m: 20 July 1911
ASHEVILLE CITIZEN-TIMES DAILY NEWSPAPER ASHEVILLE, NORTH CAROLINA
Monday, December 22, 1980
JESSE JAMES BAILEY- lawman extraordinaire who served as sheriff of both Madison and Buncombe countries in the 1920s, died Sunday in Memorial Mission Hospital in Asheville. He was 92. "The Sheriff," as he was known lived at 191 Weaverville Road in Buncombe County. He was a retired detective for Southern Railway, a celebrated humorist and storyteller, and a feared moonshine still wrecker. Bailey worked in several capacities for the railroad for 52 years, until his retirement at age 70 in 1958. He took two leaves of absence of two years each in 1920 and 1928 when he was elected sheriff first of Madison and then Buncombe County. He was believed to be the only lawman in the state to serve as sheriff in two counties. Bailey was born near Bailey's Bend on the French Broad River in Madison County. He was a farm boy until his telegrapher's job at Bailey Station in the Knoxville, Tenn., division of Southern Railway in 1906.
In 1920, Bailey fulfilled a childhood dream when he was elected sheriff of Madison County on a promise to be tougher on moonshiners than his opponent. That was the year after the Volstead Act, and prohibition was at it height. The Sheriff's county was known as "Bloody Madison." In 1971, Bailey told this story about the 1920 election. " My Opponent, a former sheriff, has been light on the liquor laws. I'd never drunk a drop in my life – still haven't- but I decided I wasn't going to be too hard on the moonshiners. I went out in the bushes and told ‘em: ‘Now boys, I won't be too hard on you unless you put your stills out here in the road where I can stump my toe on ‘em.' But they said, "Bailey, we know what this other man will do and we don't know what you'll do, so we'll have to support him. "
"They did, but the dry people elected me. They expected me to dry up the county overnight and , of course, I couldn't do that. But I raised the price on liquor from $15 a gallon to $75. I made it scarce."
The day his successor was sworn in 1922, Bailey made headlines by capturing a still and arresting two "blockaders" in Hot Springs, a few miles from the Tennessee line. Bailey returned to the railway as an officer in Southern's special service department, then simply called the police department. He went to Richmond, Va., and Greensboro as a Lieutenant of police before retiring to Western North Carolina in 1927 as police captain of the Asheville area. His second leave of absence came in 1928, when he was elected sheriff of Buncombe County, taking over the county's brand new courthouse in Asheville. In his first four weeks as sheriff in Buncombe, Bailey and his men seized 12 stills, three automobiles, 137 gallons of whiskey and 800 gallons of beer. Bailey was wounded only once, when he was shot in the hand during a raid while sheriff in Buncombe County. After his term as sheriff ended in 1930, he returned to Southern Railway as Asheville captain until 1935, when he went to Greensboro as division special agent. In 1940, he came back to Asheville to stay. After he retired in 1958, Bailey was in demand as an after-dinner speaker and storyteller. His wife Edna Chandley Bailey, died in 1970 at age 79. He is survived by his daughter, Mrs. Charles Lovin, Jr. in Greensboro. Perhaps the greatest tribute paid Bailey is a chapter about him titled " The High Sheriff" in Wilma Dykeman's "The French Broad." (Here are excerpts from that chapter: He pushes the big brimmed hat on the back of his head, and it gives him a jaunty, ‘careless look. You know he isn't a careless man, however, or he wouldn't be here now – he'd be dead from one of the dozens of bullets that missed by a hairbreath during one of those hundreds of raids on hidden distilleries.
"Or, from the crash of his car as it hurtled off the road more times than once giving chase to a blockade-runner or transporting prisoners down to the North Carolina state penitentiary at Raleigh and facing emergencies of slipped handcuffs, mutiny, and violence. Or the times he confronted knives and the quick, well-honed razors.' "It too courage and caution in equal parts to be a successful sheriff in Madison County at the beginning of Prohibition: courage to face ambush, courage to do the work for less pay than the moonshiners would give you for not doing it, and caution to read the trails with care, know your opponent's methods, go in after him and come back alive. Dead law is no law."
"Sheriff Bailey captured stills up and down the hills and hollows from Paint Rock when the French Broad River crosses the North Carolina Line into Tennessee to Paint Fork at the remote head of one of the tributaries, his men cut down barrels and furnaces, brought in boilers and jugs as evidence of their success."
Services for Bailey will be held at 11 a.m. Tuesday in the Marshall Baptist Church. The Revs. Warren Miliner, Cecil Sherman, and Mike Minnis will officiate. Graveside services will be at 2 p.m. Wednesday at Greensboro. The family will receive friends 7-9 p.m. Monday at Bowman Funeral Home in Marshall, where the body will remain until Tuesday morning.
