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History in
a Pecan Shell
Bailey dates from the 1850s, when the slightly rolling but extremely
rich soil attracted cotton and corn farmers.
Unlike most towns in Texas that were
named to honor an individual person or took the name of the first
settler, this town had a rivalry between two physicians. Doctor A.
J. Ray and Doctor Josiah S. Bailey both wanted the town named after
them, but before it came to bloodshed, the St. Louis Southwestern
Railway settled the matter by taking the right-of-way offered by Bailey
(in 1885). The town was granted a post office in 1887. Bailey had
a population of 300 by 1900 along with most essential businesses and
an early “picture show.”
Bailey reached its high-water mark in the mid 1920s with 350 people.
The population declined during the Depression and WWII
and by the mid-1950s it was down to just under 200. Bailey remains
agricultural although cotton and
corn have long since given way to cattle raising and small grain cultivation.
Bailey had 220 residents in the late 1980s which has since declined
to the present 213. |
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