My great-great-great-grandparents were Asberry Bailey and his wife, Mary Pauline Haire Bailey.
Asberry was born in about 1822 in Anson County and died Oct. 20, 1900 in Wadesboro. He was buried at the Seago Family Cemetery, which is located directly behind North Wadesboro Baptist Church, in an unmarked grave. He married Mary Pauline Haire in about 1842. Mary was born in about 1824 and died between 1895 and 1900.
After the birth of his son, Leonidas, in 1848, Asberry moved his family to Georgia, where they can be found living next door to his uncle, Lewis Bailey, in Meriwether County, Georgia in the 1850 census.
Lewis had moved to Meriwether County as early as 1835. In 1862, Asberry moved his family back to Anson County, where his two eldest sons enlisted in the Civil War. Asberry supposedly operated a store on Ingram Mountain but it is not known how successful he was. In 1894, he could not pay the taxes on 272 acres of land. He owed $9. This was some of the land that his great-grandfather Thomas Bailey had bought in the late 1790s. The land was sold at public auction to pay the taxes and was bought by someone not related to the family. This ended what was known as the Bailey lands.
After losing everything, Mary left Asberry and went to live in Montgomery County with one of her daughters. Mary probably died there. It has been said that Mary left Asberry because he was a rowdy alcoholic. When he got drunk, he was dangerous. He always carried a pistol, and when he began to drink, he was trouble. His own family could not do anything with him when he was drinking. Instead of fighting with him, the family would hide until he sobered up.
After losing the land and Mary leaving him, Asberry had nowhere to go. He went to live at the county home. He was considered a pauper and received one dollar per month. Near the end of his life, his daughter, Georgia Bailey Powell Dixon, took him in and he died at her home. He was 78 years old.
Steve Bailey is employed with the Anson County Historical Society and has specialized in local African-American family history for 20 years.