Bailey, Charles Ramsden

In his autobiography, Charles Ramsden ‘Bailey’ makes this profound statement concerning his involvement in plural marriage: “It was the grandest step in my whole life and while it brought its many cares and as some would call trials, yet, I never felt it as such.” (He was) sealed to 3 wives in plural marriage. . .

His real name as a boy was simply Charles Ramsden, he tacked on ‘Bailey’ as his last name after he left England. . .

. . . Charles Ramsden Bailey, son of Charles Ramsden and Jane Robbins Bailey, was born in the little town of Honley, Yorkshire, England, August 31, 1839. . .

FEDERAL IMPRISONMENT

Charles R. Bailey entered the United States Penitentiary in Salt Lake City on 24 November 1888 for a four-month confinement at the age of 49.

The following description of the prison and life therein is taken from the article “Life Behind Bars: Mormon Cohabs of the 1880’s,” by Melvin L. Bashore.

. . .The dilapidated adobe prison, on a site, later developed as Sugar House Park, was little changed from when it had been first put into operation in 1855. A twenty-foot-high adobe wall, four feet thick, enclosed the prison buildings and an acre of yard. Sentries armed with rifles manned catwalks ringing the exterior of the upper wall, and during inclement weather, they peered from turrets placed at opposite corners. . . Outside the walls, near the entrance, were out-buildings such as the kitchen, butcher shop, blacksmith shop, stables, women prisoners’ quarters, and warden’s office and home. . .

In the beginning stages of the polygamy raids, a stigma was attached to being in the penitentiary, but as the resident clientele became predominantly Mormon, a sentence in the pen conferred honor and status. The prison community itself became a kind of social club, since many of the church, community, and business leaders were behind bars at one time or another. George Q. Cannon, hesitant at first about leaving the underground for a stint behind bars, gave himself up upon hearing about the conditions and experiences of a former inmate. After one week of prison, Cannon told a fresh arrival that he “would not miss it for anything.” Serving a prison sentence had all the aura and honor of a mission; in fact, many inmates seemed to have kept journals only during those periods of their lives. They had considerable time on their hands to spend in writing. From these diaries it is possible to reconstruct a fairly complete picture of life for the Mormons in the penitentiary. . .

The first night in prison was understandably a trying ordeal. Prisoners were locked up in a dark, unfamiliar place among strangers. Bedding was not provided and either had to be brought in or borrowed from fellow inmates. . . George Q. Cannon came well equipped with a hammock to the merriment and consternation of envious cellmates. . . The hawking and spitting, foul tobacco smoke, and prisoners’ screaming in their sleep combined to hinder a good night’s rest. Abraham Alona Kimball was kept awake by Henry Nebeker’s snoring.  Kimball said he threw his boots at Nebeker, but nothing happened.

The most bothersome hindrance to a good night’s rest was the pesky bed bugs. Many suggested renaming the bunkhouse the “Bug house”. The nightly raid of the bugs was met with stubborn resistance by the men. The bugs attacked James Kirkham in one final rampage on the eve of his release. He records that “such a night I shall never forget. We spent the whole of the time fighting bedbugs. We killed by actual count 249.” In airing out his bed in the morning, George Wood “picked and scraped off 225 bugs so you may know we have something to do at night.” When Marshal Frank Dyer brought the grand jury out to see the prison, he told them that there were fourteen thousand bed bugs living there. Levi Savage remarked that he “thought he had come far short of the number.” . . .  

Letters from home were read, reread, and shared with others. In quiet corners of the yard, bowed heads shielded tears coursing down the cheeks of men separated from their wives and children. . .Behind bars longer than most, Clawson said, “One day so nearly resembles another in every particular as almost to create confusion in the mind…one long, tedious, never-ending day-a living death.”…

When the time finally arrived for release, the prisoners philosophically looked back on their months without liberty as a valued experience. . .  Homecomings were sweet for long-separated loved ones. The prison period of the 1880s had been the capstone of the polygamy persecution. Not too much is known of Charles’ personal life in prison, but we do know that he was at one time assigned to work in the kitchen, . . . On page 76 of his prison journal the following statement appears: “March 7th, 1889, released from the Penitentiary after Serving four Months and Paid a fine of 165 Dollars. Chas R. Bailey.”

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