Bluefield Daily Telegraph, Bluefield, WV

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July 18, 2009

Grave marker for War of 1812 veteran dedicated

By Bill Archer

LECKIE — A group of about 46 descendants and/or relatives of Zachariah Henry Bailey, a veteran of the War of 1812, gathered on a hillside in rural McDowell County to dedicate a new military headstone honoring his service, and to share stories of the impact made on the region by the Bailey family.

“The Bailey family is one of the most respected families in McDowell County ... in the whole region, for that matter,” Ed Kornish, assistant McDowell County prosecuting attorney said. Kornish, a graduate of the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, retired last year as a colonel in the U.S. Army National Guard.

“Zachariah Bailey served three years and one month in the Virginia Militia during the War of 1812,” Kornish said. “He received this 133-acre parcel of land through a land grant from the Commonwealth of Virginia for his service. The land grant came from Virginia, but the deed for the property came from West Virginia after the Civil War.

“Today, without a military draft, we are growing more and more veterans,” Kornish said. He said the number of soldiers killed in action in the War of 1812 was about 6,000, and pointed out that about 17,000 veterans of that war died as a result of sickness. He said that while there are fewer battlefield deaths in warfare today, many more veterans return with serious wounds that may require lifetime treatment.

“I ask each of you here today to remember our veterans,” Kornish said. “If they need care, see that they get it for the rest of their lives.” Kornish also asked the people attending the service to become active servants of their communities. “You can serve in your churches, serve in your neighborhoods and serve in your communities,” he said. “The government is not going to fix every problem for you.”

Dr. Sheila Brooks, also a retired colonel of the U.S. Army Reserves, encouraged those gathered to remember all veterans of all wars. “We are all descendants of great heroes,” she said. Brooks said that the Bible says that the remnants will survive. “Here are the remnants of Zachariah Bailey,” she said.

Brooks’ mother, Lillian Lovelace Brooks Holt, said that as a young girl, she walked past Bailey’s headstone in the hillside cemetery and often wondered why he did not have a military veteran’s headstone. She expressed joy that family members took the steps to have the long oversight corrected.

Danny Sadler presented an outline of Zachariah Bailey’s life that he compiled from the writings of Cloyd Bailey, Karen Eagle Momen, Ken Bowen and Walter Bailey as well as from his personal research. Where there were holes in Bailey’s story, Sadler did his best to present all the possible variations, especially from his early years before he entered the militia on Feb. 8, 1812. Among the many interesting episodes of his long life — he lived to be 97 — in 1864 at age 76, Bailey traveled to Saltville, Va., with other older men from the community to get salt for the winter, and was delayed outside of Saltville due to the Oct. 2, 1864 Battle of Saltville.

“Henry A. Bailey was my father, and Zachariah Bailey II was my grandfather,” Leonard Bailey, who celebrated his 97th birthday last Sunday said. “I guess that makes this Zachariah Bailey my great grandfather.” Leonard Bailey, of Bluefield, Va., and his youngest sister, Ernestine Hedrick of Princeton, attended the memorial dedication for their great grandfather.

Brenda Hawkes Ajamian, a former member of the Florida state legislature and a great-great granddaughter of the elder Zachariah Bailey said she learned the art of family research through her research as a state legislator. She encouraged people to seek out the original documents when trying to track down their ancestry. Her research led her to find the Zachariah Bailey Chapter of the Daughters of the War of 1812. She invited other descendants to join as well.

The people attending the service parked on property owned by Pat and Jim Copolo to get to the Bailey Family Cemetery. The Reverend Donnie Farmer, pastor of the Longpoint Baptist Church at Spencer’s Curve delivered the invocation.

Walter Bailey of Maryland had worked to get the military stone placed as well as on organizing the dedication service, but was unable to attend the ceremony. The Annual Bailey Family Reunion is today at the 4-H Camp at Glenwood Park.

– Contact Bill Archer at barcher@bdtonline.com

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