Alexander-Crawford Historical Society

Description

Jacob and Almira (Craft) Bailey are here before their Airline Road home sometime between 1890 and 1906. They raised ten children in this high-posted cape. Some would call it a center chimney cape and the chimney size indicates it was heated by stoves, a great improvement over the fireplaces of a generation earlier.

Note the banking boards around the foundation. Between the boards and the cut granite foundation Jacob would have placed sawdust, pine needles or leaves to keep the wind out.

Jacob was a great grandson of the Nathaniel Bailey whose name adorns the sign that reads "Welcome to Baileyville." This house sits on land Jacob's father Nathaniel acquired from the Bingham Estate interests in 1844. It was within a hundred yards of the Alexander town line.

Jacob (born February 2, 1829) and Almira (born September 28, 1843) were married in Alexander on May 25, 1862.

Almira's parents were Samuel and Ann (Peters) Craft. Samuel and Ann had a son Reuben and three daughters. Three Craft sisters married three Bailey brothers; Elizabeth married Nathaniel, Emma married Ben, and Almira married Jacob.

In 1906 Jacob and Almira sold and moved to North Anson to be near their children. Jacob died on April 29, 1914 and Almira on June 18, 1925.

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