscence of this gentleman. Mr. Bayley is an old settler in the strongest and most significant sense of the phrase. He was in Nebraska years before Buffalo county was ever thought of — when all the country now comprised within this county was part of the great domain of the northwest, and marked on the map as practically uninhabitable. Mr. Bayley came to Nebraska in April, 1857, three years after the territory was organized, and when it had a population of only a few thousand settled in widely scattered communities, and not a village of over one hundred souls. He therefore saw the country almost in its primitive state, and gazed with his own eyes on the enchanting picture presented by the poet when he directed the eyes of the beholder in these lines:

“Behold the prairie, broad and grand and free;
‘Tis God’s own garden, unprofaned by man.”

Mr. Bayley was one of a colony of Pennsylvanians, twenty-seven in number, who made their way with ox teams and pack horses to the state, or rather territory, years before the railroads had belted the country with their glistening bands of steel or even the cumbersome stagecoaches had penetrated far into the interior, off the main line of overland travel to the gold fields of the Pacific coast. A minute description of the mode of travel and the manner of living at that early date, would hardly be appropriate in a sketch like this, those things belonging more properly to the history of the state — but it may be here recorded with truth and historical accuracy, that Mr. Bayley was a pioneer in those days and lived the life of a pioneer with all that the term implies. The colony of which he was a member settled near Table Rock in Pawnee county, which was then considerably beyond the outposts of civilization. Most of the members took up land in that vicinity and many of them made permanent improvements. Some, however, returned to the old state as is usual in such cases; others moved on west and still others scattered off, settling in different localities. Mr. Bayley remained in Nebraska till the fall of 1857, when, being a young man and unmarried, he desired to see more of the world and accordingly, in the fall of 1857, he started south, pulling up in Arkansas a few weeks later. A large part of that state was then new and just starting up, and offered some inducements to young men in search of locations. But Mr. Bayley did not take kindly to the malaria, mosquitoes, soda biscuits and six shooters of the swamp-land state, and he remained there only a year, returning in December, 1858, to his native place in Pennsylvania. He settled down there and was variously engaged until 1862, when, the Civil war having come on, and calls were being made for soldiers to defend the Union, he entered the military service of the United States as a member of an independent company, organized for the purpose of repelling invasions of rebel forces into Pennsylvania and especially the city of Philadelphia. He remained in the service of the government in this capacity for nearly a year, when the term of his enlistment having expired, he remained in Philadelphia city, where he took a position on the city police force, which position he held for three years. He lived there, engaged in this and other capacities, till 1869, when his mind again turned towards the great West, and in the fall of that year he moved to Michigan, having married in the meantime, settled and went into the lumber business on the Muskegon river. He lived in Michigan till 1871, coming thence to Nebraska and settling in Buffalo county. Beginning the record of his experience, therefore, as a resident of this county, even with the year 1871, he can justly be numbered as one of the old settlers, for the settlement of the county began in that year. Mr. Bayley came in the spring — April 7 — the same time the colony did, and, like most of the colonists, he was not burdened with an abundance of this world’s goods, but came West purposely to better his condition. An actual inventory of his finances showed, at the date he landed in Buffalo county, that he had an even twenty dollars, his wife and babies, and a limited amount of household goods and wearing apparel. Like all the others, his first step was to secure land. He filed a homestead claim on the northeast quarter of section 22, township 9, range 13, lying about two miles east and a little south of where the town of Gibbon was located. On this he settled and began his improvements. After the first tedious stages of breaking and building were over, the invasion of the grasshoppers occurred, followed by the seasons of dry years with all their train of hardships and privations, through which Mr. Bayley passed, and of which he saw as much as anyone. He was not alone in his experience in those years. He shared the lot that fell to all. The fact is simply adverted to, here in this sketch, as one of the incidents of his first years in the county, and as showing that he furnished his part of the patient fortitude and heroic endeavor that carried the little settlement through their trials to more prosperous times. Mr. Bayley has been engaged in farming continually since coming to the county. He lived on his farm up to about a year ago, when he moved into the town of Gibbon, where he now resides. He has added, by purchases at different times, to his original homestead until he now owns five lumdred and twenty acres of as good land as there is in Buffalo county, lying in Shelton township, all of which is under cultivation, and which yields an abundance of Nebraska’s sovereign products — corn and native hay. Mr. Bayley has been engaged in the stock and dairying business since he came to the state. He is one of the few men of the county who seem to have an intelligent conception of the possibilities of Nebraska soil, and who go about their work in a way to make it pay. One of his first moves the year after he located was to buy thirteen head of cows, in connection with Henry Green, a neighbor, and immediately embark in the dairying business. He now owns over one hundred head, which he has raised from scrub stock to high grades and thoroughbreds, and he has made and sold thousands and thousands of pounds of butter, having some customers to whom he has furnished this wholesome domestic article for more than fifteen years. He is a member of the State Dairymen’s Association, and has been an active worker in its interest. He rarely misses a county fair with his exhibits and it is a fact worth mentioning that he has never failed but once to take the first premium on butter at any fair he has entered his products. He is also largely interested in the breeding and rearing of horses, and he now has some improved strains and thoroughbreds, which he shows with commendable pride and which are a credit to his zeal and judgment in this direction. He began in the horse business at an early day, also having had the honor of raising the first span of colts in the county.

