Sacramento County
Biographies
JOSEPH
BAILEY
JOSEPH BAILEY, mason, contractor and builder. A few years after the second war, namely, June 6, 1823, there was born to Levi Bailey, mechanic, of the goodly city of Portland, Maine, and to his wife, Mary Winship, a son, the fourth in a family of six children. This son was Joseph Bailey, the subject of this sketch. The homely surroundings of his childhood did not prevent his receiving the rudiments of a substantial education, nor did it interfere with that essential to the life of every New Englander,—a trade; that was a part of their religion, and for seven long years he served his master as an apprentice, at the expiration of which period, as can be readily understood, he was an expert mason. For two years he continued to work as a journeyman in his native city, and then removed to the “Hub,” as the Bostonians are wont to term their metropolis. It is proverbial that the real live Yankee must see the world, and the subject of this sketch was no exception to the rule, for he spent two years in traveling, after which he returned to his native State, lured by who shall say what memories! Suffice it, that the records show that in May, 1848, in the little country town of Westbrook, in Cumberland County, Maine, were married, Joseph Bailey to Miss Juliet M. Trott, who for over forty years since that May morning has been his companion, sharing the disappointments and enjoying the triumphs of nearly half a century; of her qualities of head and heart, of her housekeeping, and of her piety can more be said than that she had a New England mother! Mr. Bailey continued to reside in Westbrook until 1853, at which time he came to California, where he arrived with his family on the 24th of March. The first bricks that he laid here were in the construction of what is now the Bee office, Third street, between J and K streets. And the first plastering was on the southwest of Third and K streets, owned by P. Scheld, Third and K streets; he had a contract on the Western Hotel, Reed’s Block, Sacramento Bank building, No. 3 Engine House, Second street, the Clunie building, which was first occupied as a carriage factory by the late William Pritchard, and during the administration of Governor Booth he superintended the finishing of the State Capital building. For thirty-two years Mr. Bailey has resided on O street, in his commodious brick residence; here his children, Joseph W. Bailey and Mattie E. Bailey, wife of F. L. Southack, of San Francisco, grew up about him, and here he is spending the declining years of well-spent life, respected and honored by his acquaintances and loved by his friends..
Transcribed by: Jeanne Sturgis Taylor.
Davis, Hon. Win. J., An Illustrated History of
Sacramento County, California. Pages 709-710. Lewis
Publishing Company. 1890.
© 2007 Jeanne Sturgis Taylor.