bayleyl
Transcribed from "An Illustrated History of The Big Bend Country, embracing
Lincoln, Douglas, Adams and Franklin counties, State of Washington",
published by Western Historical Publishing Co., 1904.
LESTER S. BAYLEY, deceased.
Born in the state of Ohio, October 25, 1852, Lester S. Bayley as a child
crossed the plains with his parents and settled in Oregon. Educated
at Corvallis and later at the Catholic school for boys at Vancouver, as
well as at a business college in Portland, he then went into southern California
where he was engaged in the sheep business until he returned to Oregon
and came on to Medical Lake, Washington, in 1878. He first settled
on a preemption claim near Medical Lake, then came to the mouth of Hawk
creek on the Columbia river where he filed on a homestead and while maintaining
a residence on his claim he conducted a sawmill. His was truly a
pioneer family in that locality, and until two years after their locating
there, Mrs. Bayley was the sole white woman nearer than Fort Spokane.
The place where they located is now Peach, formerly known as Orchard Valley,
Washington. Mr. Bayley at one time owned the entire flat at the mouth
of Hawk creek, but owning to business reverses he lost heavily, so that
all the land that was saved from his creditors was a quarter section upon
which the family now makes its home. While still in the prime of
life, full of pluck and energy, and striving to repair his previous losses,
Mr. Bayley was stricken by pneumonia fever, and died January 30, 1900.
He was well known over a great portion of this state and Oregon, and universally
liked and respected.
The family has one hundred and sixty acres
of land in an ideal location for fruit growing, about thirty acres of which
is in orchard and under irrigation, a large and comfortable house, commodious
barn, outbuildings, and so forth, including a large building used as a
fruit dryer.
The father of Lester S. Bayley was Dr. J.
R. Bayley, a native of Springfield, Ohio, born in 1820. Dr. Bayley
was educated in the east and crossed the plains to the Willamette valley,
Oregon, settling at Lafayette in 1855. He was ever an active and
influential man politically, and was repeatedly honored by office.
He was elected to the legislature in 1856, removed to Corvallis and while
there he was elected county judge of Benton county and re-elected in 1864.
He was a Mason of high standing, and widely known all over the state.
He died in 1901. His wife, the mother of our subject, was Elizabeth
(Harpold) Bayley, born in Ohio, 1834, and died in 1899.
On March 16, 1881, Lester S. Bayley was married
to Amelia Denney, a native of Bremer county, Iowa, and daughter of William
H. and Mary J. (Kern) Denney, and granddaughter of Joseph Denney, who is
still living in Bremer county at the extreme age of ninety-six. William
H. Denney was born in New England, removed at an early age to Bremer county,
came to Walla Walla in 1878, and thence to Medical Lake the following year,
where he is still living at the age of sixty-seven. Mrs. Bayley's
mother died in 1897, in her fifty-ninth year. Mr. and Mrs. Denney
were parents of fourteen children, twelve of whom are living, Enice M.,
Lydia J., Joseph W., Mrs. Bayley, James H., Huldah A., Hattie R., Eddie
O., Addie M., Merten P., Emery W., and Reuben R. Those dead are,
Enorettie and Ettie M.
Mr. and Mrs. Bayley have been parents of seven
children, James W., Marcus L., Emery S., Bertie, deceased, Mary Elizabeth,
Ida A., and Hazel M.
Mrs. Bayley is a member of the Loyal Americans
and of the Royal Highlanders.
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