1921 Duluth & St Louis County MN, Van Brunt.pdf - Garon.us

DULUTH AND ST. LOUIS COUNTY 795
discharged faithfully all the duties of citizenship and is always found
backing worthy measures.
Mr. Staver married, August 24. 1895, ]\Iiss Margaret Newhardt, of
a neighboring county of Ohio, and their only son is Byron E., a graduate
of the Virginia High School, who was a student at the University
of Cincinnati three years, and had been in the Officers' Training
Camp at Camp Zachary Taylor for two weeks when the war ended.
William Thomas Bailey was one of the makers of history in northern
Minnesota due to his prominent associations with the great lumber
industry centering at Duluth. The business which he founded
and of which he was president many years, the W. T. Bailey Lumber
Company, is still in existence, and for many years comprised great
holdings of timber land and a complete organization of mills and all
other facilities for production from the stump to the final market.
The late Mr. Bailey was of English ancestry, and the family in
England spelled the name Bayley. His parents were James Joseph
and Catherine C. Bailey, the former a native of England and the latter
of Canada. James Joseph Bailey came when a young man to Canada,
and located at Baylysboro in Ontario, where his son, William Thomas,
was born September 22, 1842. After the discovery of gold in California
James J. Bailey started for the Pacific Coast, and probably met
a violent death, since he was never heard from again. At the age of
ten William Thomas Bailey was an orphan. He had to support
himself by his own industry and resourcefulness, but in spite of early
limited advantages in school he kept his mental horizon broadening
with successive years through reading and intimate contact with men
and affairs. He eventually took up railroad work, and for a number
of years was purchasing agent for the Northwestern Railroad with
headquarters in Chicago.
In 1880 he came to Duluth. but it was his resourcefulness as an
organizer, as an executive and a shrewd business man that enabled
him to achieve prominence 'in the lumber industry rather than the
possession of extensive capital. His operations grew and j^rospered
from a modest scale until the William T. Bailey Company became one
of the largest operating in northern Minnesota. W'hilc the headquarters
of the company were at Duluth, its mills and logging oj)erations
were carried on over a large scope of country. Some of the
most extensive mills and manufacturing operations of the business
have long been maintained at Virginia, where Richard Roberts Bailey,
son of W. T. Bailey, has had his business headquarters since 1896.
William 1'homas Bailey at the age of seventy-two, and with many
mature achievements to his credit, died on ]\Iarch 31, 1914. He was
a Repui)lican in i^olitics. a faithful member of the Presl^vterian
Church, was affiliated with the Masonic Order and the Independent
Order of Odd l^'ellows and was dee])ly devoted to home and family.
Many recall him for his deep interest in blooded horses, and he had
one of the finest stables around Duluth. June 25. 1873. he married
in Michigan Miss Reliecca Roberts, daughter of Richard and Rebecca
(Roberts) Roberts, of C^ttawa county. Michigan. Her father was a
prominent lumberman. The three children born to their marriage
were William Tlmmas. Jr., Richard Roberts and Reln-cca.
Richard Romkris li.\iLi;s-. a son of the late William T. Bailey, of
Duluth. has been a resident of N'irgiir'a since 1896 and in a large and
important degree has been the executive successor of his father in the
lumber industry of St. Louis Countv.