The Baileys of Faulkland, Revisited

The 68 acre farm sold by Ephraim Yarnall
to Amor Bailey in 1829

After not having really updated many old posts in a while, I seem to be on a bit of a roll now. This one is especially exciting because after revisiting an old topic after a question about a certain house, I ended up answering questions about not one, but three different properties and houses! They were all in the same family, the Baileys, although one of the houses I had no idea had been in that family until I followed along the family's trail of deeds. All three houses are in the Faulkland area, just north of Faulkland Road near Brandywine Springs Park. The original post about the Bailey family was written more than ten years ago, and while I believe all the information in it is correct, I can now add a good deal more and fill in some holes along the way.

While that original post focused more on James Bailey and his farm on the east side of Newport Gap Pike (it was sparked by questions about his granddaughter, who still lived there in the 1950's), here I want to look closer at what was going on earlier and on the west side of the turnpike. I still haven't really been able to clear up much more about the Baileys' history prior to moving into the Faulkland area. What I can elaborate on is exactly when they moved and what the farm was that Amor Bailey purchased.

In the old post I had said that it appeared Amor Bailey and family had moved to somewhere north of Brandywine Springs between 1820 and 1830. I've now found that on March 24, 1829, Amor Bailey purchased 68 acres of land from Ephraim Yarnall. This was on the west side of the Newport and Gap Turnpike, which had opened only 11 years earlier. Even more recent in the area was the Brandywine Chalybeate Springs Hotel, which had opened less than two years earlier just below Bailey's new farm, also on land formerly owned by the Yarnall family.

The tract that Bailey bought from Yarnall stretched from Newport Gap Pike to Duncan Road, and from Faulkland Road up to what is now the Emily Bissell Hospital property. It's not coincidentally exactly the extent of the current neighborhood of Hyde Park (with a little extra in the bottom right, which we'll get to in a moment). The price of the land, $1600, strongly implies that the house was already in place when the Baileys moved in. I can't be sure exactly who built the house, but we'll take a few guesses at the end of the post, so stay tuned.

Extent of the four acre lot purchased in 1835 by James Bailey, from his father Amor

It appears that when the Baileys moved in 1829, the family consisted of Amor, two sons, and three daughters. Eldest daughter Martha had probably already married William Hulett. Amor's wife Joanna seems to have died sometime before 1820, as she does not appear to be included with the family on that year's census. Just six years after they moved, in March 1835, Amor helped to set up eldest son James, by selling him four acres of the family farm. Those four acres, as seen above, were the southeast corner of the farm, a roughly triangular lot bordered by Faulkland Road, Newport Gap Pike, and Hyde Run (the acreage doesn't exactly match today, but I assume that's due to changes over the years in the course of Hyde Run). 

The Chandler-Ball House, built in 1835 by James Bailey

Remember all the way back at the beginning of this post when I said that I had answered questions about three different properties? Well, here's the second one. Seems that after acquiring his four acre lot, James Bailey built a new home for his new family (he had married Margaret Peeky in 1832 and already had one child). His house on the corner still stands, as seen above. When built, it would have had a great view (at least out the side) of the magnificent Brandywine Springs Hotel across the intersection. While living here, James was presumably still working the family farm along with his father and brother John. However, changes were soon to come to the Bailey family.

In May 1840, Amor Bailey died. Whatever the dynamics were of the family, socially and financially, it's probably not a coincidence that it was in the following year that James Bailey purchased a 65 acre farm on the east side of the turnpike, from the Robinson family (they were not Swiss). This is the third clarification I learned -- for sure that it was James who moved to that farm and exactly when he did. I also of course didn't realize that he had made a stop in between.

And about that stop -- after moving, James did not immediately sell his 1835 house on the corner. That did not happen for another ten years, and he presumably rented the property from 1841 until 1851. Although I don't have any specific information about that, it's interesting that the family listed directly after John Bailey (who remained in his father's house) in the 1850 Census is that of Franklin W. Clement. Why that's interesting is the fact that Clement is listed in the census as a "Medical Doctor". And why do I find that interesting?

Well, it's interesting because when James did finally sell the house, he sold it to Abiah Heston, a doctor. Heston, in turn, sold the house in 1857 to Dr. Swithin Chandler. Sometime after Chandler's death in 1887, the house was acquired by Lewis Heisler Ball, who was, say it with me -- a doctor. To be fair though, Ball was also later a Congressman and US Senator, too. But I suppose with its location on the turnpike and four acres (enough to grow a little, but too small for a proper farm), the house on the corner was perfect for a physician.

Details of John and Elizabeth Bailey's
50th Wedding Anniversary, in April 1895

But returning now to the original Bailey home in the area, when Amor Bailey died in 1840 he did so "intestate", meaning that he did not leave a will. It may have taken a few years for the estate to be settled, because it wasn't until 1844 that the other five Bailey children all sold their shares of the farm to their brother John. He and wife Elizabeth would raise four children of their own in the old house, three girls and a boy. In April 1895 they got to celebrate their 50th Wedding Anniversary at their home, surrounded by family and friends. This may have been one of their last parties, though, because less than a year later, in January 1896, both died of pneumonia. In what might be either tragic or touching, depending on your point of view, John and Elizabeth died within hours of each other and were buried together a few days later at Red Clay Creek Presbyterian Church.

