bailey

Fannin County TXGenWeb

Bailey Handbook of Texas Online -Bailey First Baptist Church of Bailey

Around 1860, Doctor A. J. Ray bought land and settled in

the northern area of the town that is today called Bailey. Dr. Ray had an office, a store & a blacksmith shop. Around the same time period, Doctor Josiah. S Bailey bought land &

settled south of Dr. Ray - there soon arose a little rivalry

about naming the town & local legend claims the two divided the area with barbed wire. The northern section was called

Ray & the southern section was called Bailey. The town remained divided until the Cotton Pacific Rail came to town runnning from Commerce to Sherman & Dr. Bailey donated land for right-of-way. Afterwards, the town became known

as Bailey.In the early 1900's, Bailey had a population pretty close to twice the population today of about 125 residents. Bailey is located at the junction of two state highways,

SH 11 (about midpoint between Sherman & Commerce)

& SH 78 (about midpoint between Greenville & Bonham).

The Caldwell Family of Bailey (and also an Hubert Caldwell's trophy given to all the basketball players at Bailey School by there coach in 1931.)

Close to a century ago, Bailey had:

a post office
a bank (Continental Bank was established before 1890, sold to First National Bank between 1910-1918, then sold to Bonham State Bank)
school (first 2 storied structure built in 1890's, later in 1915 a brick building became the new home of education in Bailey, Bailey's school had the first gymnasium in Fannin County built in 1930 and was first to offer a free lunch program in the county)
Two churches - First Baptist Church (originally called Corinth Church) organized May 28, 1888

and the Bailey Methodist Church founded by Dr. Bailey & his wife
The Lambert House Hotel
a barber shop
two wagons for peddling chickens
printing office
dry goods store
millinery shop where ladies could buy new hats
picture show
couple of grocers
and what's a rural 19th century TX town without

a saloon? Bailey had one of them as well.

Bailey was incorporated July 26, 1933.

Ashley Masonic Lodge               Chartered on December 12, 1889, this was the seventh
                  Masonic lodge organized in Fannin County. The first
                  official meeting occurred in January 1890, in a
                  two-story frame building which the lodge shared with the
                  Baptist church.
                  In 1912 the lodge purchased a separate building in downtown
                  Bailey. The second floor was reserved for lodge meetings,
                  while the first floor was leased to a variety of retail businesses.
                  That structure burned in 1950, and Ashley Lodge members
                  met in the Grove Hill Lodge in Leonard until a new building
                  was completed in 1952.

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