ASHEVILLE CITIZEN-TIMES DAILY NEWSPAPER ASHEVILLE, NORTH CAROLINA
Monday, December 22, 1980
JESSE JAMES BAILEY- lawman extraordinaire who served as sheriff of both Madison and Buncombe countries in the 1920s, died Sunday in Memorial Mission Hospital in Asheville. He was 92. "The Sheriff," as he was known lived at 191 Weaverville Road in Buncombe County. He was a retired detective for Southern Railway, a celebrated humorist and storyteller, and a feared moonshine still wrecker. Bailey worked in several capacities for the railroad for 52 years, until his retirement at age 70 in 1958. He took two leaves of absence of two years each in 1920 and 1928 when he was elected sheriff first of Madison and then Buncombe County. He was believed to be the only lawman in the state to serve as sheriff in two counties. Bailey was born near Bailey's Bend on the French Broad River in Madison County. He was a farm boy until his telegrapher's job at Bailey Station in the Knoxville, Tenn., division of Southern Railway in 1906.
In 1920, Bailey fulfilled a childhood dream when he was elected sheriff of Madison County on a promise to be tougher on moonshiners than his opponent. That was the year after the Volstead Act, and prohibition was at it height. The Sheriff's county was known as "Bloody Madison." In 1971, Bailey told this story about the 1920 election. " My Opponent, a former sheriff, has been light on the liquor laws. I'd never drunk a drop in my life – still haven't- but I decided I wasn't going to be too hard on the moonshiners. I went out in the bushes and told ‘em: ‘Now boys, I won't be too hard on you unless you put your stills out here in the road where I can stump my toe on ‘em.' But they said, "Bailey, we know what this other man will do and we don't know what you'll do, so we'll have to support him. "
"They did, but the dry people elected me. They expected me to dry up the county overnight and , of course, I couldn't do that. But I raised the price on liquor from $15 a gallon to $75. I made it scarce."
The day his successor was sworn in 1922, Bailey made headlines by capturing a still and arresting two "blockaders" in Hot Springs, a few miles from the Tennessee line. Bailey returned to the railway as an officer in Southern's special service department, then simply called the police department. He went to Richmond, Va., and Greensboro as a Lieutenant of police before retiring to Western North Carolina in 1927 as police captain of the Asheville area. His second leave of absence came in 1928, when he was elected sheriff of Buncombe County, taking over the county's brand new courthouse in Asheville. In his first four weeks as sheriff in Buncombe, Bailey and his men seized 12 stills, three automobiles, 137 gallons of whiskey and 800 gallons of beer. Bailey was wounded only once, when he was shot in the hand during a raid while sheriff in Buncombe County. After his term as sheriff ended in 1930, he returned to Southern Railway as Asheville captain until 1935, when he went to Greensboro as division special agent. In 1940, he came back to Asheville to stay. After he retired in 1958, Bailey was in demand as an after-dinner speaker and storyteller. His wife Edna Chandley Bailey, died in 1970 at age 79. He is survived by his daughter, Mrs. Charles Lovin, Jr. in Greensboro. Perhaps the greatest tribute paid Bailey is a chapter about him titled " The High Sheriff" in Wilma Dykeman's "The French Broad." (Here are excerpts from that chapter: He pushes the big brimmed hat on the back of his head, and it gives him a jaunty, ‘careless look. You know he isn't a careless man, however, or he wouldn't be here now – he'd be dead from one of the dozens of bullets that missed by a hairbreath during one of those hundreds of raids on hidden distilleries.
"Or, from the crash of his car as it hurtled off the road more times than once giving chase to a blockade-runner or transporting prisoners down to the North Carolina state penitentiary at Raleigh and facing emergencies of slipped handcuffs, mutiny, and violence. Or the times he confronted knives and the quick, well-honed razors.' "It too courage and caution in equal parts to be a successful sheriff in Madison County at the beginning of Prohibition: courage to face ambush, courage to do the work for less pay than the moonshiners would give you for not doing it, and caution to read the trails with care, know your opponent's methods, go in after him and come back alive. Dead law is no law."
"Sheriff Bailey captured stills up and down the hills and hollows from Paint Rock when the French Broad River crosses the North Carolina Line into Tennessee to Paint Fork at the remote head of one of the tributaries, his men cut down barrels and furnaces, brought in boilers and jugs as evidence of their success."
