Untitled Surnames: Kezar, Fisher, Sheak, Palmer, Marsh, Bevins, Jones, North, Gear, Wright, Phillips, Burnside, Buell, Cobb, Barrett, Kirkpatrick, Miller, Munden, Dennis

From Commemorative Biographical Record of the Counties of Rock, Green, Grant, Iowa and Lafayette, Wisconsin, publ. 1901- page 193-194

ARIEL K. BAYLEY, long and favorably known in his section of Grant county in his connection with stock and dairy farming, was born in the town of Massena, St. Lawrence Co., N.Y., in 1830, son of Ariel K. and Lucinda (KEZAR) BAYLEY, both natives of the old Empire State. The father was born in 1797, and the mother a few years later.

Our subject's grandfather, Elijah BAYLEY, was born in 1771, married Amanda FISHER, who was born in 1777, at Rutland, Vt. Elijah BAYLEY settled at Mussena, on the St. Lawrence river, in the town of Massena, St. Lawrence county, where he followed lumbering all his life. His son (1) Ariel K. was the eldest of ten children, of whom are mentioned; (2) Ezekiel Fisher was drowned in the St. Lawrence river when a young man. (3) Betsy, born in 1800, married a Mr. SHEAK, and moved West to Davenport, Iowa, where she died, leaving four daughters. (4) Loren was killed on the St. Lawrence river. He left one daughter, who is living in Iowa. (5) Hosea was drowned while rafting on the St. Lawrence. (6) Olive, born in 1814, married A. PALMER, and came West to Platteville, Wis., where they both died years ago, leaving a family of five children. (7) Fisher, born in 1823, came to Platteville, and in company with a Mr. MARSH established the first weekly paper published in that place. In 1849 he sold out his paper and started to cross the Plains, but was taken sick with cholera, and died at St. Charles, Neb. (8) Elijah, born in 1811, came West with a team to Rock Island, Ill., when a young man, and on reaching that point traded his team for some real estate. As a school teacher he received twenty-five dollars a month in that city, and after a year in the school room he went to New Buffalo, Iowa, and was a merchant for a time. Selling out there, he traveled through Texas, selling goods from house to house, accumulating in this way a large quantity of Texas script, for which years after he received dollar for dollar at Washington, D.C. Soon after he moved to Platteville, Wis., then a mining camp, and started a general store in 1836. Mr. BAYLEY prospered in this last venture, and became very wealthy. He married Caroline BEVINS, daughter of Dr. BEVINS, of Platteville. She died before her husband, who was killed by a vicious bull on Christmas Day, 1879. Two daughters were born of this marriage, both deceased - Nora, who was the wife of David B. JONES, of Chicago, and Miss Annie, who died at Clifton Springs, N.Y., where she was stopping for the benefit of her health. Leslie, Elijah BAYLEY's only son, died when a young man.

Ariel K. BAYLEY, our subject's father, married, in New York, Miss Lucinda KEZAR, who died in that State, leaving two children, Ariel K. (whose name introduces this article) and Charles. The latter came West with his uncle, Elijah BAYLEY, for whom he clerked a number of years in his store at Platteville, Wis. Charles BAYLEY married a young lady from L Crosse, where he lived a number of years, and then went to California for the benefit of her health. While there she died, and Mr. BAYLEY returned to Wisconsin, marrying for his second wife Miss Emma NORTH, of Oshkosh, Wis. Soon after their marriage they settled in Oakland, Cal., where he was killed by the kick of a horse in 1899. No children were born to the first marriage of Charles BAYLEY, but to his second union were born the following: Leslie, Emma, Annie, and Harvey. Leslie is a gunner on board the United States battleship "Oregon," and was in the harbor of Manila at the time of his father's death.

Ariel K. BAYLEY, the father of the Lima farmer and dairyman, married for his second wife Miss Cornelia GEAR, and they came West to La Crosse in 1858. Mrs. BAYLEY died in 1872, and Mr. BAYLEY made his home with his son at Lima until his death, in 1880. To this second marriage was born one daughter, Henrietta, a native of St. Lawrence county, N.Y., where she is now living; she married William WRIGHT, and they have one daughter.

Ariel K. BAYLEY, whose career is the subject proper of this writing, was educated in the public schools of St. Lawrence county, N.Y., and while growing up worked with his father, who was a sailor on the lakes and the St. Lawrence river. When he was eighteen years old he shipped from Kingston to Oswego, and from there to Milwaukee and Chicago. The young man made his way through the country to Galena, and walked from there to Platteville, Wis., where his two uncles, Elijah and Fisher BAYLEY, and his grandmother were living. Here he found work, and plenty of it, first by the month on the farm of Henry PHILLIPS, near Platteville, and then for some years lumbering and steamboating on the Mississippi. While engaged on the river he made his home at Davenport, Iowa.

Mr. BAYLEY and Miss Hester BURNSIDE, of Davenport, Iowa, formerly of Ohio, were married in 1857, and located at Platteville, Wis., where they lived for three years while he was working for his uncle Elijah. In 1860 Mr. BAYLEY purchased the William BUELL farm, in the town of Lima, Grant county. The place had received some small improvements, and under Mr. BAYLEY's energetic management it has been brought into a fine condition, with ample buildings and modern equipments, including a large Pennsylvania barn. Here the home of Mr. BAYLEY and his family have been established and maintained for more than forty years, and here this estimable couple have reared a family of seven children: (1) Millie, born in October, 1860, married Lee H. COBB. For some years they lived in Iowa, and in 1900 came back to Grant county to rent and occupy the old homestead of the BAYLEY family. They have one daughter, Gladys, who was born in Iowa. (2) Carrie, born in Grant county in 1862, married Henry BARRETT, and lives in Pocahontas county, Iowa. They have a family of six children, Leslie, Pearl, Francis, Burr, and Ira and Inez (twins). (3) Ernest A., born in 1864, married Augusta KIRKPATRICK, and lives on a rented farm in Clifton, Grant county. They are rearing a family of three children, Viola, Lee and Ariel, the third of the family to bear that name. (4) Pearl, born in 1866, married Miss Mary MILLER, of Lima, Grant county, and resides on his farm, which adjoins the old homestead. They have two children, Jennie and Frankie. (5) Luella, born in 1868, married William MUNDEN, and has her home in Pocahontas county, Iowa. She is the mother of five children, Maud, Roy, Carrie, Ora, and Hester. (6) Agnes, born in 1870 is the wife of Lee DENNIS, of Lima, Grant county. (7) John, born in 1875, is living at home, and is unmarried. Mr. BAYLEY's children were all educated in the public schools of Grant county. Agnes had a course at the Normal School at Platteville, and was a teacher in the Grant county schools for a number of years.

In politics Mr. BAYLEY has been a Republican, and he has been a member of the town board some years. In religion he and his wife were reared in the Congregational Church, with which they have always been associated. Mr. BAYLEY came to Wisconsin when Platteville was but a hamlet and the surrounding country a wilderness. A vast improvement has been wrought in the Northwest in his lifetime, and he has been in no unimportant sense a factor in the progress toward a higher civilization that has been achieved. He has been a prominent factor in the social and industrial life of the town of Lima for forty years. Although denied the benefit of a liberal education when young, he is a close student of affairs, and is a liberal and broad-minded man. A generous spirit and an upright character have made him hosts of friends.



This biography generously submitted by Carol Holmbeck