James Squire Bailey, Sr

https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/219713939/james-bailey

https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Bailey-1060

It was to James Bailey's that his aunt, Phoebe Belcher Clay, fled with her surviving children after the Indians had massacred two of her children and kidnaped her son, Ezekiel.

James became part of the pursuit party. They followed the Indians, and the next morning, came upon where the Indians had met with another raiding party with horses and had camped for the night. The ashes of the campfire were still warm. The two parties had taken different routes, so they followed the horse tracks, believing that the captive would be with the horses. When they overtook the Indians, two Indians were shot and killed, but the captive was not with that group. After taking up the other trail, it was decided that they could not overtake the Indians, so they returned to the Clay house to bury the two children.

After returning to James Bailey's home, Mitchell Clay, James Bailey and James Moore decided to go to the Indian town (Chillicothe) and try to ransom Ezekiel. When they reached the Indian town, they saw the smoke from the stake still burning and that Ezekiel was dead. The Chief of the town loaned Mitchell Clay a horse to take his son's body back home.

When the Indians were finally driven from southwestern Virginia, settlers began to buy land and establish farms and homes on their former hunting and camping grounds. Dave Morgan, dissatisfied with his farm on Dave's Branch, sold it to James Bailey about 1814. Morgan had lived on the place for around ten years and improved it by building a dwelling house and farm buildings, clearing fields for cultivation, etc.

James moved his family from the head of Bluestone River and settled in the year 1806 two miles below Baileysville. James moved his family to a farm on Daves' Branch in Wyoming County, Virginia. The party was made up of wagons drawn by horses, loaded with household and farm gear, tools, supplies, personal possessions, and several slaves. The actual distance to travel was not great but the trip took up several days of tiresome, hard work. For some distance there was a makeshift road, narrow and rough. At Bailey's Branch on the Indian Ridge trail this road ended, and the trail could scarcely be seen through the brush. James directed the unloading of gear and dismantling of wagons, sending the slaves ahead with axes to chop out a passage way. The wagon parts were rolled and carried along this way to a point where they could be reassembled, then gear and supplies were carried to the wagons and again loaded, which added greatly to the labor and fatigue of already difficult travel and consuming extra days. James was 48 at this time.

In 1821-22 James patented two tracts of land on the Guyandotte River, later the John Bailey place. He cleared more fields and built up a prosperous plantation of moderate size. He knew how to do every job on the place; was a substantial farmer, stock raiser, blacksmith and respected citizen.

According to the Virginia Land Office Patents and Grants, James Bailey (or his son, James) received a grant of 300 acres of land on Little Huff's Creek in Logan County on November 4, 1832, Grants #81, page 296. He was a Grist Mill Operator before 1830.