A drifting cowboy: Iron and Reins: The Unbroken Life of David Solomon Bailey

Elkhorn Nebraska c. 1890

From Buckeye Roots to the Iowa Frontier

The story of David Solomon Bailey began on December 8, 1837, in Columbus, Franklin County, Ohio. Born to Orange Bailey and Lydia Waggoner, David spent his earliest years among the hardwood forests and expanding settlements of central Ohio. But mid-19th-century America was defined by relentless westward motion, and the Bailey family was no exception.

In 1845, when David was just seven years old, the family loaded their belongings into a covered wagon and joined the pioneer trail bound for the Iowa Territory—a raw, newly opening frontier on the banks of the Mississippi River. The journey was grueling, but the hardest blow fell shortly after their arrival. In August 1847, in Marion Township, Davis County, Iowa, nine-year-old David suffered the devastating loss of his mother, Lydia.

Growing up fast in the Iowa countryside, David learned the heavy physical labor of frontier farming. By his early twenties, he settled in nearby Moravia, Appanoose County. It was there that he met and courted Sophia Boyd, the daughter of Valentine Boyd, a respected local blacksmith in Union, Iowa. The young couple married on March 13, 1859. With his new father-in-law shaping iron at the forge, David set out to build a quiet life as an Iowa farmer, welcoming his first son, William, shortly before the nation fractured into civil war.

Guerrilla Terror and the Call to Arms

For the first three years of the Civil War, David remained home in southern Iowa, tending his farm and raising his young family. Southern Iowa, however, was not far from the bloody border conflicts of Missouri. By late 1863 and early 1864, the region was plagued by violent, pro-Confederate bushwhackers and guerrilla raiders who crossed the border to terrorize civilian settlements, loot farms, and ambush Union sympathizers.

The sudden, chaotic threat to his home and family transformed a 27-year-old husband and father into a soldier. On February 18, 1864, David left his farm in Van Buren County and traveled to Keokuk, Iowa, enlisting as a private in Company G of the 3rd Iowa Cavalry.

[FEB 18, 1864] [MAR 16, 1864] [JUNE 1-9, 1864] [JUNE 10, 1864]

Enlisted at Keokuk ──► Mustered into Co. G ──► Sturgis Expedition March ──► Battle of Brice's Cross Roads

(Memphis, TN) (Memphis to Mississippi) (Severely Wounded)

Mustered into service on March 16, 1864, Private Bailey was deployed to Memphis, Tennessee, joining his regiment for patrol duties against Confederate Major General Nathan Bedford Forrest. In June 1864, Brigadier General Samuel D. Sturgis led a Union column of 8,000 men deep into northern Mississippi to pin down Forrest's cavalry and protect Sherman's vital supply lines during the Atlanta Campaign.

Disaster at Brice’s Cross Roads

On the sweltering, 90-degree morning of June 10, 1864, the column met Forrest’s forces near Guntown, Mississippi, at an intersection known as Brice’s Cross Roads. Company G of the 3rd Iowa Cavalry dismounted and entered dense oak thickets, using multi-shot Spencer repeating carbines to hold back aggressive Confederate charges for hours.

Battle Stage	Tactical Development
Morning (10:00 AM)	Dismounted 3rd Iowa Cavalry holds the line against fierce attacks in stifling heat.
Afternoon (1:30 PM)	Exhausted Union infantry arrives; Forrest launches simultaneous double-flank attacks.
The Panic (3:30 PM)	Union lines collapse; an overturned wagon blocks the Tishomingo Creek bridge, triggering a retreat.

As the Union retreat collapsed into chaos across Tishomingo Creek, hundreds of severely wounded men were left behind at makeshift field hospitals. Among them was Private David Bailey, whose right leg had been shattered by enemy fire. Unable to walk, David was captured as a prisoner of war. A field surgeon performed an emergency amputation of his right leg below the knee under crude conditions.

[JUNE 10, 1864] [SUMMER 1864] [FALL 1864 - SPRING 1865] [SEP 11, 1865]

Severe Leg Wound & ──► Confederate Field Hosp. ──► Paroled to US Gen. Hospital ──► Honorably Discharged

Amputation & Mobile Care (Memphis / Keokuk) ("Disch Wounds")

Because caring for amputees strained Confederate resources, David was paroled under a flag of truce in late 1864 and transferred to Union general hospitals in Memphis and Iowa. He spent fifteen grueling months recovering from infection and learning to navigate life on a wooden peg leg before receiving his medical discharge on September 11, 1865.

The Frontier Teamster of Nebraska

1905 Sophia (Boyd) & David Bailey with their

brother-in-law Frances Holland Shonkwiler

Returning to Moravia, Iowa, missing his right leg would have permanently sidelined many men, but David refused to accept invalidism. Driven by the promise of cheap land under the Homestead Act—which allowed Union veterans to count military service toward residency requirements—David gathered Sophia and their growing family. Between 1867 and 1869, they journeyed 200 miles west in a covered wagon to Douglas County, Nebraska, settling near Elkhorn along the newly completed Union Pacific Railroad.

1890 OMAHA FREIGHT & TEAMSTER NETWORK

[Union Pacific Railyards] ──► [Jobbing District & Warehouses]

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(Heavy Drayage Vans)

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[Stockyards & Smelters] ──► [Paved Streets vs. Mud Roads]

On the Nebraska prairie, David turned his physical limitations into a specialized craft. While hand-plowing on a peg leg was grueling, handling draft horses relied on voice, hands, balance, and quiet authority. David began breeding Belgian draft horses—massive, calm, muscular horses prized for heavy hauling.

By 1890, Omaha had exploded into a roaring metropolis of 140,000 people, serving as the "Gateway to the West." David worked as a heavy commercial teamster, maneuvering broad-chested draft teams pulling iron-axled drayage wagons loaded with timber, grain, and machinery through crowded downtown streets. To drive heavy teams with an amputated leg, he relied on custom wagon modifications, including a high, padded box-seat and custom foot-braces to leverage the wooden wheel brakes.

[1867–1869] Move to Nebraska ──► Settled Elkhorn, Douglas County; daughter "Pink" born 1870.

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[1870s–1880s] Draft Horse Breeding ──► Raised Belgian draft horses for farm and city freighting.

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[1890s] Omaha Teamstering ──► Hauled industrial drayage; partnered in Fowler seed business.

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[JUL 19, 1915] Final Rest ──► Passed away at age 77; buried in Elkhorn, Nebraska.

As the agricultural industry expanded, David connected his draft-horse operation with local trade. When his daughter Mahalia Margaret ("Pink") married Charles B. Fowler, David partnered with his son-in-law in the booming regional seed and grain business, hauling sacks of seed corn and grain between farms and rail depots in Waterloo and Elkhorn.

Despite enduring the loss of his daughter Celestia in 1893 and his beloved wife Sophia in 1908, David remained a steady fixture of Western Douglas County. When he passed away on July 19, 1915, at the age of 77, local newspapers honored him as a true pioneer veteran—a man who lost a limb on a Civil War battlefield but built a legacy through sheer grit on the Nebraska frontier.