William B. Bailey

William B. Bailey
Mayor of Lafayette, Louisiana, US
In office 1884–1892
Personal details
Born	(1838-07-27)July 27, 1838 Lafayette, Louisiana
Died	Lafayette, Louisiana
Resting place	Saint John Cemetery in Lafayette
Political party	Democratic
Spouse(s)	Nellie Queen Bailey (married 1866–96, his death)
Children	Five daughters
Profession	Journalist
Religion	Roman Catholicism

William B. Bailey (July 27, 1838 – July 26, 1896) was a journalist and politician from his native Lafayette, Louisiana. In 1865, he co-founded what is now the Lafayette Daily Advertiser and from 1884 to 1892, he served as the mayor of Lafayette.

Biography

Bailey was the son of the Tennesseean William Bailey and the former Sarah Clark, a native of St. Landry Parish in South Louisiana. He served the duration of the American Civil War for the Confederate States Army, having fought in the Seven Days Battles, Harper's Ferry, Second Bull Run, Fredericksburg, Battle of Gettysburg, and the The Wilderness. On September 9, 1863, he was captured by the Union Army and held prisoner until June 1864. He then returned to Confederate service served under General Robert E. Lee until the surrender at Appomattox Court House. On June 26, 1865, he returned to Lafayette, then known as Vermilionville (but not in neighboring Vermilion Parish), having walked the entire distance from Virginia.

Prior to the war, he had been apprenticed as a printer. He co-founded the Lafayette Daily Advertiser, originally the Lafayette Weekly Advertiser, which published its first issue on September 22, 1865, five months after the close of the war. Bailey was the sole proprietor and editor of the paper from 1868 to 1893. Like most former Confederates, he was a staunch Democrat who editorially opposed the United States Army for its support of Republican administrations at the state, pre-1877, and national levels.

Bailey supported immigration and internal improvements at federal expense. He was a vocal critic of violence during the Reconstruction era. After his mayoral term, he was appointed on an interim basis by Governor Murphy J. Foster, Sr., to fill a vacancy as the clerk of the Lafayette Parish state district court.

In 1866, he wed the former Nellie (also called Nella) Queen (1847–1917). The couple had five daughters; one, Clara, died in infancy after her birth in 1867. Another, Nellie Bailey Fournet (1875–1899), died before her 25th birthday. Three other daughters were Cornelia Bailey Roy (1868–1947), Louise Geralde (born 1872 – date of death missing), and Elizabeth Bailey Mouton (1881–1922). Bailey died on a Sunday morning of heart disease but had been in apparently sound health the day before when he had returned from a leisurely trip to Galveston, Texas. He died the day before his 58th birthday. He is interred at the Roman Catholic Saint John Cemetery in Lafayette, along with his wife, who lived another twenty-one years after his passing, and four of their daughters.