Elder Joseph Bailey, of Paruna, Okla., died in the hospital in Wichita last Friday. His health had been failing for the past few years and a few days ago he was taken to Wichita where he died. His death was caused by internal diseases.

He was a preacher of the Christian church and has been in active service for the past 35 years, having been the means of the conversion of over 1,500 souls.

He took sick at his home at Paruna a week or so ago and was taken to the hospital to be operated upon but the operation was not performed.

At the time of his death he was 72 years old. His third wife and 16 children survive him. One son, Dr. H. T. Bailey, of Courtland, Arizona, Mrs. Joseph Bailey and two other sons were present at the funeral.

The corpse came in on the train Saturday and was held over till Sunday afternoon. The funeral was held Sunday afternoon, at the Methodist church, Rev. Tanksley of the Christian church officiating. Interment was made in the Protection cemetery.

We desire to thank our friends and neighbors for their kindness and heartfelt sympathy rendered us during the illness and death of our beloved husband and father, Joseph Bailey of Paruna, Okla. Mrs. Joseph Bailey and children, and Dr. H. T. Bailey.

My great granddad, the Reverend Joseph S. Bailey was born August 8, 1850 in Tompkinsville (Monroe County) Kentucky. His parents were John Gilliam Bailey and Sarah McMurtrey Bailey. His grandad Bailey was Callum Holman Bailey, an American Revolutionary War patriot who is buried in Barren County, Kentucky.

At the age of sixteen he met and married Jane Ray Harlan. This marriage resulted in the birth of a son, J. Rice Bailey. This marriage dissolved before December 1870 when he married Eleanor Thompson, my great grandmother. Eleanor Thompson and Joseph ( Josephous) Bailey were married by John Newton Mulkey on December 12, 1870 in Clay County Tennessee. Reverend Mulkey was one of the early leaders of the Christian Church in Monroe County Kentucky area. It is believed Joseph began his devotion to preaching the message of the Christian Church around 1866.

By 1875, Josephous and Eleanor moved to Elk Creek, Texas County, Missouri where he continued his circuit riding ministry, often riding on a mule. The Baileys raised six children among whom my granddad, Dr. Jacob N. Bailey, was the next to oldest. Their farm included 120 acres for which Josephous paid one dollar and twenty five cents an acre. He entered into a contract with the Stark Brothers Tree Company in 1892 for 1,000 apple trees. On Sept. 18, 1889, Eleanor died and is buried in the Price Cemetery in Elk Creek. Missouri.

On April 15, 1890 he married a third time to Rosa Belle Shipman and they raised seven children from this marriage. The Baileys remained in Elk Creek Missouri thru April 1910 as they are listed on the federal census. Sometime after that date they moved to Paruna, Oklahoma where he continued his preaching of the message of the Christian Church.

On June 19, 1913 Joseph S. Bailey died in a Wichita, Kansas, hospital and his obituary appeared in The Protection Post on June 26, 1913. Today his obituary is posted on the Comanche County Kansas web site under a listing of those interned in the Protection Cemetery, Protection, Kansas. The obituary states that he served the Christian denomination for 35 years and brought over 1500 people to this faith. The Reverend R.H. Tanksley performed the funeral service.

His wife Rosa moved by 1920 to Tulsa where she died. In May 2005, a Bailey family reunion was held in Houston, Texas, and descendants of each of the three marriages were in attendance.

I have 26 years of Bailey family research available for anyone linking to Reverend J.S. Bailey.

Submitted by:

Jacob Talley Bailey
988 Reynolds Road
Chepachet, Rhode Island 02814

Notes:

Reverend Tanksley served, among other churches, the Wilmore Church of Christ, which was affiliated with the Disciples of Christ denomination.

The Bailey Surname Message Board at RootsWeb

Disciples of Christ: Google search results for the search string: "Disciples of Christ" +history.

Search terms: Josephous S. Bailey, Josephous Bailey, Josephus Bailey, Joseph S. Bailey, Joseph Bailey, J.S. Bailey, Joe Bailey, Joe S. Bailey, Reverend Bailey, Reverend Josephous Bailey, Reverend Joseph Bailey, Elder Bailey, Elder Josephous Bailey, Elder Joseph Bailey, Elder Joseph S. Bailey. The preceding search terms are those which a person might use to search for information on this person; the list includes variations on his name for which there is no documentation that Reverend Bailey actually used.

Thanks to Shirley Brier for finding, transcribing and contributing the above news article to this web site and to Jacob Talley Bailey for the biography!

This RootsWeb website is being created by HTML Guy Jerry Ferrin with the able assistance of many Contributors. Your comments, suggestions and contributions of historical information and photographs to this site are welcome. Please sign the Guest Book. This page was created 1 October 2004 and was last updated 23 February 2007.