Bailey WOOD Sr.

Bailey WOOD Sr. of Woodville, Virginia (present-day Ansted, West Virginia)
b. bet. 1755-1758 d. bef. 21 Sep 1826

On November 24, 1781, Pastor John Alderson of the Greenbrier River area organized the Old Greenbrier Church at Alderson, the first Baptist organization west of the Alleghenies. Bailey WOOD, Ann WOOD, and James WOOD were three of the twelve original members.
At this time he had been married about five years and lived with his wife Nancy and several children in a cabin near the foot of Keeney’s Knob near Alderson where wild game hunting was so plentiful.

The relationship between him and Ann WOOD and James WOOD is not known. Could they have been his parents or siblings?

In 1788 he was granted 450 acres of land on the south side of Greenbrier River. It is possible that he also acquired 280 acres in 1785. Bailey was seen on tax lists in Greenbrier County from 1782 until 1799 when the area that he lived in became Monroe County.

Around 1792 he was one of a group of “squatters” who were the first settlers in the Ansted area. In 1796 Bailey WOOD was instrumental in organizing Hopewell Baptist Church, the first Baptist Church in the area of Woodville, now known as Ansted, (Fayette County, West Virginia). The initial membership of the new church included members who had been dismissed from the Greenbrier Baptist Church, most likely due to a westward migration of families. The Woodville area fell in Nicholas County in 1818 and then in Fayette County in 1831 when the counties were formed. The family moved only once, though they appeared to move several times due to the changing of county boundaries.

By 1804 Bailey had disposed of 450 acres of land. In 1826, after his death, his heirs sold 100 acres on the south side of Greenbrier River, then in Monroe County, to John Alderson.

The search is on for the parents of Bailey WOOD.

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