from The History of Hendricks County (Indianapolis: B.F. Bowen & Co., 1914)----pages 768-770
An enumeration of those men of the present generation who have won honor and public recognition for themselves in Hendricks County, and at the same time have honored the locality to which they belong, would be incomplete were there failure to make specific mention of Marion Bailey, of Union Township. The qualities which have made him one of the prominent and successful men of Hendricks County have also brought him the esteem of his fellow men, for his career has been one of well directed energy, strong determination and honorable methods. Yet he has not neglected to take his part in the public life of his community.
Marion Bailey, the president of the Lizton Bank and vice-president of the Citizens State Bank at Jamestown, was born December 1, 1854, near St. Paul. His parents were John and Catherine (Emdy) Bailey. John Bailey was born in Butler County, Ohio, September 19, 1827, and came with his parents to Shelby County, Indiana, when a small boy. In 1861 John Bailey with his family, moved to this county and settled in Union Township near Lizton, where he followed the life of a farmer and stock raiser until his death in 1902. The wife of John Bailey was a native of Shelby County, Indiana, and died in 1855, when Marion was only one year of age. John Bailey was the father of fourteen children: Mrs. Elizabeth Smith; Sarah, who died at the age of two; Mrs. Eva A. Campbell , and Marion, whose history is herein delineated, are the children of his first wife, Catherine Emdy. Mrs. Mary E. Dale; George W.; Peter N.; Mrs. Ellen Hall; Mrs. Nettie Hedge; Mrs. Nora E. Lee; Edgar; William, who died at the age of three; John T., and one child which died in infancy, are children by his second marriage, to Rebecca J. Reed.
Marion Bailey was given a good education in the schools of Lizton and Jamestown and assisted his father on the farm until his marriage, at the age of twenty-three. He was married November 15, 1877, to Rachel C. Young, the daughter of Milton and Susan Young, and to this union have been born five children. The first died in early infancy: Harry E., who married Dora Brown; Harry is a farmer living near Lizton and has two children, Buford E. and Veletia; Artie M., a farmer of Boone County, who married Nora Coombs and has two children, Kenneth and Earl; Luna A., the wife of Stewart Pritchett, a farmer of Boone County, has two children, Thelma and Lorin; Goldie Vesper, a farmer of this township who married Ruth Keeney and has one child, Ranold Marion. Immediately after his marriage, Mr. Bailey began farming in Union Township and has been a successful farmer from the beginning and now owns three hundred and eighty-seven and a half acres in this county and Boone County. In 1903 he made his first venture in the banking business and upon the organization of the Citizens Bank at Jamestown, in Boone County, he became vice-president and has continued in that capacity up to the present time. Pre-eminent amond his many good qualities is that of sound financial judgment and an ability to grasp facts and infer their practical significance with almost unerring certainty. After once engaging in the banking business he became interested in it and began to make a study of practical banking. In 1910 he helped to organize the Lizton Bank and has been president of that financial institution ever since its organization. Both of the banks with which he is connected are in a flourishing condition and have gained the confidence of the community which they serve.
However, Mr. Bailey's life has not always been devoted to business, for he has taken a prominent part in the public affairs of his community and state and for the past thirty years has been one of the prominent figures in Democratic politics in his county and for the last ten years a conspicuous figure in state politics. His first official position was trustee of his township, an office which he held from 1881 to 1895; he then served as a member of the county advisory board, getting his appointment through the governor, then served three years on the state board of charities and correction, this board being composed of three citizens of the state selected by the governor. Mr. Bailey's first entry into state politics was in 1906, when he was nominated by the Democratic state convention for state auditor, and although the whole Republican ticket was elected in that year, he was defeated by only thirty-two votes. In 1908 the Democratic state convention recognized in him a man of great ability and a man who would make an effective appeal to the voters of the state, and they again placed him before the Democrats of the state on the ticket for state auditor. Again, however, the fortunes of politics were against him and this time he was defeated by a vote of only one hundred and twenty-eight out of a total of nearly six hundred and fifty thousand votes. It will be seen from what has been said of Mr. Bailey that he is a man of marked ability along many lines. As a political leader his convictions of right and wrong have been sharply separated and he has always taken a positive stand for clean politics and better political conditions generally. He has always heartily endorsed the maxim that he serves his party best who serves his country best, and upon all questions involving the material, moral and educational interests of society he has always endeavored to ascertain the right involved, with a view of acting in conformity therewith.
Mr. Bailey is a member of the Knights of Pythias, Improved Order of Red Men and Pythian Sisters at Lizton; the Free and Accepted Masons at Jamestown and the Royal Arch Masons at Danville. He is also a member of the Indiana Democratic Club, Indianapolis. Mr. Bailey has a reputation as a hard worker and a man of good judgment and honest principles. He is a self-made man and one who has in every respect merited the high esteem in which he has been universally held. He has been recognized as a man of public spirit, intellectual attainment and exemplary character.