The Biographical Dictionary of America/Bailey, Wesley

BAILEY, Wesley, reformer, was born at Fayetteville, Onondaga county, N. Y., in 1808. son of Elijah Bailey, who for some years preached and edited a religious paper in that town. When a young man he assisted in editing his father's paper, and prepared himself for the ministry, to which he was subsequently ordained. In 1845 he was induced by a number of the prominent abolitionists of Utica to remove to that city and establish a newspaper devoted to the cause in which they were enlisted. This resulted in the Liberty Press, which soon won recognition throughout the country as a leading organ of the liberty party of that day. After the political campaign of 1848 in which the journal vigorously supported the Van Buren Free-Soil ticket, Mr. Bailey changed the name of his paper to that of Teetotaler, and entered earnestly into the support of the total abstinence movement. He served for several terms as the chief executive officer of the order of the sons of temperance, then a powerful organization, and was one of the founders of the Republican party. In 1856 he was a candidate on the Fremont state ticket for state prison inspector. In 1860 he removed to Decorah, Iowa, and in company with one of his sons, A. K. Bailey, established the Republican, a successful paper. Another son, E. Prentiss Bailey, afterwards became editor of the Utica, N. Y., Observer. Wesley Bailey died Feb. 26, 1889.