Bailey, Ozias

Born: 1811-07-31 Salem, New Hampshire

Died: 1889-10-12 Methuen, Massachusetts

Ozias Bailey was a shoemaker, merchant, state legislator, and railroad director. Bailey originally worked as a shoemaker in New Hampshire before moving to Bloomfield, Illinois, where he opened a small store. In 1850, he was working as a merchant and owned real property valued at $4,000. Bailey represented Edgar County in the Illinois House of Representatives for one term from January 1851 to June 1852. Bailey eventually started a meat-packing business in Clinton, Indiana, and began investing in land in the West. He moved to White Cloud, Kansas, during the 1850s to manage his investments. In addition to his business and land interests, Bailey became a director of the Indiana and Illinois Central Railroad in May 1857. In 1858, he began another packing business near White Cloud and opened another small store. In 1860, Bailey was involved in the pork-packing business and owned real property valued at $100,000 and had a personal estate of $58,000. In 1862, Bailey purchased the White Cloud, a small, side-wheel steamship, and operated a ferry at town of White Cloud until the steamer became unfit for travel. Bailey was originally a Democrat but joined the newly-formed Republican Party because of his opposition to the Kansas-Nebraska Act.

The Weekly Kansas Chief (Troy), 23 November 1893, 6:7, 9:9, 11:1; John Clayton, The Illinois Fact Book and Historical Almanac, 1673-1968 (Carbondale: Southern Illinois University Press, 1970), 217-18; Daily Illinois State Journal (Springfield), 19 May 1857, 2:1; Daniel Fitzgerald, Ghost Towns of Kansas: A Traveler's Guide (Lawrence: University Press of Kansas, 1988), 6; U.S. Census Office, Seventh Census of the United States (1850), Edgar County, IL, 181; New Hampshire, U.S., Birth Records, 1631-1920 (Lehi, UT: Ancestry.com Operations, 2021); U.S. Census Office, Eighth Census of the United States (1860), Doniphan County, KS Terr., 188; Massachusetts, U.S., Death Records, 1841-1915 (Provo, UT: Ancestry.com Operations, 2013).