Person Page - 61

Benjamin A. Bailey, husband, 1st. Grace Belle Reed, 2nd. Carrie May Bridges

Benjamin A. Bailey, named for his paternal grandfather, was the seventh child in a family of eight. He married his first wife, Grace Belle Reed, on 30 April 1893, and they had nine children.
Aged twenty-two when his father died in March, 1895, a few months later, on Christmas Eve of 1895, Benjamin Bailey bought the 75 acre homestead in Alna west of the Bailey Road and north of Trout Brook.
Ben was the fifth generation of his family to farm on the "Plains" area of Alna and Whitefield. Electricity and running water came during Ben's lifetime, though not to rural Maine farms like his until well into the 20th century. The automobile was another major invention during his lifetime, but Ben spent most of his adult life farming with horses. Although he was progressive enough to own one of the first tractors in Lincoln County, it was a heavy and cumbersome International Mogul, and he had more talent with horses than he had with motors. It is remembered in the family that on at least two occasions, Ben commanded his tractor to "Whoa!" Many of his grandchildren recall adventurous automobile rides with him.
He was a farmer and a blacksmith all his life. He had a special ability to work with animals. He treated them with kindness and respect, but didn't pamper them. During the many years Ben Bailey was the supervisor of the pulling rings at the County Fairs, his events were run with concern that no animal's spirit be broken by mistreatment or overloading.
His interest in the annual Maine fall fairs began as a ten year old farm boy when he exhibited a pair of calves at the Damariscotta Fair. From that time onward Ben could usually be found at the cattle and horse pulling rings of all the local fair associations. He was a member of Southern Kennebec Fair Association for almost sixty years. He reorganized the East Pittston Fair Association and was an officer in these associations during most of his membership.
As a farmer he was interested in Grange activities and joined the Sheepscot Valley Grange in 1894, when meetings were held in the West Alna Schoolhouse. He was a continuous member for sixty-six years, holding an honorary membership at the time of his death. He was also active in town affairs. He served as Road Commissioner for many years, and as Selectman of the Town of Alna.
Widowed when he was fifty-three years old, he was married six months later to his second wife, Carrie Bridges, on 2 May 1926. Carrie was also a widow and mother of six children. She and Ben were married the day after her fifty-eighth birthday, and were married almost thirty years before her death left him a widower for the remaining five years of his life.
He worked until shortly before his death. His obituary recounted that he had always been active, farming his own large farm, cutting ice on the Kennebec River, and renting out his crew and teams to thresh grain around Lincoln County and to press hay for other farmers as far away as Belgrade and Readfield. He cut and prepared fitted wood for sale, and was occupied in this work well into his eighties, when he suffered what was called a "nervous heart attack," and ordered to give up work.
He was the oldest resident of the Town of Alna for many years. At the time of his death at age 88, he was survived by four of his nine children, twenty -three grandchildren, sixty-four great grandchildren, and three great great grandchildren. He died at the home of his granddaughter, Virginia Bailey Wright.³