Services for Bailey will be held at 11 a.m. Tuesday in the Marshall Baptist Church. The Revs. Warren Miliner, Cecil Sherman, and Mike Minnis will officiate. Graveside services will be at 2 p.m. Wednesday at Greensboro. The family will receive friends 7-9 p.m. Monday at Bowman Funeral Home in Marshall, where the body will remain until Tuesday morning.
m: 20 July 1911
ASHEVILLE CITIZEN-TIMES DAILY NEWSPAPER ASHEVILLE, NORTH CAROLINA
Monday, December 22, 1980
JESSE JAMES BAILEY- lawman extraordinaire who served as sheriff of both Madison and Buncombe countries in the 1920s, died Sunday in Memorial Mission Hospital in Asheville. He was 92. "The Sheriff," as he was known lived at 191 Weaverville Road in Buncombe County. He was a retired detective for Southern Railway, a celebrated humorist and storyteller, and a feared moonshine still wrecker. Bailey worked in several capacities for the railroad for 52 years, until his retirement at age 70 in 1958. He took two leaves of absence of two years each in 1920 and 1928 when he was elected sheriff first of Madison and then Buncombe County. He was believed to be the only lawman in the state to serve as sheriff in two counties. Bailey was born near Bailey's Bend on the French Broad River in Madison County. He was a farm boy until his telegrapher's job at Bailey Station in the Knoxville, Tenn., division of Southern Railway in 1906.
In 1920, Bailey fulfilled a childhood dream when he was elected sheriff of Madison County on a promise to be tougher on moonshiners than his opponent. That was the year after the Volstead Act, and prohibition was at it height. The Sheriff's county was known as "Bloody Madison." In 1971, Bailey told this story about the 1920 election. " My Opponent, a former sheriff, has been light on the liquor laws. I'd never drunk a drop in my life – still haven't- but I decided I wasn't going to be too hard on the moonshiners. I went out in the bushes and told ‘em: ‘Now boys, I won't be too hard on you unless you put your stills out here in the road where I can stump my toe on ‘em.' But they said, "Bailey, we know what this other man will do and we don't know what you'll do, so we'll have to support him. "
"They did, but the dry people elected me. They expected me to dry up the county overnight and , of course, I couldn't do that. But I raised the price on liquor from $15 a gallon to $75. I made it scarce."
The day his successor was sworn in 1922, Bailey made headlines by capturing a still and arresting two "blockaders" in Hot Springs, a few miles from the Tennessee line. Bailey returned to the railway as an officer in Southern's special service department, then simply called the police department. He went to Richmond, Va., and Greensboro as a Lieutenant of police before retiring to Western North Carolina in 1927 as police captain of the Asheville area. His second leave of absence came in 1928, when he was elected sheriff of Buncombe County, taking over the county's brand new courthouse in Asheville. In his first four weeks as sheriff in Buncombe, Bailey and his men seized 12 stills, three automobiles, 137 gallons of whiskey and 800 gallons of beer. Bailey was wounded only once, when he was shot in the hand during a raid while sheriff in Buncombe County. After his term as sheriff ended in 1930, he returned to Southern Railway as Asheville captain until 1935, when he went to Greensboro as division special agent. In 1940, he came back to Asheville to stay. After he retired in 1958, Bailey was in demand as an after-dinner speaker and storyteller. His wife Edna Chandley Bailey, died in 1970 at age 79. He is survived by his daughter, Mrs. Charles Lovin, Jr. in Greensboro. Perhaps the greatest tribute paid Bailey is a chapter about him titled " The High Sheriff" in Wilma Dykeman's "The French Broad." (Here are excerpts from that chapter: He pushes the big brimmed hat on the back of his head, and it gives him a jaunty, ‘careless look. You know he isn't a careless man, however, or he wouldn't be here now – he'd be dead from one of the dozens of bullets that missed by a hairbreath during one of those hundreds of raids on hidden distilleries.
"Or, from the crash of his car as it hurtled off the road more times than once giving chase to a blockade-runner or transporting prisoners down to the North Carolina state penitentiary at Raleigh and facing emergencies of slipped handcuffs, mutiny, and violence. Or the times he confronted knives and the quick, well-honed razors.' "It too courage and caution in equal parts to be a successful sheriff in Madison County at the beginning of Prohibition: courage to face ambush, courage to do the work for less pay than the moonshiners would give you for not doing it, and caution to read the trails with care, know your opponent's methods, go in after him and come back alive. Dead law is no law."
"Sheriff Bailey captured stills up and down the hills and hollows from Paint Rock when the French Broad River crosses the North Carolina Line into Tennessee to Paint Fork at the remote head of one of the tributaries, his men cut down barrels and furnaces, brought in boilers and jugs as evidence of their success."
Services for Bailey will be held at 11 a.m. Tuesday in the Marshall Baptist Church. The Revs. Warren Miliner, Cecil Sherman, and Mike Minnis will officiate. Graveside services will be at 2 p.m. Wednesday at Greensboro. The family will receive friends 7-9 p.m. Monday at Bowman Funeral Home in Marshall, where the body will remain until Tuesday morning.
