by Patten, Anna Bailey.

See previous entry: Little Home Histories, Part 02 -- Old Residence (of Jesse Bailey).

Jesse Bailey was born 1-1-1815. He was the third son of Jesse Bailey Sr. and Phariba, his wife. He married Asenath Patterson, who was born 7-4-1820 -- daughter of Silas and Rachel Patterson, who came from Deep River, North Carolina in 1808. Silas' parents came from England. His mother, Elizabeth Patterson, was a minister in the society of Friends and traveled extensively in that service. At one time she rode horseback from Belmont County to North Carolina.

Jesse and Asenath were married in 1837 at Stillwater Meeting House and went to house-keeping in a very primitive way in Somerset Township near the present Union Church. The house had no glass for windows and they used oiled paper. They lived here six months when Jesse's mother, Phariba, died. Then they went to his father, Jesse Bailey Sr. home to keep house for him, on the farm now owned by Ross Bailey, a grandson of Jesse and Asenath. They lived in the hewn log house built by Jesse Sr. pictured and described on page 215 of the book Our Ancestors the Stantons. They lived here ten years. Here Silas, Sarah, and John were born.

From this home they moved to Asenath's mothers farm on Long Run. Here they lived in the log house where her parents had lived and where Asenath was born. They lived in this house while building a two story frame house close by. Part of the old log house still stands. Here on this farm Lindley, later called L.P., Allen, Rachel and Mary were born. The latter two died in infancy and Sarah in her twenty-first year.

By the new house they dug a well, drew the water by windlass and wooden bucket. This well was only ten feet deep but has never been known to go dry. It now has an iron pump and produces an abundance of good water.

As a child I used to stay at Grandfathers a good deal. My mother was not very strong and often sick and as I was too young to help at home, Grandmother would take me to her home. I loved to stay their with them. I well remember the spring-house just on the other side of the house from the well. I can see yet the trough through which the water flowed from the spring above. This trough was filled with stone crocks of milk and cream. Here Grandmother churned and made the rolls of good butter, part of which she exchanged for groceries in Barnesville.

There was no cellar under the house but just a little beyond the springhouse was a cave built in the side of the hill where they kept their fruits and vegetables.

Each room of the house downstairs had an open fireplace and how cozy on a long winter evening to sit beside the open fire. Long years after this we lived in this home and here our son was born. In the old kitchen there was a large wood fireplace with a crane on which to hang the large iron and brass kettles. I remember the big kettles of apple-butter Grandmother used to make there, stirring it with a long apple-butter stirrer until it was thick and so well cooked it kept without sealing. It was put in large stone jars and a cover of muslin tied on. There were no glass fruit jars in those days.

Just a little ways down the lane a large creek "Long Run" crossed the road and how I used to love to wade in that creek. Sometimes I would fall down and get wet but that didn't seem to worry me. They had to drive across this creek to get out to the public road and sometimes when the creek was high they would have a little trouble.

Just a little way above this home, on the "Goshen Road" there stood in the edge of the woods a little school house and here my father, L.P. Bailey and his brothers and sister went to school. Father use to show us children where the school house stood and tell us of his first day in school. He had never been used to sitting still and it wasn't easy for him. In the afternoon of his first day he commenced rolling his slate pencil on his desk saying, "rolly, rolly", unconscious that he was disturbing others until the teacher spoke gently to him. After he was through school here he attended boarding school at Mount Pleasant, Ohio and when through there taught in the same little school where he rolled his pencil.

Just about a quarter of a mile below the home, on the same farm, stood a little house just where the road turned off the Goshen road, crossed the creek and turned up the hill to the Sandy Ridge road about a half mile further up the hill. In this little house, with a big outside stone chimney, each of Jesse and Asenath's four sons, when he married, took his wife there and made it their home until they located elsewhere. This was called the weaning house.

The "Long Run" home of grandfather's was two and one-half miles from Stillwater Meeting. The road -- as all roads were in those days -- was bad during much of the year, but Jesse and Asenath were always in their accustomed seats at meeting twice a week unless prevented by sickness. Asenath Bailey was one of the most remarkable women belonging to Stillwater Meeting. She was a recommended minister of that meeting. She had very little education, as schools were not close to her home and her father dying when the children were very young, her mother was not able to give the children much schooling. But when she would rise to speak in meeting, her strong voice and earnest pleading attracted the attention of all her listeners and made them feel that the voice of God was speaking through her to them. She visited other meetings and often went to prisons to speak to the convicts. Once, while on a religious visit to Iowa, she felt a call to speak to the prisoners in the State Penitentiary at Animosa and I have been told by one who accompanied her that she spoke so earnestly, pleading with them to lead better lives, she held the attention of all the prisoners and there was scarcely a dry eye when she finished her sermon.

As Jesse and Asenath grew too old for the duties of a farm, their youngest son Allen and family moved to this home from the "weaning house" and the farm is still owned by his family. Jesse and Asemath moved to a home on the Sandy Ridge road about a quarter of a mile from the Stillwater Meeting Mouse. There they spent many happy years. With their horse and the old carriage they went to meeting and visited their children and friends. They were active in the meeting and loved by all who knew them.

Asenath's crippled sister Elizabeth and their niece "Lib" Patterson live with them in this home. "Lib" was faithful in caring for them in their declining years. Jesse died in 1898 and Asenath in 1905 and were laid to rest side by side at Stillwater.

Source: Written by Anna Bailey Patten (Daughter of L.P. and Elizabeth S. Bailey; Granddaughter of Jesse & Asenath Bailey)

See next entry: Little Home Histories, Part 04 -- Joel Bailey.

For the table of contents and first entry in this series, please see: Little Home Histories, Part 01 -- Table of Contents and Introduction.

This entry is adapted from Little Home Histories in Our Early Homes, Belmont County, Ohio, which was published in 1942. Its publication was coordinated by Robert D. and Beulah Patten McDonald. This entry has been reedited for inclusion in the Pierian Press Fulltext eBooks database, and is included on the Stratton House Inn Website by special permission. This entry is licensed for use ONLY on this Website. It may be used for educational purposes and personal pleasure under fair-use provisions via this Website. Please note that the Stratton House Inn iteration of this entry does NOT include the subject headings assigned each chapter for use in the Fulltext eBooks database.

DATABASE: Fulltext eBooks: Copyright (c) 2002 The Pierian Press, Inc. All Rights Reserved
ENTRY NUMBER: EBK30013703

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