< CLICK HERE to RETURN TO 1878 BIOGRAPHICAL INDEX >
< CLICK HERE to GO to LIST of BIOGRAPHICAL INDEXES >

	HON. JOEL BAILEY.  Probably the oldest settler now living in Delaware County, and who for forty years has been closely identified with its growth, development and present prosperity, is a native of Middlefield, Otsego County, New York; he was born Jan. 6yh 1814, and is consequently now 61 years of age.  By the death of his last surviving parent he was left an orphan at the age of 9 years; five years later when in his 15th year, he went to live with an older brother, who taught him the trade of making gun barrels; about this time he had an opportunity of studying surveying which he gladly embraced thus early securing a thorough knowledge of this valuable profession, which has been of great service to him through life; in the fall of 1835, he left the scenes of his childhood's joys and sorrows, the dingy, smoky shop, where with blackened hands he had toiled many a weary hour, and traveling toward the sunset, landed in Milwaukee, when that now flourishing city was scarcely a respectable hamlet, and boarded through the Winter at the first hotel, which was in the first frame house built in that place, and was kept by a half-breed and his squaw wife; in the Spring of 1836, he attached himself to a party of government engineers, and spent six months surveying on Rock River without seeing a single cabin, white settler or other signs of civilization.  In the Spring of 1837, he came to Iowa with a party of Government engineers, and assisted in surveying the south half of Delaware County, and parts of Dubuque and Buchanan, and in Jan., 1838, returned to Milwaukee.  The following Spring, in company with John and Cyrus Keeler, who were from Delaware Co., New York, he returned to Delaware Co., Ia., where they made claims and built a cabin on the banks of the South Fork of the Maquoketa River, at what is now known as Bailey's Ford.  They "bached it," as it was then called, and broke some twenty aces of prairie; the first breaking of any considerable amount at that time done in the county.  Their only neighbor within ten miles was J. W. Penn who had made a claim some four or five miles east of them.  Judge Bailey was active in the organization of Delaware County; was one of the committee who selected the location for the county seat, and the present town of Delhi, and was the first County Surveyor, which position he has repeatedly filled.  In April, 1844, he married Miss Arabella Coffin, daughter of Judge Clement Coffin, of Coffin's Grove.  This union was blessed with several children, their eldest, Clement James, being the first white child born in Milo Township.  In 1849, he was employed in the Government survey on the Shellrock and Cedar Rivers in Iowa.  Becoming infected with the California fever in 1850, he made the overland trip with a four horse team from Council Bluffs to the coast in seventy-five days.  He remained in California about one year and experienced the pleasures, privations and various vicissitudes of changing fortune, which were the common experience of all who in those early days visited that fabulous land of gold.  He returned to Iowa in 1851, by the way of Panama, Kingston and New York.  The next year he was elected School Fund Commissioner for Delaware Co., and during his term of office sold most of the school lands in the county.  In the Summer of 1854, he was engaged in the Government survey on Root and Canon Rivers in Minnesota, and in 1855, in the northern part of Wisconsin on the head waters of the Chippewa River.  That same Spring, he was commissioned Postmaster at Bailey's Ford, then a stopping place on the stage line from Dubuque to Independence.  Since then he has held the office of County Treasurer, Recorder and County Judge, and has been twice elected Mayor of Manchester where he now resides.  Judge Bailey is one of those genial, warm-hearted men who are loved and respected by all who know them intimately and well. Two-thirds of his somewhat eventful life has been spent here, and could a more extended and minute account of his life-struggle be written, it would reveal many interesting incidents and a pretty accurate history of the progress and growth of the county which has so long been his home, and where he has freely given the vigorous strength of his youthful manhood and the more matured wisdom of advanced years in accelerating its development and securing its future prosperity. Source:  The History of Delaware Co., IA - Illustrated - Publ. Chicago: Western Historical Company - Successors to H. F. Kett &  Co., 1878 - Page 566
	Milo Twp. - JACOB BANTA, Farmer; Sec. 15; P. O. Manchester; born in New York State 1830; moved to Pennsylvania in 1840, and to this county in 1866; married Miss Asenath Altemburg in 1852; has three children living and two deceased - Matthew, born Aug. 30, 1856, died Nov. 26, 1870; Mary, born Dec. 3, 1858; Abram born May 17, 1863, died Nov. 10,1877; Fanny Viola and Frances V., born Oct. 27, 1866; Frances V. died Sept. 9, 1877.  Mrs. B. was born in Chautauqua Co., N.  Y., Oct. 13, 1832. Source:  The History of Delaware Co., IA - Illustrated - Publ. Chicago: Western Historical Company - Successors to H. F. Kett &  Co., 1878 - Page 615
	Milo Twp. - DANFORD K. BELDING, Far.; Sec. 33; P. O. Manchester; owns 80 acres of land, valued at $25 per acre; born in St. Lawrence Co., N. Y., Aug. 24, 1840; came to Clayton Co., Iowa, in 1855; and to this county in 1865; married Miss Rebecca A. Joslin Dec. 25, 1867; she was born in Crawford Co., Penn., June 6, 1842; has one son, born Dec. 1, 1870; enlisted in Aug., 1861, in 2d Iowa Cav.,; spent most of his time on detached duty in hospital service; was honorably discharged Oct., 1864; is a Republican and Protestant. Source:  The History of Delaware Co., IA - Illustrated - Publ. Chicago: Western Historical Company - Successors to H. F. Kett &  Co., 1878 - Page 616