ASHEVILLE CITIZEN-TIMES DAILY NEWSPAPER ASHEVILLE, NORTH CAROLINA
Monday, December 22, 1980
JESSE JAMES BAILEY- lawman extraordinaire who served as sheriff of both Madison and Buncombe countries in the 1920s, died Sunday in Memorial Mission Hospital in Asheville. He was 92. "The Sheriff," as he was known lived at 191 Weaverville Road in Buncombe County. He was a retired detective for Southern Railway, a celebrated humorist and storyteller, and a feared moonshine still wrecker. Bailey worked in several capacities for the railroad for 52 years, until his retirement at age 70 in 1958. He took two leaves of absence of two years each in 1920 and 1928 when he was elected sheriff first of Madison and then Buncombe County. He was believed to be the only lawman in the state to serve as sheriff in two counties. Bailey was born near Bailey's Bend on the French Broad River in Madison County. He was a farm boy until his telegrapher's job at Bailey Station in the Knoxville, Tenn., division of Southern Railway in 1906.
In 1920, Bailey fulfilled a childhood dream when he was elected sheriff of Madison County on a promise to be tougher on moonshiners than his opponent. That was the year after the Volstead Act, and prohibition was at it height. The Sheriff's county was known as "Bloody Madison." In 1971, Bailey told this story about the 1920 election. " My Opponent, a former sheriff, has been light on the liquor laws. I'd never drunk a drop in my life – still haven't- but I decided I wasn't going to be too hard on the moonshiners. I went out in the bushes and told ‘em: ‘Now boys, I won't be too hard on you unless you put your stills out here in the road where I can stump my toe on ‘em.' But they said, "Bailey, we know what this other man will do and we don't know what you'll do, so we'll have to support him. "
"They did, but the dry people elected me. They expected me to dry up the county overnight and , of course, I couldn't do that. But I raised the price on liquor from $15 a gallon to $75. I made it scarce."
The day his successor was sworn in 1922, Bailey made headlines by capturing a still and arresting two "blockaders" in Hot Springs, a few miles from the Tennessee line. Bailey returned to the railway as an officer in Southern's special service department, then simply called the police department. He went to Richmond, Va., and Greensboro as a Lieutenant of police before retiring to Western North Carolina in 1927 as police captain of the Asheville area. His second leave of absence came in 1928, when he was elected sheriff of Buncombe County, taking over the county's brand new courthouse in Asheville. In his first four weeks as sheriff in Buncombe, Bailey and his men seized 12 stills, three automobiles, 137 gallons of whiskey and 800 gallons of beer. Bailey was wounded only once, when he was shot in the hand during a raid while sheriff in Buncombe County. After his term as sheriff ended in 1930, he returned to Southern Railway as Asheville captain until 1935, when he went to Greensboro as division special agent. In 1940, he came back to Asheville to stay. After he retired in 1958, Bailey was in demand as an after-dinner speaker and storyteller. His wife Edna Chandley Bailey, died in 1970 at age 79. He is survived by his daughter, Mrs. Charles Lovin, Jr. in Greensboro. Perhaps the greatest tribute paid Bailey is a chapter about him titled " The High Sheriff" in Wilma Dykeman's "The French Broad." (Here are excerpts from that chapter: He pushes the big brimmed hat on the back of his head, and it gives him a jaunty, ‘careless look. You know he isn't a careless man, however, or he wouldn't be here now – he'd be dead from one of the dozens of bullets that missed by a hairbreath during one of those hundreds of raids on hidden distilleries.
"Or, from the crash of his car as it hurtled off the road more times than once giving chase to a blockade-runner or transporting prisoners down to the North Carolina state penitentiary at Raleigh and facing emergencies of slipped handcuffs, mutiny, and violence. Or the times he confronted knives and the quick, well-honed razors.' "It too courage and caution in equal parts to be a successful sheriff in Madison County at the beginning of Prohibition: courage to face ambush, courage to do the work for less pay than the moonshiners would give you for not doing it, and caution to read the trails with care, know your opponent's methods, go in after him and come back alive. Dead law is no law."
"Sheriff Bailey captured stills up and down the hills and hollows from Paint Rock when the French Broad River crosses the North Carolina Line into Tennessee to Paint Fork at the remote head of one of the tributaries, his men cut down barrels and furnaces, brought in boilers and jugs as evidence of their success."
Services for Bailey will be held at 11 a.m. Tuesday in the Marshall Baptist Church. The Revs. Warren Miliner, Cecil Sherman, and Mike Minnis will officiate. Graveside services will be at 2 p.m. Wednesday at Greensboro. The family will receive friends 7-9 p.m. Monday at Bowman Funeral Home in Marshall, where the body will remain until Tuesday morning.
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