HENRY N. BAILEY

From 'Fanning the Embers', published 1971, Range Rider Reps, Miles City, Montana

By Margaret Bailey Broadus

Henry Newton Bailey was born July 2, 1871, at St. Joeseph Mo., to John Wesley and Cynthia Anne Snider Bailey. They came to Montana via wagon and horse teams, following oxen team freighters, arriving on the upper Rosebud near Kirby and later moving to the George Snider Ranch on the lower Rosebud. Henry had a brother Emery who was killed when kicked by a horse while working on the PLS Ranch. His sister Minnie married Charles Winsor in Kansas and they later moved to Montana and had one son named Virgil (Smokey). Henry hired out to work for Frank C. Robinson as horse wrangler and stayed four years. They were on spring roundup for 21/2 months besides riding most of the summer and fall. He had four wagons with 75 to 125 head of horses; each man had his own string. Robinson had an alarm watch which was the size of an alarm clock. When they had their cattle rounded up the cowboys took turns doing night guard in three hour shifts. Many times the steers would be bedded down and a lightning storm would hit and the lightning would look like balls of fire on their horns, many times causing the herd to stampede. Henry, Hugh Lynch, John McKay and Mert Francis were called the alarm clocks for the roundups in later years. Henry received his patent for his homestead in 1898, starting out with three cows and calves. His first house was built too close to Rosebud Creek and everytime it rained he would get flooded out so his next house was on high ground, even higher than his other buildings. His brand was known as the Lazy TN, which was printed with the T laying on its side and the N upright, his range, Rosebud, Armelles and Sarpy Creeks. In 1902 he married Alice Lynch and many country dances were held in their home with El Clark the fiddler. During the flu epidemic Henry rode about ten miles a day helping out five sick families, building fires and bringing in fuel and food. He had the flu earlier in the fall. Scalpkane, a Cheyenne Indian, butchered a beef on Caswell Coulee and when Henry, Hugh Lynch and Joe Toohey surprised them the Indians went over a rough draw and waited until they went by. They notified the Indian Agent and he sent A. C. Stohr out to check on it. George Snider found the beef covered with rocks so Henry loosened the burrs on the hubs of the wheels and when the Indians came back in the night to pick up the meat the wheels fell off the wagon and they dragged it two or three miles through rough country. Henry and Hugh went to Scalpkane's house and Hugh said, "Where's the beef?", Scalpkane answered, "Your're crazy," using the word "massone" in Cheyenne. He was mad and walked into his house, got his cartridge belt, cartridges and carbine, tied them on his horse and then started off toward the hills. Then he turned to them and said "Now, white boys, white boys, don't follow me. My heart is black and if you do follow me you will not come back." They knew he meant business so, of course, they didn't follow him. In later years Hugh ran into Scalpkane and he asked him if he knew Henry Bailey and he said "No." George Snider had a ranch down the lower Rosebud where most people would stop en route to Rosebud. One day, towards evening, an Indian squaw and buck stopped by, it was terribly cold, 40 below at least. They came in and wanted to stay all night and they were told they could lie on the kitchen floor. During the night the squaw gave birth to a child and the next morning they gathered up their belongings and left for the reservation with the baby. No one ever knew whether the child survived or not. Henry Bailey was a charter member of the Range Riders.