Dr. R. G. Bailey, probably the oldest and one of the best known citiens of Charlottesville, died at his rooms on Main street yesterday afternoon after a protracted illness. The immediate cause of death was gangrene.
Dr. Rice Garland Bailey was born in Albemarle county in 1812, about four miles from Charlottesville. He practiced dentistry in early life, but was afterwards in business in Charlottesville and then at the University. In 1861, at the breaking out of the war, he went into service with the Monticello Guard, Company A, Nineteenth Virginia Infantry, two of his sons being in the same company. After serving one year, he was discharged, being at that time nearly 49 years old.
He then became proprietor of the Central Hotel in Charlottesville, but moved to Richmond a few years after the war, where he became proprietor of the St. Charles Hotel, which he kept for some years. About ten years ago he returned to Charlottesville, and has been engaged in business here, up to the time of his last illness. He was an honest man and in all his transactions with his fellow man, tried to act honestly. Those who knew him best can testify to his correctness in all of his business transactions.
Some weeks before his death he made a profession of religion an connected himself with the Episcopal church and just before he became unconscious, he told a friend that he was perfectly resigned to die whenever his Master called for him. His death was calm and peaceful and his life ebbed away so quietly that it was difficult to see exactly when he died.
He was buried from the Episcopal church this afternoon at 5 o'clock, his old comrades of the Monticello Guard acting as pall bearers and attended by the John Bowie Strange Camp of Confederate Veterans. The interment was at Maplewood.
He leaves three sons, R. W. Bailey of Washington D.C., J. N. Bailey of the Chesapeake and Ohio Railroad, and Forrest C. Bailey, a member of the police force of Richmond, and two daughters, Mrs. L. M. Hart of Richmond, and Miss Clyde R. Bailey of West Virginia.