Baileyville Pioneers

This site is dedicated to the genealogies of those founders of Baileyville who signed the petition for incorporation as a town in October 1827. If you have any information on the family history of any of the men named below, especially Hosea White, John Goodwin, Josiah Connick, John Heffren or William Ryan, I would like to hear from you.

On October 2, 1827, the following men "inhabitants of Plantation Number Seven, Eastern Division, Bingham Lands," signed a petition "to be incorporated into a Town by the Name of Albion..."

John Heffren, John Goodwin, Josiah Connick, David Beverly, Isaac T. Bailey, Pianus Sprague, Joseph Sprague, Ebenezer Sprague, Joseph Thornton, Wm. Thornton, Joseph Thornton, Jr., Samuel Thornton, Nathaniel Thornton, Farnum Beverly, Hosea White, and William Ryan.

These men apparently did not know that the name "Albion" had been selected by the people of a town in Kennebec County. Albion, next to Unity on Route 9, to the west, had many names. It was first called Freetown, and was incorporated as Fairfax on March 9, 1804. The name was changed to Lygonia on March 10, 1821, and, finally, changed again to Albion on February 25, 1824.

No correspondence has been found concerning the name conflict, but on February 19, 1828, the governor of Maine signed the act of incorporation and Baileyville became Maine's 279th town.

The town is named after its first settler, Nathaniel Bayley, who died in Baileyville c1796. The story is that he was killed by an Indian over a drink of rum [Alexander-Crawford Historical Society Newsletter, Issue 117 (May 2003), p. 18].

Books

• Baileyville Pioneers (view PDF)