Stories from a Bible
It all started when a friend dropped by my house to show me
an old Bible she had picked up at a thrift store. She carefully handled the small
leather bound book as she showed it to me. The leather binding was intact, and
all of the pages seemed to be there. The Bible itself was small, approximately
3 and 4 ½ inches, and it contained just the New Testament and the book of Psalms.
The cover, definitely showing the effects of wear, appeared to be a tooled
leather design, and the brass hinge on the side was still operational. I could
see why my friend was so pleased to add it to her collection.
The Bible was published in Glasgow,
Scotland in 1853, given to
someone in Massachusetts in 1863, and
purchased from a Georgia
thrift store in 2022. Surely there were some interesting stories relating to
that Bible. I was hooked and knew I wanted to learn more about that Bible and
the name written on it so I started taking pictures of the Bible as we talked.
Later I spent the afternoon researching Henry Bailey and trying to find a few
answers to our questions.
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Left front end page
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Question 1: Who was
Henry Bailey and what was his role in the Civil War?
The starting place for me was reading the left front end page which
had these two inscriptions:
"Henry
Bailey, Co I, 45th Regt, M Voll, Milford, Mass, 1863"
"Fort
Macon, Beaufort Harbour, NC"
Imagine my surprise when my initial Ancestry search for a
Henry Bailey in Milford, Massachusetts, turned up some very helpful
information. The first reference was from Ancestry’s database U.S., Civil War Soldier Records and Profiles, 1861-1865.
This record provided a wealth
of information about the Henry Bailey who had owned or been given the Bible,
including:
- Birth date and place
- Enlistment and discharge dates and
places
- Military unit (Co I of the 45th
Massachussetts Infantry)
- Death date (1922) and burial place
It was enough
information matching the inscription on the Bible’s front end page that I felt I was on the right track.
It was also specific enough for me to start a Family Tree Maker tree for Henry
Bailey so I had a place to record any information I found about him.
The Ancestry search
also had references to years of US
census records, enough for me to learn the names of his parents (George and
Harriet) and that of his sister (Ella). In addition, the 1920 US census entry indicated that Henry immigrated
to the United States
in 1849 and was naturalized in 1868, more parts to the story of Henry Bailey.
This meant that Henry came to the United States as a young child of
three, enlisted to fight in the US Civil War although he was not yet an
American citizen, and chose to denounce his English citizenship after fighting
in this war.
I was also
interested in learning more about the military union in which Henry served, Co
I of the 45th Massachusetts Infantry. The Action Memorial Civil War
Library had a short piece of Henry’s unit.(1) It was clear that Henry enlisted
in the early days of the unit, traveled with the unit to Fort Macon, Beaufort,
NC, and stayed with the unit until it was mustered out of service in July of
1863.
A second period of
action for Henry in the Civil War showed up on the 1890 US Census Veterans Schedule
on Ancestry.com. Henry apparently enlisted a second time in December of 1863,
staying with Co A of the 1st Massachusetts Battalion until the end
of the war.(2)
Question 2: Who is the “Emma” who inscribed
the Bible on the right flyleaf?
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Inscription: "Remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy. Emma" |
Alas, I did not
seem to find an answer to this question. From US census records, it was clear
that Henry had a younger sister, Ella. There is no indication that Henry was
married in 1863 when the Bible was apparently in his possession, probably eliminating the chance that a wife named Emma has given him the Bible. When he did
marry in 1872, it was to Ella Jeannette Morse, another Ella, not an Emma.(3)
Question 3: How did that Bible get from Massachusetts to a Georgia thrift shop?
Finding a possible
answer to this question took some searching and, admittedly, some speculation.
Using US Census records and FindAGrave memorials, I found a descendent of Henry
living in Georgia
in the 1980s. Her obituary listed a grandson living in the Atlanta area. A few quick Google and social
media searches showed an individual with the exact same name as that grandson living
just a few miles from the thrift shop where my friend purchased the Bible. Is
this the answer? A coincidence? Maybe, maybe not, but it at least seems to be a
possibility.
So, it turn out
that my friend picked up a real treasure, that small Bible over 160 years old
with its leather binding and brass hinge both still present and functioning.
Researching shed some light onto a family who emigrated from England and established themselves as Massachusetts business
owners, a family whose son enlisted to fight in the Civil War, a family where both
father and son eventually become American citizens. Had this been part of my
family, I definitely would have included it in one of my “Coming to America” posts
for events such as these are common to many of our families.
Now back to
researching my family, helping to transcribe the 1950 US Census, and indexing
patriot records for the DAR, at least until some new treasure catches my
interest.
1. "Forty-Fifth Regiment Massachusetts Volunteer Militia (Infantry) Nine Months", Action Memorial Library Civil War Archives, https://www.actonmemoriallibrary.org/civilwar/index.html.
2. "1890 Veterans Schedule, Massachusetts, Worcester, Milford, p 7, entry for Henry J Bailey", accessed www.ancestry.com.
3. "Milford, Births, Marriages, and Deaths", image 779 of 2038, Massachusetts, U.S. Town and Vital Records, 1620-1988, www.ancestry.com.