Blood & Biohazard Cleanup Near Bailey Historic District Bailey, TX

Bailey is a small city in south-central Fannin County, about eleven miles south of the county seat of Bonham, at the junction of State Highways 11 and 78.

Settlement began in the late 1850s, when farmers moved in to take advantage of the rich blackland soil, and cotton and corn became the principal crops.

Bailey got its name from a rivalry: doctors Josiah S. Bailey and A. J. Ray each wanted the townsite named after himself, and the dispute ended in 1885 when the St. Louis Southwestern Railway built its right-of-way on land donated by Bailey.

A post office opened in Bailey in 1887, and by the early 1900s the town had about 300 residents, two churches, a school, a bank, a hotel, and one of the few picture shows in Fannin County.

Bailey was incorporated in 1933, and it was the first town in Fannin County to establish a "free lunch" program.

Bailey's population peaked at about 350 in the mid-1920s; the 2020 census counted 220 residents, down from 289 in 2010.

The whole city covers just 0.40 square miles, and by the mid-1970s local farmers had abandoned cotton and corn in favor of small grains and cattle.