Asa citizen laboring in the interest and welfare of his adopted county, Mr. Bayley has been equally as active and his efforts have met with equally as fruitful results. He helped to build the first school house in the county and helped organize the first school district. This was school district No. l, the school for which was taught about midway between the towns of Gibbon and Shelton. Later on, when the population of the district would authorize it, he, with others, secured a division of the old district, with others which were formed of it, and erected a new one, designated as No. 22, of which he became an official, holding the office of director for three years and that of treasurer for seven. He is not a politician even in the mildest sense of the phrase and therefore we have no political triumphs or disasters to record of him. He has been content to lead the life of an humble citizen, contributing by the work of his hands to the solid prosperity of his country rather than seeking the questionable honors that come of political machination and personal intrigue.

Mr. Bayley comes of a family of pioneers and he gets by heredity some of the qualities that best fit him not only for a pioneer but for a useful citizen as well. He was born in Wayne county, Pa., January 28, 1836, and his earlier years were passed amid scenes and incidents of a primitive kind even for that country, and among people most of whom had been the first settlers of that part of the Keystone State. His father, William Bayley, was a native of Newburyport, Mass., having been born there in 1792. He moved to Wayne county, Pa., in 1814, and settled in Clinton township. He was one of the first settlers of the township, going into that locality at a time when he had to cut his way through the timber and make a road over which to move his household goods and farming utensils. He settled nine miles from the town of Honesdale, now the county seat of Wayne county, and there lived and died. He was identified with the early organization of the county and his own particular township, as well as active enterprises of a general nature. He held a number of smaller offices in the county such as county commissoner, assessor, bridge and road supervisor and the like. He was also a member of the state militia, when that was one of the institutions of the day, and he volunteered in the service of his country, raising a company of which he was elected captain to fight the British in the war of 1812-14. The war, however, was over before he got into the field with his command. For the most part he led a quiet, unassuming life, devoting himself to agriculture in which he succeeded reasonably well. He died at his old home place in Chester township in 1853, then in the fifty-ninth year of his age. He was a life-long member of the Baptist church, a deacon of that church for years, and one of the founders of the First Baptist Association, and the builder of the First Baptist church in Chester township, Wayne county, where he settled. He was twice married, his first wife bearing the maiden name of Ruth Morse, a native of Haverhill, Mass., and a cousin of the inventor of the electric telegraph, Samuel F. B. Morse. This lady died a few years after their marriage, leaving two sons, both of whom are now also dead. He married again, his second wife being a sister of his former one, and a native of the same place. This lady’s Christian name is Mary A., and she is still living. The second marriage was solemnized July 4, 1830, at Haverhill, Mass., and the newly wedded pair immediately started to their home, then in the somewhat distant West. The fruit of this union was eight children, all of whom reached maturity and most of whom are now living. These are — Ruth, the wife of William Porter; Mehitable, John M., the subject of this sketch; Edgar S., who died at Hilton Head, S. C., during the late war, being a member of the One Hundred and Fourth Pennsylvania regiment. Union Army; Harriet, wife of Offin B. Marshall; Jennett, wife of Sydney Newman; Sylvester E. and Charles.

John M. Bayley, himself, married in Honesdale, Wayne county, Pa., October 30, 1860, his wife being Adeline A., daughter of Lester Phelps and Margaret (Cooper) Adams. Mrs. Bayley’s parents moved from Washington county, N. Y., to Wayne county, Pa., in 1830. Her father was a native of Troy, N. Y., and was by turns a farmer, tanner, shoe-maker and turner, a man of considerable mechanical genius and an industrious, hard-working citizen. He was killed in a turner’s factory in Sterling, his home, Pa., in 1864, being then in the sixtieth year of his age. Mrs. Bayley’s mother was born in Red Hook, N. Y., and is yet living, having attained the great age of eighty-three and being at present a member of her daughter’s household. Mrs. Bayley is herself one of a family of eight children, the full list in the order of their ages being as follows — Maria, wife of John Edwards; Henry N., Enoch N., John A., Thadeus Z., Adeline A. (Mrs. Bayley), Lester V., Aurelius Sylvester and Margaret T., wife of Amasa Megargill. Of Mrs. Bayley’s brothers all but one served in the Union Army — John A., in the One Hundred and Fourth Pennsylvania, Henry N., Thadeus Z. and Aurelius Sylvester in the One Hundred and Thirty-seventh Pennsylvania, and Lester V. in the Third Pennsylvania.

Mr. and Mrs. Baylev are the parents of five children, whose christian names are — Hattie, now deceased, Lester W., John A., Mabel A. and Nettie E.

It would be robbing this sketch of much of its value and denying a good woman her just deserts to fail to record that much that Mr. Bayley is and much that he has is due to the efficient help of his wife, who has willingly seconded and materially aided him in all his labors, bearing all and more than her full share of their common
burden. She is not only a lady of great industry and intelligence, but she possesses culture and refinement, having been in her young womanhood a teacher for some years and still retaining in her later life her taste for the studies of her youth. Like all of her sex she is kind-hearted, ever ready to help the sick and the afflicted, ministering in times of need with her own hands to the wants of others. Her pleasant home is open to friend and stranger alike and she dispenses therefrom a warm and generous hospitality.