2nd great-grandfather of Norma Overton

Farrier and Blacksmith    Co. H    6th MI Cavalry
Dates of Service:  11 Oct 1862 - 26 May 1863 

Gilbert G. Bailey was born in 1827 to Joseph and Sophia Denison Bailey of Somerset, Niagara County , New York . Gilbert was the third oldest of the seven living children (5 boys and 2 girls).  
 
The oldest brother, Sluman, along with their Uncle John Shafer came to Michigan Territory in 1845 to purchase approximately 500 acres of land for the Bailey family; this was back when Grand Rapids was knows as “The Rapids.” Most of the acreage purchased was on East Paris Road which is now located in the city of Kentwood .  
 
The Baileys were a very close-knit family. After Sluman purchased the land, one by one all of the Bailey children including their parents moved into the Grand Rapids area settling in and around East Paris , Michigan . By 1855 Gilbert had purchased 80 of the 500 acres, south of Sluman’s property just west of his brother Freeborn’s property. He and his new bride Mary Starbuck Bailey built their farm and raised four children (a son James and three daughters, Harriet, Susan, and Delia).  
 
On his farm, Gilbert bred and sold draft horses, processed sugar cane, and maintained a blacksmith and woodworking shop. His skill as a blacksmith proved beneficial to the Union Army after the Civil War broke out. Four generations moved in and out of the Bailey homestead before it was sold. Today only the house remains.
 
At age 35 Gilbert enlisted in the 6th Michigan Cavalry unit in October of 1862. In the spring of 1863 he was promoted to blacksmith/ferrier for the Union officers. He was stationed at Meridian Hill encampment which was close to Washington DC . As blacksmith/ferrier he traveled back and forth from the encampments caring for the Cavalry horses. Life living in the encampment brought plenty of sickness to many of the soldiers. Gilbert himself was overcome with chronic dysentery. Letters back home to his wife states he enlisted in the Cavalry weighing 180 pounds and by the spring of 1863 he had dropped to 130 pounds. Gilbert had to be mustered out in May 1863 because of ill health.
 
Besides his farm, my great-great-grandfather was an excellent cabinet maker/woodworker. He and his son James owned a small woodworking business called “Bailey & Son,” which was located near James Street in downtown Grand Rapids , Michigan . In later years he lost his right eye from some type of inflammation. He died in 1922 at the age of 95 at the home of his daughter Susan who lived in Ypsilanti , Michigan . His body was brought back to Grand Rapids and buried at Oak Grove Cemetery .  At one time East Paris was going to be named Baileyville.  Today part of the acreage owned by my Bailey family is known as Bailey’s Grove.
 
I am proud to say that I have in my possession my great-great-grandfather’s pocket watch, a handkerchief box he made for his daughter-in-law, copies of his mustering-in papers and his promotion to Chief Ferrier, and numerous letters written to and from Gilbert G. Bailey during the Civil War. 

GRAVESITE: Oak Grove Cemetery, Grand Rapids, Kent Co., MI
Written by Norma Overton, July 2003