Baileyton

Town of Baileyton
Incorporated	1973
Population	619
Mayor	Johnny Dyar
School district	Cullman County Schools
Government	Baileyton Town Council Baileyton Fire Department Baileyton Police Department
Web site	none
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Baileyton is a town of 619 on 5.13 square miles in northeastern Cullman County, northeast of Cullman and north of Holly Pond, between Wolf Creek and Pan Creek on Alabama State Highway 69.

The community, originally part of Blount County, was settled in 1870 by a group of Georgia farmers led by Robert Bailey, who bought 40 acres from the Louisville & Nashville Railroad on April 16 of that year. Over the next 20 years, several others built farmsteads in the community, raising cotton, corn, potatoes, oats, tobacco, peas, cattle and sheep.

Cullman County was created in 1877. A County Alliance Store opened in the town in the early 1880s, managed by Thomas McClarty. J. W. Holmes opened a mill in 1889, and Lige Ryan opened a cotton gin. A Dr Gregler began practicing as a physician. The Baileyton Methodist Episcopal Church was organized at Bailey's home in 1881. The Baileyton Masonic Lodge No. 472 was chartered on December 3, 1890.

The Baileyton Post Office was established on August 21, 1882, with John Tilley as postmaster. After a short absence, it reopened in Gilbert Cordell's store with Cordell as postmaster.

Residents built a schoolhouse on land north of Baileyton Cemetery donated by Cordell in 1885. It was moved to a 4-room frame building in 1916, and absorbed the former Mt Pisgah School and Eidson Chapel School in the early 1930s and the former Hulaco School in 1947. In 1949 the school opened a new modern building. Joppa School merged into Baileyton in 1994 and the combined school was renamed Parkside School when it moved to a new building in 1998.

R. L. Baker opened the Empire Nursery just north of Baileyton in 1926 and succeeded in cultivating apple, peach and pecan trees suitable for growing in the area. The Baileyton Civitan Club was chartered in 1971.

The Town of Baileyton was incorporated on January 31, 1973 and began operating from a new Town Hall two years layer. Baileyton began developing the 43-acre A. R. Burks Recreational Park, named for mayor Rolfe Burks, in 1977. The Baileyton Good Time Drag Strip operates in the southern part of the town. Horse trainer Hershel Talley and Ocie Cook, founder of Eagle Motor Lines, owned competing walking horse barns on either side of Pan Creek Road in Baileyton.

Paul Bailey, a great-grandson of the town's founder, was nominated to serve as interim mayor following the death of Rolfe Burks in 1990. Within his first two years, he led successful efforts to increase revenues through annexation of surrounding homes, and had begun development of an industrial park on a 25-acre city-owned parcel. The city's largest employer is Walker Brothers Building Supply. The Cullman Internal Medicine Group began operating a clinic adjacent to Baileyton Town Hall in November 1996.

Mayors

• Rolfe Burks, 1973–1990
• Paul Bailey, 1990–2008
• Johnny Dyar, 2008–

Demographics

Population, 1970-2019

year   pop. change  %change
1970 | 341 |      |         | 
1980 | 396 | +55  | +16.1%  |
1990 | 352 | -44  | -11.1%  |
2000 | 684 | +332 | +94.3%  |
2010 | 610 | -74  | -10.8%  |
2016 | 766 | +156 | +25.6%  | estimate
2019 | 619 | -147 | -19.2%  | estimate

2000 Census data

As of the census of 2000, there were 684 people, 281 households, and 196 families in the town. The population density was 128.6 people per square mile. There were 305 housing units at an average density of 57.4 per square mile. The racial makeup of the town was 99.56% white.

Of the 281 households 32.0% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 56.6% were married couples living together, 8.2% had a female householder with no husband present, and 29.9% were non-families. 27.0% of households were one person and 11.4% were one person aged 65 or older. The average household size was 2.43 and the average family size was 2.93.

The age distribution was 26.6% under the age of 18, 6.1% from 18 to 24, 27.6% from 25 to 44, 26.0% from 45 to 64, and 13.6% 65 or older. The median age was 37 years. For every 100 females, there were 101.2 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 93.8 males.

The median household income was $31,000 and the median family income was $41,563. Males had a median income of $30,083 versus $20,417 for females. The per capita income for the town was $14,696. About 10.3% of families and 16.6% of the population were below the poverty line, including 21.1% of those under age 18 and 22.5% of those age 65 or over.

References

• Foscue, Virginia O. (1989) Place Names in Alabama. Tuscaloosa: University of Alabama Press. ISBN 081730410X
• Cullman County Heritage Book Committee (1999) Heritage of Cullman County, Alabama.' 2 vols. Heritage Publishing Consultants
• "History of Baileyton (2002) Baileyton-al.com - via archive.org
• Kaetz, James P. (January 19, 2018) "Baileyton." Encyclopedia of Alabama - accessed April 23, 2021