Notices from January 1896 of the twin deaths
and funeral of John and Elizabeth Bailey

After John and Elizabeth's passing, the daughters did the same thing that their aunts and uncles did 52 years earlier, and sold their share of the farm to their brother. The only difference here is that it took only about a week to finalize, instead of four years. The new owner was Thompson Bailey, and he would remain on his farm for more than forty years. Thompson never married, but was apparently quite social. As seen below, in 1903 he hosted a Watermelon Party at his home. In 1932, he was the talk of the town as he hosted guests to witness the once-a-year blooming of his flowering cactus. Do bear in mind, this was before television.

Thompson Bailey's 1903 watermelon party

In 1932, Thompson Bailey's cactus bloomed!

But even though Thompson never married, it didn't mean he lived alone. In fact, for most of his adult life he had two of his siblings and/or their families residing with him. His sister Virginia (Jennie) moved in by 1900, presumably after her husband William M. Garrett died in 1899, from injuries received from being kicked and trampled by horses. Also living in the house was Thompson's sister Sarah, her husband Watson Brackin, and their sons Elwood and Robert. Even after Sarah and Watson passed in the 1920's, Robert and Elwood (who was a carpenter and ran a furniture repair business) remained with their Uncle Thompson and Aunt Jennie.

Thompson Bailey died in June 1941 at the age of 77, but the old Bailey home was not quite ready to leave the extended family. When the estate was finally put up for sale a year later, it was purchased by Elwood Brackin, making him the fourth generation of Baileys to own the house. The bachelor Elwood died only two years later and passed the house to his brother Robert, also unmarried. After Robert's death in 1950, the 64 acre farm was put up for sale again, this time finally leaving the family after 121 years.

The next owner, S. Thomas Pippin, would be the last to hold the entire 64 acre farm. An insurance and banking executive, Pippin pretty obviously bought the property with the intention of developing it. He acquired the tract in June, and by July the county had already approved the development plan. The article calls it "Buckingham", but it has to be what would become Hyde Park. Lots in the new development were specifically marketed to Dupont and Hercules employees. Thankfully Pippin and his crew decided to allow the old farmhouse to remain, and in December 1950 sold it to Howard and Ruby Boyer. Howard P. Boyer would eventually become the construction supervisor for the State Park Commission. 

As the development grew around it, the house passed through several other caring hands, and the current owner is very interested in learning all he can about its history. (So if you know anything more about the home, please let us know!) With all we do know about the old house, one key question remains -- just how old is it? The county lists the construction date as 1741, and that's what the owner has been told. From the style of the house, that date certainly doesn't seem unreasonable. Unfortunately, to the best of my knowledge there's no real proof of that date, such as a datestone.

I'm usually inherently skeptical about the dates listed by the county (there's no need for proof, it's just what somebody said at some point), but less so when they're specific like this (1741, as opposed to 1900 or 1800). That makes me think that someone, at some point, had reason to believe that this is when the house was built, so let's start with that date.

Division of the Bryan McDonald Sr property in 1707
(Image courtesy Walt Chiquoine, lightly edited by author)

The family in the area at that time was the McDonalds. The house is actually right along the property line of the original patent issued to Bryan McDonald, Sr. in 1689. The elder McDonald acquired several surrounding tracts during his lifetime, died in 1707, and left to his son Bryan, Jr. the northern half of his holdings that included almost all of what would become the Bailey farm. It was Bryan McDonald, Jr. who owned the land in 1741, and who would have been responsible for its construction if that date is correct. Although he was older by then (55), he could have either been replacing his father's home (which my guess was over closer to the David Graves House) for himself, or maybe building a home for one of his children.

The other interesting aspect is that only five or six years later, McDonald would move south to Virginia and sell his MCH land. I have no idea how long beforehand he was planning the move, so it's possible he could have built a new house and then moved five years later. The section we're interested in was sold to Jeremiah Wollaston, who held it until 1761 when he sold the tract to Ephraim Yarnall, Sr. The land where the house sits went to his widow Sarah in 1793, then to Ephraim, Jr. in 1816.

Division of the Ephraim Yarnall property, 1793
(Image courtesy Walt Chiquoine, lightly edited by author)

The division of Yarnall's land in 1793 seems very gerrymandered, but interestingly the house sits right on the edge of a section, in what looks like an almost carved out area. That seems to me to show that the house was there by at least 1793. After the construction of the Newport and Gap Turnpike, the Yarnall children made a few sales between themselves, reconfiguring their holdings to accommodate the new roadway and giving the boundaries of the tract that Bailey would buy in 1829.

So what this all means is that if the 1741 date is correct, then the house was built by Bryan McDonald, Jr., either for himself or one of his children. If the house is a few decades younger, then it could have been the work of either Jeremiah Wollaston or Ephraim Yarnall. Without further information, we're probably stuck at just guessing for now.

Whoever the builder was, the house itself has been standing and in use for well over 200 years, and maybe closer to 300. It's gone from being the successful farmstead of the Bailey family for almost a century and a quarter to being a beautiful oasis amidst mid-century suburbia, with connections back to the earliest days of Mill Creek Hundred.