Possibly the earliest recorded document mentioning Willis, appears when he marries Parthenia C. Boaz in Maury County in 1855.

Maury Co. Marriages - Willis A. Bailey to Parthenia C. Boaz on Dec. 1, 1855, Solemnized on May 31, 1855 by M.B. Motley G.M.

(Photograph of Willis Anderson Bailey's headstone courtesy of Lela Bates Cline.)

The next year, Parthenia gives birth to their only son, William Thomas Bailey on October 16, 1856. She died in 1860. Willis and little William then spent some time living with his sister Elizabeth Bailey Tacker and her family.  His father, William is also a widower at this same time and lives with the Tackers.

Willis Anderson did marry again on August 19, 1861 to Sarah R. Jackson in Lawrence County, Tennessee, and then on the last day of November 1861 he went to Nashville and joined the Confederate Army as a private in Co. B., 54th Tennessee Infantry.

Willis Anderson was not the only Bailey brother to participate in the Civil War. He had followed the lead of his younger brothers; James, Berryman, Thomas, and John Martin, who had all joined the Tennessee 3rd Infantry shortly after the war began.

Willis Anderson's 54th regiment had joined up with what was left of Nixon's 48th regiment of the Tennessee Volunteer Rifles of Lawrence County. At that time the 48th was described as "a skeleton regiment, not over 400 men, not drilled, badly equipped and indifferently armed." What remained of the regiment had just escaped from being captured at Fort Donelson in February of 1862 and were regrouping.

Although his military record is rather brief, it appears Willis was probably a brave Confederate soldier. In just a little over a year, Willis had quickly moved up the ranks from private and was eventually promoted to Brevet Second Lieutenant on December 30, 1862. A brevet was "an honorary promotion for valor, enhancing authority but provided no pay raise".

Unfortunately, Willis's military career was cut short.  He was ill and sent to the hospital in Tullahoma on April 18, 1863. He later tendered his resignation at the rank of third Lieutenant in July 28, 1863 on a certificate of disability, "chronic hepatitis", and was special detailed to a hospital in Richmond, Kentucky. His resignation was accepted in August of 1863 and he returned home to Lynnville apparently very ill.

After his recovery he and Sarah had four more children; Caleb, Mary Catherine (Molly), Cordelia Elizabeth, and Runna.  In 1878, Willis Anderson took his young family from Lynnville to Paris, Texas. All the children, including Willis's twenty-year-old son from his first marriage, William Thomas, and his brother, Berryman Wakefield "Wake", also accompanied him on the migration to Texas.

On the journey down, it was reported they went through Arkansas visiting their kinfolk along the way. Martha Bailey Carter descendants mentioned him visiting. Willis may have also visited Wilcoxson kin in Texas because Patsy Bailey Wilcoxson, Willis' aunt, died the year before in October of 1877 at the age of 56.

In 1878, Willis and family were living in Paris in Lamar County, Texas and were reported to have spent about the next eighteen years there.  Around 1896, shortly after the marriages of his last two unmarried daughters, Willis left Texas and moved to Chickasaw Indian Territory near Woodford, Oklahoma.   Then about the turn of the century, Willis and Sarah moved further west to Port, Oklahoma. 

In the year 1900, Willis's youngest daughter, Runna, would become a widow with two young children and would also move to Port, Oklahoma and join her father and mother.  Not many years after, the other two married daughters would also eventually move west to the area.  One daughter lived in Granite and the other lived in Hobart.

 In 1902, Willis Anderson and all his children applied to the State of Oklahoma, claiming to be Choctaw descendants.  Willis and his children are on seven different applications on the Dawes Roll.

According to Willis's application # MCR6214, Willis is described as having gray hair and brown eyes. When asked to support his claim of being a Choctaw, Willis said " I claim something near 1/4, I will explain to you why I claim that. My grandfather Bailey claimed to be a half blood, and my father and my grandmother on my mother's side were cousins, there is where I claim to be a quarter, you know."

His claim was thought to be suspect and he and his children were asked to provide proof to their claim of being Choctaw's. All of them including Willis, who was one of the last to be queried, provided the name of Bev (Beverley) Boatright of Gainesville, Texas as a character witness and someone who could confirm their ancestry.

Beverley P. Boatright was then questioned and conveyed he was older than Willis, and that they had known each other since Willis was a baby in Tennessee. He also said "William Bailey (Willis' father) and me were own cousins"; and that "Dick Bailey married my aunt". He also affirmed Willis's claim, Quintella's mother and his father were cousins on that side.  According to his testimony, Willis really believed or was told his grandmother on his mother's side was a Bailey.  Willis and his family were all eventually rejected because they had no actual proof they were indeed Mississippi Choctaw.

In 1907, Sarah Jackson Bailey died in Sentinel, Oklahoma.  In 1910, census records indicate seventy-seven year old Willis, had returned to Texas and is living back in Lamar County with son Caleb and his family.  It appears he probably didn't stay in Texas long and he eventually returned to Oklahoma to live with his daughters.

Willis was one of the first Oklahoman's to apply for a Civil War pension.  In October 1915, he would be approved for a government pension (#40) for his service in the Confederate States  Army during the Civil War.  His pension was to be a mere one dollar and 66 2/3 cents to be paid quarterly.

Unfortunately, Willis never received his pension.  Records indicate his quarterly application was lost in the mail in December of 1915.  He would write to the board again in late December and again in January 1916, but he appears to have eventually given up or perhaps became too ill to bother with trying.

Finally, on April 8th, the Confederate Conference Board issued him a warrant for $5.00 for the quarter ending March 31st.  Instead of one dollar and 66 2/3 cents, it appears Willis would be paid non commissioned officers pay.  Unfortunately, Willis had died less than two weeks earlier.

According to his Civil War pension application records, Willis Anderson Bailey was living in Lone Wolf, Oklahoma the last few years of his life. He lived with daughter Mary Catherine Bailey Akers in Granite, Oklahoma when he died.  She was allowed his $5.00 pension to pay for his burial expenses.

Two accounts of his death are given on different certificates in the Greer County, Oklahoma Death Book 1, 1912-1916.

One certificate in book 1, pg. 132, he is listed as Willis A. Bailey, white male widower, age 83 years, 11 months, 22 days. death 26 Mar. 1916 caused by apoplexies. attended from 18 Mar. 1916 to 26 Mar. 1916 by Dr. George W. Wylie in Granite, buried in Retrop, Oklahoma. The informant is daughter Mrs. A. W. Akers.

Another certificate on pg. 137 of the same book list him as Willis A. Bailey, male widowed, age 83 years, 11 months, 3 days. death 26 Mar. 1916, death by apoplexy cause by age, George W. Wiley M.D., 26 Mar. 1916, burial in Retrop, Washita County (Oklahoma) undertaker G. W. Spears, Granite.

He is buried in the Retrop Cemetery in Sentinel, Oklahoma next to second wife, Sarah R. Bailey (20 Jan. 1834 - 29 Mar. 1907). Although her gravestone lists the dates and years of her life, Willis Bailey's list only the years 1833-1916.