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| Franklin Bailey and his Belgium colt c. 1898, Nebraska |
If you follow the tracks of the Bailey outfit back to where my grandfather Franklin Jackson Bailey (1886–1968) got his start, you won't find a fancy house or settled township. You'll find a rough soddy sitting out on the wind-scoured prairie of Liberty Township, Valley County, Nebraska.
Born on April 29, 1886, Frank was raised on prairie dust, sod bricks, and hard work. His folks, David Jackson Bailey (1865–1949) and Lillian Amanda Pierce (1867–1957), made their living farming and breeding heavy Belgian draft horses. But when relentless drought and prairie dust storms stripped the Nebraska country bare around 1902, the Baileys loaded up and headed west to Latah County, Idaho, where they set up shop farming and logging near Kendrick.
Big Sky Fever and the 2nd Montana Infantry
Young men have a habit of wandering where the country is wild, and in the spring of 1908, Frank and his brother Len decided to head up into the Flathead country around Kalispell, Montana.
They went up for a summer of trout fishing in Flathead Lake and hunting elk in the shadow of the high Rockies. Surrounded by dense pine forests and the wilderness that would soon become Glacier National Park, the Bailey boys fell head-over-heels for the Flathead Valley.
FRANK'S MONTANA ARRIVAL & SERVICE
[1886] Born in a Nebraska Sod House (Liberty Twp, Valley Co.)
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[1902] Family Drift to Kendrick, Latah County, Idaho
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[1908] Summer Fishing & Hunting Trip to Kalispell, Montana
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[1908] Enlists in Company H, 2nd Montana Infantry (Kalispell)
By March 1908, the fishing money had run dry, but neither Frank nor Len wanted to leave. To keep grease in the pan and stay in the valley, they marched down to the local armory and enlisted as privates in Company H of the 2nd Montana Infantry. A few hours of military drill every week was a small price to pay for a steady paycheck in the high country.
The Huckleberry Patch and an 80-Acre Slice of Heaven
It turned out that staying in the Flathead was the best move Frank ever made. While out picking wild huckleberries on the mountain slopes near Creston, Frank crossed paths with a young frontier woman named Lydia Corinna Brown (1891–1971).
Lydia was the daughter of Abraham Lincoln Brown and Geneva "Neva" Plympton—a true daughter of the Flathead stump-ranch country. Frank was instantly smitten.
THE BAILEY-BROWN UNION
Franklin Jackson Bailey Lydia Corinna Brown
(1886–1968) (1891–1971)
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• S/o David Jackson Bailey • D/o Abraham Lincoln Brown
• Sod House-Born Homesteader • Granddaughter of Voyageur Stock
• Belgian Horseman & Logger • Flathead Valley Daughter
On September 4, 1912, Frank and Lydia were married in Kalispell. They filed papers on an 80-acre slice of Montana heaven near Creston and started building a life together. Like Lydia’s family, they logged the heavy timber, raised cattle and Belgian horses, grew a subsistence garden, and spent long winters cutting, splitting, and hauling firewood into Kalispell to keep cash coming in.
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Over the next few years, their home filled with young ones: first Opal Beulah in 1913, followed by my mother, Velma Veda, in 1914, and Vernon Frank in 1917. (Daughters Hazel May and Muriel Neva would complete the crew after the move to Idaho).
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The Cracking of the Frontier: Why the Baileys Left Montana
By 1918, the dream on the Creston stump ranch began to unravel. It wasn't a lack of grit that drove Frank and Lydia off their claim—it was a perfect storm of environmental disaster and wartime economic shocks that swept through the Flathead Valley between 1916 and 1918:
- The Great Montana Drought (1917): After years of good rainfall, the skies closed up tight in 1917. Pastures dried into dust, garden plots failed, and the small-scale stump ranchers couldn't grow enough feed to carry their cattle through the harsh winters.
- WWI Hyper-Inflation: When America entered the Great War in 1917, the cost of horse tack, iron tools, crosscut saws, and basic supplies skyrocketed. While big wheat barons on the eastern plains cashed in on wartime grain prices, small timber farmers were priced out of existence.
- Collapse of the Backcountry Cash Economy: Frank relied on seasonal guiding, hunting, and logging work to raise cash for taxes. When the war hit, domestic travel ground to a halt, drying up the tourism and guiding income that kept small homesteads solvent.
- The Pull of the Palouse: Back in Latah County, Idaho, Frank’s family was working the rich, proven volcanic soils of Texas Ridge and Bear Ridge around Kendrick. Returning south meant trading dry timberland for reliable wheat country.
THE RETREAT FROM THE FLATHEAD
[1912] Creston Homestead ── 80 Acres Filed, Logging & Farming
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[1917] Montana Drought ── Crops Fail, Pastures Burn, Inflation Hits
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[1918] Wagon Trek South ── 300-Mile Move to Kendrick & Texas Ridge, ID
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[1920s] Lewiston Orchards── Farming the Snake River Country
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[1935] Pacific Sunset ── Final Move South to Los Angeles, California
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Velma and Vernon c. 1918 in Kalispell, Montana |
Sunset on the Pacific: From Idaho Wheat to California War Plants
In 1918, Frank hitched his Belgian draft horses to a canvas-topped wagon, loaded Lydia and their two small children (Opal had succumbed to Scarlet fever 1n 1917), and made the grueling 300-mile trek across the mountain passes back to Kendrick, Idaho.
For the next fifteen years, Frank farmed wheat on Texas Ridge, later moving his family down to the Lewiston Orchards in Nez Perce County. He fought the land, managed his orchards, and raised his five kids through the hard years of the 1920s. But when the Great Depression hit in the early 1930s, the bottom fell out of agriculture completely.
In 1935, Frank made the final, monumental decision that brought a three-century transcontinental march to its end. He packed up the family and moved south to Los Angeles, California.
Settling in the Santa Monica and West Los Angeles area, Frank put his lifelong knowledge of soil and plants to work. During World War II, while his age kept him off the front lines, he served his country as a plant gardener for AiResearch Manufacturing, keeping the facilities running smoothly while the country fought overseas.
Frank Jackson Bailey lived out a long, dignified life in Southern California, passing away on March 15, 1968, at the age of 81. He lies at rest in Forest Lawn, Glendale, having carried his family line from a Nebraska sod house, through the high timber of Montana and the wheat ridges of Idaho, all the way to the shores of the Pacific Ocean.
Key Family Genealogy Notes
- Franklin Jackson Bailey: b. 29 Apr 1886, Liberty Twp, NE – d. 15 Mar 1968, Los Angeles, CA.
- Lydia Corinna Brown: b. 13 Sep 1891, Sioux City, IA – d. 25 Dec 1971, Granada Hills, CA.
- Burial: Forest Lawn Memorial Park, Glendale, Los Angeles County, California.
- Children of Frank & Lydia:
- Opal Beulah Bailey (1913–1917) – Passed away as a child in Montana.
- Velma Veda Bailey (1914–2004) – Born in Kalispell, MT; my mother.
- Vernon Frank Bailey (1917–1999) – Born in Creston, MT.
- Hazel May Bailey (1919–1999) – Born in Troy, Latah Co., ID.
- Muriel Neva Bailey (1924–2012) – Born in Lewiston, Nez Perce Co., ID.
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