George M. Bailey
BAILEY, George Milroy, journalist and capitalist, was born in Ogdensburgh, N.Y., Oct. 8, 1862, son of Roswell C. Bailey, a descendant of the Puritan, Joseph Bailey, who died in Scituate, Mass., in 1701. The son was educated at the common schools of Lockport, N.Y., started to learn the printer's trade in 1876, and in 1879 went to New York city, where he worked at his trade for three years.
In 1883 he enlisted as a private in the engineers' battalion at West Point, and at the same time taught soldiers in the night school, besides doing extra duty as printer at Gen. Howard's headquarters. He left the military service, however, in a few months and embarked on a newspaper career which, by this time, he conceived to be his vocation. In 1885 he went on the reportorial staff of the New York "Star," and later joined that of the "Herald." In 1886 he removed to Buffalo and became assistant city editor of the "Morning Express."
While occupying this important post Mr. Bailey conceived the idea of representing a syndicate of American newspapers as correspondent at the approaching Paris exposition. His enterprise and energy were such that he finally made satisfactory arrangements with fourteen leading journals, sailed for France in 1889, and remained in Paris until the close of the exposition, his letters meanwhile enlisting a widespread interest on account of their brilliant descriptive power and graceful style.
Returning to the United States in 1890, Mr. Bailey became strongly impressed with the phenomenal growth of some of the lesser American cities, and being especially interested in Buffalo, he decided to make a careful investigation into the causes of that city's splendid development. As a result, within a short time he published "Ten Years in Buffalo," which first appeared in the newspapers, and subsequently was produced in pamphlet form, reaching a sale of over 500,000. Since then he has written additional articles, all bearing more or less upon the same subject. As a direct result of the extensive circulation of these expositions of Buffalo's resource, the city's manufacturing and investment interests have been largely benefited.
Mr. Bailey himself has been an influential factor in the formation of numerous joint- stock companies, having organized eleven during the period from 1890 to 1894 with an aggregate capital of $2,000,000. He is president of the Bailey investment company, of the Buffalo-Marion land company, and of the Niagara Falls tunnel land company; vice-president of the Hudor lithia company, of the J.J. George furniture company, and of the Buffalo-Depew land company; secretary of the Oatman produce company, and of the Depew terminal land company. He is also a director in the Gatling ordnance company of New York city, the Art tile soda fountain company, the Lehman shoe company, and the Richardson brick company; is a member of the Buffalo real estate exchange, and was the founder of the suburb of Gatling, eight miles from Buffalo.
Mr. Bailey was married to Olivia P. Ball of Cleveland, O., formerly a missionary to the Seneca Indians from the Presbyterian board of foreign missions. He is a trustee of the West avenue Presbyterian church of Buffalo, and publishes a successful monthly paper, entitled the "Buffalo Presbyterian News," which is the official organ of forty-three churches in western New York.
The National Cyclopaedia of American Biography,
[New York: James T. White & Company, 1907]
(Buffalo and Erie County Public Library, reference section), vol. 5, page 354.