Mingo County, West Virginia    Biography of Reese G. BAILEY

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Submitted by Valerie Crook, <vfcrook@trellis.net>, April 1999
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The History of West Virginia, Old and New
Published 1923, The American Historical Society, Inc., 
Chicago and New York, Volume III, pg. 77

REESE G. BAILEY has become one of the influential fig-
ures in the coal-mining industry in Mingo County, and,
with headquarters at Williamson, the county seat, he is
president of the Bailey Pond Creek Coal Company and the
Bailey Thacker Coal Company, the mine of the former
company being on Pond Creek in Pike County, Kentucky,
one mile distant from Williamson. The mining operations
of the Bailey Thacker Coal Company are carried on within
the corporate limits of Williamson.

Mr. Bailey claims the historic Old Dominion State as
the place of his nativity and is a representative of families
there founded many generations ago. He was born on his
father's farm in Tazewell County, Virginia, February 15,
1877, and his parents, George C. and Eliza C. (Gillespie)
Bailey now reside in the City of Richmond, that state, the
father having retired after many years of successful asso-
ciation with farm industry and the tanning business.
George 0. Bailey is now (1922) seventy-eight years of age
and his wife sixty-eight, both being members of the Meth-
odist Church. Mr. Bailey gave four years of loyal service
as a Confederate soldier in the Civil war, since the close of
which he has continuously given his allegiance to the re-
publican party. Of their ten children all are living except
one, the subject of this sketch having been the second in
order of birth.

The public schools of his native county afforded Reese G.
Bailey his early education, which included a course in the
Tazewell High School, which he attended until he was
nineteen years of age. Thereafter he was in the employ
of the United States Bridge Company, his service being in
connection with the construction of the crib or wooden
work on bridges erected for the Norfolk & Western Rail-
road. He continued in the employ of this company nine
years and did much work in connection with the extension of
the lines of the Norfolk & Western into the coal fields of
West Virginia, his final service having been in the capacity
of bridge foreman. Mr. Bailey next became actively asso-
ciated with coal mining, and for six years was a contractor
in getting out coal for the Springton Coal Company on
Widemouth Creek, near Matoaka, Mercer County. As a
contractor for the American Coal Company he passed the
ensuing eleven years in coal production on Cram Creek,
Mercer County. During this latter period he was also en-
gaged successfully in contract mine-construction work. In
1919 Mr. Bailey transferred his field of operations and
came to the Mingo District, where he purchased the busi-
ness and property of the Black Diamond By-product Coal
Company. Later he organized the two companies of which
he is now president, and both are in successful production
of coal. In the World war period Mr. Bailey served as a
member of the United States Fuel Administration, and was
influential in creating a large production of coal—a work
of major importance in that climacteric period. His eldest
son, W. Gruver Bailey, entered the United States Army in
June, 1919, and is serving in the coast artillery at the
present time. Mr. Bailey is a progressive and liberal citi-
zen, takes active interest in public affairs in his home county
and city, and is a staunch advocate of the principles of the
republican party.

In the year 1896 was solemnized the marriage of Mr.
Bailey and Miss May Hawkins, daughter of Thomas Hawk-
ins, of Tazewell County, Virginia, and the children of this
union are four sons and four daughters. The attractive
family home, known for its generous hospitality, is in the
City of Williamson.