Bayley, James

James Bayley, one of the earliest pioneers of Troy, Oakland county, passed quietly away about 8:30 p. m., on Sunday, May 1, 1887, at his late residence in Birmingham. He was born in Scipio, Cayuga county, New York, July 7, 1802, and was at the time of his death eighty four years, nine months and twenty four days old. His father, Isaac Bayley, and his mother, were from Windsor county, Vermont, and settled in Scipio, where his father died when the subject of this notice was four years old. At the age of twelve he was given his clothes and began life for himself. At first he engaged in the manufacture of harness and saddlery; at fourteen to eighteen at the tanning and currier business, for which labor during these years he received his board, clothes and instructions in those trades. During the next three years he was enabled to lay by from his earnings a sum sufficient to come to Michigan in April, 1824, to buy lands for a homestead. After viewing lands in several townships in Oakland county he located the east half of the southwest quarter and the west half of the southeast quarter of section 21, town 2 north, range 11 east, on May 10, 1824, and returned to New York. On January 20, 1825, he married Miss Dorcas Pearsall, daughter of Michael Pearsall, of his native town, with whom he lived sixty two years, three months and eleven days, and who still survives him. Of those who were present at their wedding, there are still living Mrs. Betsey Alexander, Mrs. Philbrick, sisters, and Henry and Sherman Pearsall, brothers of Mrs. Bayley, and Benj. Daniels. Of these Mrs. Alexander and Mr. Daniels were present at the funeral. His early education was obtained at the district schools of those early days; yet with the advantages of a private library to which he had access, and by observation, associations and experiences, few men of his advantages were better informed of public men, measures and affairs of the state and nation than he. In April, 1825, with his wife, he bade farewell to relatives 124 and friends in his native town, and came to Michigan, settling early in May upon those lands he had purchased from the government the year previous. Mr. and Mrs. Bayley have had six children born to them; one son at the age of twenty one was drowned, two infant twins, a son and daughter, died when nearly two years old. Two sons, Volney and Adams, and one daughter, Clarissa, Mrs. William Dennison, are still living. In 1830 he was induced by Phineas Davis, of Detroit, to remove there and take charge of a tannery and currier establishment, which he conducted with marked ability about three years, when he returned to his farm and commenced with renewed energy to improve it, until he had the satisfaction of receiving from his brother farmers the unqualified commendation of having one of the best appointed and cultivated farms in the county. Mr. Bayley has been president of the Oakland county and State Agricultural societies, member of many of their committees, an influential and prominent member of those societies, to whom he gave his counsel and material aid in their infancy, continuing the same until he
relinquished his active farm life. He became a member of the Baptist society in Troy in 1837. His parents before him were zealous Baptists, and the son walking in the steps of the parents, became a consistent, active and influential member of the society. At the spring election in 1839 he was elected supervisor, in 1849 justice of the peace, in 1864 to the house of representatives; in 1860 he was appointed farm superintendent of the State
Agricultural College at Lansing, which office he held for three years with credit to himself and material profit to the institution and state. Finding the perplexities and arduous duties were taxing him excessively, and his health failing, he resigned his position and returned once more to his farm in Troy in February, 1863, where he remained until 1868, when he purchased a residence in Birmingham where he removed and resided until his death. These very early pioneers of the county and state are rapidly passing away. They silently drop out of the line and soon no land marks will remain to remind us of those whose brain and muscle felled the forests, built our schools, churches, public improvements, etc., etc., and made it possible to sustain the present population of this beautiful peninsula state.