Changes

Jump to navigation Jump to search
4,685 bytes added ,  23:07, September 15, 2017
Created page with "{{Infobox officeholder |name= William B. Bailey |image= |order= |office= Mayor of Lafayette, Louisiana, USA |term_start=1884 |term_end=1892 |predecessor= |successor..."
{{Infobox officeholder
|name= William B. Bailey
|image=
|order=
|office= [[Mayor]] of Lafayette, [[Louisiana]], USA
|term_start=1884
|term_end=1892
|predecessor=
|successor=
|party=[[Democratic Party|Democrat]]
|birth_date=July 27, 1838
|birth_place=Lafayette, Louisiana, USA
|death_date= {{death date and age|1896|7|26|1838|7|27}}
|death_place= Lafayette, Louisiana
|resting_place=Saint John Cemetery in Lafayette
|spouse=Nellie "Nella" Queen Bailey (married 1866-1896, his death)
|children=Five daughters
|alma_mater=
|profession=[[Journalist]]
|religion=[[Roman Catholic]]
|footnotes= 
}}

'''William B. Bailey''' (July 27, 1838 &ndash; July 26, 1896)<ref>Dates taken from gravestones at Saint John Cemetery in Lafayette, [[Louisiana]]</ref> was a [[journalist]] and [[politician]] from his native Lafayette, [[Louisiana]]. In 1865, he co-founded  what is now the ''Lafayette Daily Advertiser''' and from 1884 to 1892, he served as the [[mayor]] of Lafayette.

Bailey was the son of the [[Tennessee]]an William Bailey and the former Sarah Clark, a native of St. Landry Parish in South Louisiana. He served the duration of the [[American Civil War]] for the [[Confederate States of America|Confederate]] [[Army]], having fought in the [[Seven Days Battles]], [[Battle of Harper's Ferry|Harper's Ferry]], [[Second Battle of Bull Run|Second Bull Run]], [[Battle of Fredericksburg|Fredericksburg]], [[Battle of Gettysburg]], and the [[Battle of the Wilderness|The Wilderness]]. On September 9, 1863, he was captured by the [[Union Army]] and held prisoner until June 1864. He then returned to Confederate service served under [[General]] [[Robert E. Lee]] until the surrender at [[Appomattox Court House]]. He returned to Lafayette, then known as Vermilionville (but not in Vermilion Parish, on June 26, 1865, having walked the entire distance from [[Virginia]].<ref name=bio>{{cite web|url=http://www.lahistory.org/site16.php|title=Bailey, William B.|publisher=''Dictionary of Louisiana Biography]] by the Louisiana Historical Association|accessdate=May 8, 2016}}</ref>

Prior to the war, he had been apprenticed as a printer. He co-founded the ''Lafayette Daily Advertiser'', originally the ''Lafayette Weekly Advertiser,'' which published its first issue on September 22, 1865, five months after the close of the war. Bailey  was the sole proprietor and editor of the paper from 1868 to 1893. Like most former Confederates, he was a staunch [[Democratic Party|Democrat]] who editorially opposed the [[United States Army]] for its support of [[Republican Party|Republican]] administrations at the state, pre-1877, and national levels.<ref name=bio/>

Bailey supported [[immigration]] and internal improvements at federal expense. He was a vocal critic of violence during the [[Reconstruction]] era. After his mayoral term, he was appointed on an interim basis by [[Governor]] Murphy J. Foster, Sr., to fill a vacancy as the clerk of the district court for Lafayette Parish.<ref name=bio/>

In 1866, he wed the former Nellie (also called Nella) Queen (1847-1917). The couple had five daughters; one, Clara, died in infancy after her birth in 1867. Another, Nellie Bailey Fournet (1875-1999), died before her 25th birthday. Three other daughters were Cornelia Bailey Roy (1868-1947), Louise Geralde (born 1872-date of death missing), and Elizabeth Bailey Mouton (1881-1922).<ref name=bio/><ref name=findagrave/> Bailey died on a Sunday morning of heart disease but had been in apparently sound health the day before when he had returned from a leisurely trip to Galveston on the Gulf Coast of [[Texas]]. He died the day before his 58th birthday. He is interred at the [[Roman Catholic]] Saint John Cemetery in Lafayette, along with his wife, who lived another twenty-one years after his passing, and four of their daughters.<ref name=findagrave>{{cite web|url=http://findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GRid=145204305|title=William B. Bailey|publisher=Findagrave.com|accessdate=May 8, 2016}}</ref><ref>The Louisiana Historical Association cites these sources for its brief biography of Bailey:  William Henry Perrin, ed., ''Southwest Louisiana Biographical and Historical (1891; reprint ed., 1971)''; ''Goodspeed's Biographical and Historical Memoirs of Louisiana'' (1892); Donald J. Hebert, ''Southwest Louisiana Records'', Vols. VIII-XIX, and ''Lafayette Weekly Advertiser'', with Bailey's obituary published August 1, 1896.</ref>

==References==
{{reflist}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Bailey, William B.}}
[[Category:Louisiana People]]
[[Category:American Civil War]]
[[Category:Democrats]]
[[Category:Journalists]]
[[Category:Mayors
[[Category:Catholics]]
Block, Upload, Automoderated users, edit, move, protect, rollback
57,799

edits

Navigation menu