Gaston, Joseph.  "Portland, Oregon Its History and Builders."  Vol. 2. 
Chicago and Portland, S. J. Clarke Publishing Co., 1911. p. 688.
 
JOSEPH BAILEY
 
     The hour glass has marked off forty-one years since Joseph Bailey was
called to his final rest, but he is yet remembered by many of the old pioneers
and early settlers of Portland and he was numbered among those who laid broad
and deep the foundation upon which , the present progress and prosperity of the
city has been built. His youthful days were also spent amid pioneer environment
for he was born in Iowa, January 2, 1831, when that state still formed a part of
the territory of Wisconsin and was largely an unsettled and undeveloped region,
the Indians far outnumbering the white residents within its borders. His parents
were James and Margaret Bailey, the father a farmer by occupation who sold his
interests in Iowa and came to Oregon in 1853, his death occurring in Portland.
 
     Joseph Bailey pursued his education in the primitive schools of Iowa and
followed farming in his early manhood. In 1853, however, when twenty-two years
of age, he made the long and arduous journey across the plains with ox teams to
the northwest, and when he reached this section of the country secured work in a
sawmill at Long Beach. He invested what money he had in that enterprise and lost
it all. Later he became one of the first stockholders of the Oregon Steamship &
Navigation Company and had charge of a number of men hauling timber to build the
railroad. He acted as superintendent of the building and under his direction was
constructed a part of the first railroad in Oregon. He was connected with this
almost to the time of his death but sold his interests a short time before his
demise for thirty-one thousand dollars.
 
     At the Cascades, on the 24th of January, 1864, Mr. Bailey was united in
marriage to Mrs. Barbara A. Clary, a daughter of John W. and Sarah (Tate)
Stephenson. Her father was born in Kent county, England, and acquired a good
education at a London college. He came to America about 1830, being at that time
twenty-six years of age, his birth having occurred in 1804. Settling in
Illinois, he bought a farm in Edwards county and was there married and made his
home until 1853, when he started over the plains with his family, consisting of
his wife and six children. They left Illinois on the 4th of April, and reached
Oregon on the 8th of October, having the usual experiences of those who day by
day wended their weary way over prairie and plain, forded rivers and crossed
mountains, until the valleys of the Columbia and Willamette were reached. He
took up his abode near Cape Horn, where he secured a homestead, there remaining
until his death, which occurred in 1871. His wife, who was born in
Northumberland, England, in 1812, survived him until 1889. In their family were
six children: John W., of Cape Horn; Mrs. Barbara Bailey, of this review; Mrs.
Rebecca Wells, a widow living in Portland; George, deceased; Mrs. Sarah Chase,
of Oregon City; and Jane, the wife of Arthur Miller, of Sellwood.
 
     Mrs. Bailey became the mother of ten children. She was married twice and
unto her and Mr. Bailey were born four children: Etta, the deceased wife of John
Kahaley; Grant, who is connected with the railroad department of the Oregon
Railway & Navigation Company, which his father helped to build, and who married
Mrs. Putnam; Ida M., the wife of Thomas Gamble, of Portland, by whom she has
three children, Helen, Lucy and Margaret; and Frederick, of Vancouver, who is
county surveyor of Clarke county, Washington, and married Dora Aliskey, by whom
he has one daughter, Barbara. Mrs. Bailey's first husband was Captain J. B.
Clary, who was born in the south, March 9, 1824, and came to Oregon in 1852. He
was a steamboat man and died March 12, 1862, his remains being interred at
Vancouver. They were the parents of six children. One daughter, Mrs. Olive
Swafford, of Washington, has six children, William, Frederick, Mary, Eva, Ida
and Helen. Lola M. is the wife of Dr. Harry Lane, a former mayor of Portland,
and has two daughters, Ida and Harriett. Katie is the wife of Captain Loomis and
the mother of five children, Lola, Eva,. Rose, Sadie and Royal. Of these Eva is
the wife of George Hayner and they have one daughter, Flavill, who is a
great-grandchild of Mrs. Bailey.
 
     Mr. Bailey was well known to all the pioneer settlers of Portland. He was a
strong republican in politics, giving active support to the party until his
demise. His position was never an equivocal one. He stood loyally in support of
the principles in which he believed and was regarded as a man of many sterling
traits of character. Mrs. Bailey has lived at the corner of East Tenth and Alder
streets for over forty years. Her home is one of the landmarks of that locality
and for fifty-seven years she has lived in Portland and vicinity, the history of
which is therefore largely familiar to her.
 
 
This same biography also appears in the following book:
 
"Portland The Rose City, Pictorial and Biographical"
S. J. Clarke Publishing Co.; Various compilers; 1911
Vol. 1, Page 363
 

*******************

Submitted to the Oregon Bios. Project in January 2013 by Diana Smith. Submitter
has no additional information about the person(s) or family mentioned above.