The Munsons of Texas — an American Saga
Inset 15
JAMES "BRIT" BAILEY AND BAILEY'S PRAIRIE
Bailey's Prairie, today both a town and a general area, is a well known name in Brazoria County and is deeply imbedded in Munson history and tradition.
James Britton Bailey was born in North Carolina on August 1, 1779 of noble ancestry. His family was of Irish stock, descendants of Kenneth Bailey, whose ancestors included Robert Bruce, one time king of Scotland. Bailey had moved from North Carolina to Kentucky to Tennessee, where times had not been good due to floods and illness. It was in the year 1817 that Bailey, fresh from the War of 1812 and having heard that some people were settling in the Spanish territory of Texas, decided to cast his lot there.
On March 18, 1818, a wagon train led by Brit Bailey, with wife Dorothy and the six children — Gaines, Phelps, Smith, James, Pollie, and baby Pollie, — set out from Tennessee for Texas. Mrs. Bailey's brother, Smith, and the slaves drove other wagons loaded with household goods. Since New Orleans was the nearest port, they headed there, arriving just in time to load all their belongings on a boat that was leaving for Galveston. They proceeded from Galveston to Anahuac, where Bailey left his family and headed for the Brazos River area. There he received an individual grant of 4,587 acres from the Spanish government. His grant was in the unsettled wilderness between the Brazos River and Oyster Creek. After several weeks he returned for his family. Some of the early settlers were raided and scalped by the local Karankawa Indians, but the Baileys understood the Indians and knew how to trade with them, so they had no serious trouble.
Using local trees and saplings, Brit Bailey built the first house in this area and made this his home — hence the name Bailey's Prairie. An open hall ran through the center of the building, with two rooms on each side and galleries running the length of the house. The furniture was all handmade. The house was later painted red and became known as the "Red House". They raised cotton that was shipped to Mexico and, at times, it is said, sold for sixty cents a pound. They built a cotton gin nearby. Game was plentiful — buffalo, deer, turkey, geese and ducks — and corn and vegetables were grown for their table.
Bailey's land was included in the grant from the Mexican government to Stephen F. Austin in 1823. It is reported that Austin ordered Bailey to vacate, but he refused, and after extensive negotiations Austin "sold" the disputed land to Bailey. It is reported that Bailey and Austin once had a fist-fight on the streets of Brazoria. Bailey received a grant from Austin of one league (4,428 acres) just to the north of his residence — the J. B. Bailey Survey on today's county maps — while Bailey's house stood on the present Russell Survey, and Russell's house was on the Cornelius Smith Survey.
Bailey participated in the Battle of Velasco in 1832 with Henry William Munson and James P. Caldwell. Soon thereafter his daughters urged him to build a house in town (in Brazoria) which he did, but just as it was finished he became ill and died, possibly in the "Big Cholera" of 1833. His son, Phelps, was killed during the Battle of Jones Creek, and son James drowned in the Brazos River.
In 1824 son Smith Bailey purchased from Cornelius Smith about 900 acres of land — the western "quarter" of the Cornelius Smith league — just to the north of Bailey's home. The full purchase price was $50.50. In 1850 Mordello Munson bought 300 of these acres from Smith Bailey's daughter, Lucinda Florence, for $750.00; and in 1859 he bought the remaining 600 acres from Smith Bailey's widow for $2,000.00. The 300-acre plot was the land on which Mordello built his plantation home, named "Ridgely", and the land that the Munsons now call "the old home place". All of these lands are still owned by his great-grandchildren.
Colorful stories of James "Brit" Bailey abound to this day. A favorite is that Bailey requested that he be buried standing up with his rifle by his side and a lantern and a jug of whisky at his feet. Also, he wished to be buried facing west, because, he said: "All my life I have been traveling westward, and I have never looked up to any man, so I do not want it said `here lies old Brit Bailey', but rather, `here stands Brit Bailey.'" Tradition reports that his requests were granted, and a Texas Highway Historical Marker on State Highway 35 west of Angleton now marks the spot and records the story. The entire area is still called Bailey's Prairie, and any old-timer will tell you that on any dark night one might see a strange, distant light moving across the prairie — the ghost of old Brit Bailey.
