SOME NOTES ON THE BAILEY FAMILY OF
GRANVILLE, BARCLAY AND BERNICE

….leading to Kenneth Lynn Bailey, who married GLADYS MAUDE McCARTY

by David Bailey
April 2006

 

 

HENRY MURRAY BAILEY was the adopted son of Rodolphus D. Bailey and Annette Marvin, born 12 Jul 1873 in or near Granville Township, Bradford County, Pennsylvania, died 12 May 1941 in Bernice, Cherry Township, Sullivan County, Pennsylvania, buried in the cemetery in Monroeton, Bradford County; married, 25 Oct 1893, Delphine “Della” Powers, daughter of Henry Samuel Powers and Ellen Tyler Sloat of Leroy, Bradford County, in or near Leroy, 25 Aug 1878, died in Johnson City, Broome County, New York, 5 Sep 1951. Buried in the Monroeton cemetery.

 

            Henry was adopted at an early age by the Rodolphus Bailey family of Granville, Bradford County. (Family tradition has it that Henry’s birth surname was Murray.) Rodolphus Bailey, born 17 Feb 1835, was the child of Samuel Bailey and Adeline White. Rodolphus’ wife, Annette Marvin, was the child of Ebenezer and Ovanda Marvin of Granville.

 

 

 

 RODOLPHUS AND ANNETTE (MARVIN) BAILEY

 

            Henry grew up with at least three step-sisters, possibly a fourth. In the Federal Census of 1880 we find:

 

            Bailey, Rodolphus         WM     45                              farmer

            Annette                        WF                  wife                keeping house

            Vanday                        WF      16        daughter        housework

            Mattie D.                      WF      14        daughter        at school

            Henry M.                     WF        7        adopted son   at school

            Phebe                           WF        2        daughter

 

            Earlier family papers list Ovanda (who would be Vanday), Mattie (later Mrs. Solomon Lindley) and Marion, who was the eldest but left home before 1880. We do not know who Marion married, but know she was alive as of 1920, when she sent “Brother Henry” a postcard of her house in Troy, a house which remains standing to this day:

 

 

 

            Rodolphus Bailey grew up in Leroy, Bradford County where he learned the shoemaking trade from his father. After following that profession for twenty-eight years, he took his family to Granville and became a farmer.

 

            Henry Bailey probably grew up on the farm in Granville. After finishing whatever school was available, he set out on his own to land a job with the Greenwood Tannery which was based in Greenwood (now Powell), just west of Monroeton in Bradford County. Prior to his marriage, and possibly for a time thereafter, he worked at an outpost of the tannery at Foot of Plane in nearby Overton Township. Foot of Plane was a logging station on the Barclay Railroad. His duties there would have been to log and strip the trees of their bark. The bark would be then used in the tanning process. The Romance of Old Barclay includes Henry as a resident, as well as Henry, George, Will and Ira Powers and Jim and Frank Shedden, all related by marriage. After Henry and Della married in 1893, he worked primarily in Greenwood at the tannery itself.

            Though now a relatively unpopulated area with little in the way of large industry or trade, this data from Bradsby’s History of Bradford County, Pennsylvania (1891) will show how thriving the community of Greenwood was in the mid-to-late nineteenth century:

 

            Greenwood Tannery (Powell) is owned by Thomas Procter and Jonathan Hill. There are 75 acres connected to the plant and 15,000 acres of timberland are owned in Sullivan and Bradford Counties. Contracts are also held for bark on 11,000 acres of lad at Foot of Plane. They have 10,000 cords of bark on hand.

 

- 458 tanning vats

- 13 coolers, each 8 feet deep and 8 foot diameter

- 16 leaches that hold 16 tons of ground bark each

- 100 men working in the tannery

- 50 men working full time in the woods

- 3 cars of leather shipped each week

-  their supply of hides is the African Buffalo hide from Calcutta

- they make only sole leather

- 12,000 tons of bark used each year

- 25,000 hides tanned each year

 

            Before 1910, but after 1900 (Census Reports), the family moved to Bernice (now part of Mildred) in Sullivan County, where Henry took a job working for the Connell Mining Company. He worked a laborer in the mines until 1920 when he suffered leg injuries in a cave-in which would incapacitate Henry for the rest of his life. He stayed on at Connell as a night watchman. The Bernice house in which they lived is one of the few which remain standing, being next door to that occupied by Paul Striney and his wife.

 

 

      HENRY AND DELPHINE (POWERS) BAILEY

 

 

       THE BAILEY HOUSE IN BERNICE (C.1920)

 

……….AND IN 1990

 

            Delphine “Della’ Powers was the youngest in a family of eight. Her father, Henry Samuel Powers was born 20 Sep 1836, died 6 Dec 1915; married, 24 Aug 1861, Ellen Tyler Sloat, born in Black Walnut, Pennsylvania, 30 Mar 1836. As of the 1880 Census, the family was living in LeRoy, Bradford County. Henry Powers worked on the coal chutes at the mines near LeRoy. Della’s brothers and sisters include Milly (later Hedden), Ide May (later Champlin), George Emery “Cap,” Frederick, Lewis “Doc,” William and Ira.

 

 

HENRY SAMUEL POWERS AND ELLEN TYLER SLOAT

 

            It is interesting to note that the 1910 Census indicates that not only was the Henry Bailey family living and working in Bernice, but so was Della’s sister, Ide May and her family. Ide May ran one of the local boarding houses and her husband, Elmer Champlin, worked in the mines.

            After Henry’s death in 1941, Della stayed on for a time in Bernice, later moving to Johnson City, New York to live with her son, Kenneth.

            Henry and Della Powers had three sons; Lester (1894-1957), Carl (1898-1972), and Kenneth, who married GLADYS MAUD McCARTY.

            It is worth observing here that Carl Bailey married Beatrice Jane Black, the daughter of Professor Moses R. Black, superintendent of the Sullivan County Schools, and his wife, Ada Shaffer.

 

 

       PROFESSOR MOSES R. BLACK AND PUPILS
(date unknown)

 

KENNETH LYNN BAILEY, was the third child of Henry Bailey and Delphine Powers. He was born in Bernice, Sullivan County, 28 Mar 1903. Kenneth began working in the mines at an early age and married, at age 22, GLADYS MAUD McCARTY, in Lincoln Falls, Sullivan County, 20 Jun 1925.

            They soon moved to Johnson City, New York where Kenneth began working for the Endicott Johnson Shoe Company, rising to the level of Superintendent of the Pioneer Factory before retiring. Though possessing but a third grade education, he had an uncanny ability to add large numbers of figures in his head. Kenneth was also involved in the Endicott Johnson softball league and the EJ Workers Chorus. He was a much beloved employee.

 

        THE CREW AT THE PIONEER FACTORY
(KENNETH BAILEY AT CENTER, WHITE SHIRT)

 

            Following Gladys’ death in 1965, Kenneth went to live with his son, Ken Jr.’s family, first in North Chili, New York, then Springfield Virginia, where he died 21 Jun 1969. They are buried together in Riverhurst Cemetery, Endwell, New York.

            Information on Gladys Maud McCarty is found at The McCarty Heritage, Part Two.

 

KENNETH LYNN AND GLADYS MAUD (McCARTY) BAILEY

 

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