All roads lead to Baileytown - if you were traveling on the three byways that head westward from the shores of the Maurice River in the late 1800's. During that early period of settlement, travelers who journeyed west from the Spring Garden ferry, or meandered along Ackley Road or Battle Road, would have undoubtedly encountered a Bailey.

According to a bound genealogy, The Baileys of Baileytown (ca 1946), Bagwell Bailey owned  "a great deal of land in Downe Township." The property, which would now fall in Commercial Township (established in 1874), was purchased during the period of 1809-1815. Bagwell Bailey built a temporary shelter, a log cabin, for his family on a section of property that was bordered by Ackley Road (see map from The Baileys of Baileytown convergence of Ackley and Spring Garden Rds). For two years, the family carried water to their cabin from a stream that fed Laurel Lake. In 1801, Bagwell moved one mile west of this spot, to a property that had available water, "sweet water," the author of the genealogy wrote.

In the following decades, the rich farmland provided a healthy living for the Bailey clan. The author noted, "Neighbors started to describe the region: 'Up Baileytown Way." By the time Bagwell Bailey died in 1848, a community of homes, a school, and signposts pinpointed Baileytown.

One can only surmise that as the Bailey heirs spread their roots in the region, the location of Baileytown became fixed in minds and on maps. Which Bailey ancestor eventually acquired land closer to the Maurice River is yet to be determined. An educated guess would be that riverside property owned by Jonathan Sutton, who adopted Mary Kennedy Bailey (mother of the notable Cumberland County citizen John Herr Bailey), came into the Bailey family along those lines.

In his book Maurice River Memories, Joseph Reeves, Jr. mentions the Bailey Reach. Describing a 1938 railbird hunting expedition, Reeves noted "the marshes on the west side of the river bordering Lores Hill, Bailey, Spring Garden and Acorn Gut reaches."

Reeves wrote: "Most men in the area were gathering at my granddad Morton Reeves place down the street.“

Morton Reeves, also known as Gummy because of the gum boots he wore as a child, had enlisted the help of 20 area men who would serve as "pushers" for the 20 ‘gunners’ (hunters) that came to the Maurice River, one of the region's prime railbirding grounds.
 
Joseph Reeves, Jr. set the scene: "Three skiffs were positioned at Lou Godfrey's place behind the Buckshutem Church. That was about six miles away by river but only three miles by road.” Another group left in a '37 Packer, heading to the "marshes on the west side of the river bordering Lores Hill, Bailey, Spring Garden and Acorn Gut reaches."

The way Reeves lays this out, Baileys Reach would be across the Maurice River from Lore's Hill, south of Spring Garden and the Sweet Meadows at Acorn Gut.

The Bailey Basket Factory was the undertaking of John Herr Bailey (see obituary). The Bailey genealogy tells how John did not want to continue the farming tradition that had supported the Bailey clan since Bagwell Bailey moved to the area. In fact, almost one hundred years after Bagwell settled in what became Baileytown, John Herr Bailey moved his family - and his modest basket factory to Mauricetown. Soon after, he added coal and wood to the company. In 1921, the expanding business with manufacturing sites in Vineland and Glassboro, was renamed to J. H. Bailey and Sons, was relocated to Millville. The business, renamed again to Jersey Package Company, grew to be the largest of its kind in the Mid-Atlantic region.

This enterprising entrepreneur, a respected of Cumberland County, died in 1951 at the age of 75.

Many locals remember this side of the Bailey Family. Mary Harris Veach was friends with John Herr Bailey's daughters Verna Ligette (deceased) and Pearl (Steelman) - who moved to Texas.

Others remember the commercial traffic along the Maurice River that supported the basket manufacturing operation. Frank Murphine was among those who recall watching the tripod lift hauling the logs from the ships that used to dock at the landing at Buck and Main Streets.