James Sampson Bailey & Mary Ann Martha Viola Jane (Jones) BaileyThe parents of 14 children who lived to be adults -
three sons and eleven daughters
Grandma Mary Frances was next-to-the-youngest.
Grandma Mary Frances was next-to-the-youngest.
James Sampson Bailey was born Feb. 12, 1861 in Nashville, Tennessee. [James' father, John Sampson Bailey, was a circuit-riding preacher, who had owned a hundred slaves in Tennessee, many of whom refused to leave after they were freed.]
Mary Jones was born on March 8, 1881, in her grandmother's [Eudailey's] home near Weatherford, Texas.
Mary's father moved often living in a covered wagon.
While living near Waco, Texas, she met James Bailey on a warm Sunday morning. Mary brushed a strand of hair from her forehead, as she sang in the church choir. A hand reached out and fanned her face with his songbook. This is the first time she had noticed the tall dark-headed man twenty years her senior. She wasn't pleased having this older man showing her this much attention before the whole church. She said she could have "falled through the floor."
He turned out to be the cousin of her good friend, Bertha, who said, "You can thank God, if you get that man.
James started seeing her and often slipped her notes of poetry. He purposed in a written poem, to which she sent a note, "I like chicken. Chicken likes salt. If we don't get married, it won't be my fault."
James asked her father for the privilege of taking Mary to town.
As the two drove home in his horse-drawn buggy, Mary told James she had gotten a certified letter for her father. "Oh, I got a certified letter, too," he said, pulling their marriage license from his pocket.
Mary took one look at the license and covered her face with her hands, trying to hide the blush.
There was a creek that crossed the road, just below a steep hill, only a short distance from home. James stopped there, letting his horse drink, he turned to Mary, "Miss, you are going to let me kiss you before we get home, aren't you?"
At first Mary thought she would, but when she looked into his face, she became embarrassed and said, "Mr. Bailey, if you dare say another word about that, you will wish the longest day you lived that you had never said it."
"I'm very sorry, I did not mean to offend you. Please accept my apology."
James and Mary were married in her parents home. During the ceremony, Mary noticed the cow eating out of a big tub just outside the open backdoor.
They were married January 28, 1900, and started a family alter that very day.
Mary often took the gun to get a rabbit for dinner. She made two quilts during the first two months of marriage.
James lost his farm land after co-signing for a friend's loan.
James and Mary moved often picking cotton.
They purchased 120 acres near Alto, New Mexico. Grandma sold the 120 acres for $2,000, the same price they had paid for it about 50 years before. Buyers subdivided the land and sold parcels for more than they paid for the land.
~ Esther
John, David (Daddy), Mary, Nona (Great-Grandma) and Lance
“Nona” Aurelia Anselmi Seppi loved babies and worked hard. She labored in the fields of
They lived in mining camps in Utah, Colorado and Canada. Nona had 13 pregnancies, 8 live births and 4 children who lived to adulthood. She passed away in her sleep at nearly 103 years old.
Regina has Italian hair and skin from her Grandpa Seppi
Grandma Betty and Fama 1985
1989 Nona at age 99 with baby Dinah, (That is a pink train whistle from the railroad museum in Helper)
Grandma Betty with Dinah
1991 Mom apprenticing Dinah
Jodavid's Birthday 
Grandma Mary said, "The night we were married,
I earnestly prayed that God would save all of
the children He was going to give us.
That prayer now includes all of our sons and daughters-in-law,
our grandchildren and
as many descendants God may permit us to have.
Let's plan now to have an exciting family reunion in Heaven!!"
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