Chester County PA Archives Biographies.....Joseph BAILY, 1810-
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File contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by:
Sandra Ferguson [ferg@ntelos.net]


from Futhey and Cope's History of Chester County (1881)

   JOSEPH BAILY, son of Jacob and Elizabeth (Parker) Baily, 
and a descendant of Joel Baily, was born in Pennsury township, 
near the Brandywine battle-ground, March 18, 1810. He worked 
on his father's farm until he was sixteen years of age, when 
he was bound apprentice to the hatting business. At the 
expiration of the term of his service he spent a year at the 
boarding school of John Gummere, in Burlington, N.J., paying 
for his own schooling. His funds being then exhausted, in the 
spring of 1832, instead of going home to live on the bounty of 
others, he packed up a smalll bundle of clothing and started 
out to seek his fortune among strangers. He soon obtained work 
at his trade near Plainfield, N. J., and there earned the first 
money he could lawfully call his own. After traveling over the 
country and working at many places, he finally started a shop 
of his own in his native village of Parkerville. Urged on by 
the force of an indomitable will, he pursued his business 
successfully for a number of years, when, in the fall of 1839, 
he was elected a member of the House of Representatives of 
Pennsylvania from CHester County, and in 1842, was elected to 
the Senate from the district embracing Chester, Delaware, and 
Montgomery Counties. His colleagues from the district were Dr. 
Huddleson of Delaware, and Abraham Brower, of Montgomery. At 
the expiration of his senatorial term, in the spring of 1845, 
he purchased a blast-furnace, with a large tract of land 
attached, on the Juniata, in Perry County. He moved thither, 
and was soon engaged in the manufacture of iron. He pursued 
this business with great diligence and success for a number 
of years, when in 1850, he was again elected to the Senate 
from Perry and Cumberland Counties. After the expiration of 
his second term in the Senate he was elected State treasurer 
by the Legislature, and in 1860 was chosen to represent the 
Fifteenth District, composed of the counties of Perry, 
Cumberland and York, in the United States Congress, to which 
he was re-elected in 1862.
   Up to this time, Mr. Baily had acted with the Democratic 
party, ans as soon as Congress assembled in 1861 he urged his 
Democratic colleagues, who had been left in a hopeless minority 
after the Southern members had treacherously abandoned their 
posts, to take a determined and bold stand in enacting prompt 
measures to crush out the Rebellion.
   Guided by his own better judgement, he cordially joined the 
noble band of patriots who rose up in defense of the country, 
and the most important act of Congress, the adoption of the 
thirteenth amendment to the Constitution, declaring slavery to 
be forever abolished and releasing more than four million 
people from bondage, received his active and cordial suppport. 
At the expiration of his second term in Congress, on the 4th 
of March, 1865, he again retired to private life, but in 1872 
he was elected oneof the delegates to represent the counties 
of Perry, Cnyder, Northumberland,and Union in a convention to 
amend the State Constitution.
   Mr. Baily has now passed the term of threescore and ten 
years, yet he still takes a lively interest in everything 
calculated to promote the welfare and happiness of his fellow-men.



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http://files.usgwarchives.net/pa/chester/wills/b/baily-j1.txt