Biographical Database of NAWSA Suffragists, 1890–1920

Biography of Adella Brown Bailey, 1860-1937

By Jessica Maiberger-Horner, Special Collections archivist, Friends of The Air Force Academy Library contractor for USAFA/DFLIBSC

President, Woman's Club of Denver, Sarah Platt Decker Memorial Association, and Federation of Women's Clubs; Member, Equal Suffrage Association, Ergateau (Study) Club, Plymouth Congressional Church

Adella Brown Bailey was born on February 8, 1860 in Aurora, New York to Warren and Harriet E. Kerr Brown, and attended high school in Chicago, Illinois. She married Dewey Crossman Bailey on December 20, 1880 in Kiowa, Colorado. He was the Mayor of Denver from 1919-1923. She had a son, Dewey Crossman Bailey, Jr. (1882-1932). She died in 1937 and is buried next to her husband in Fairmount Cemetery, Denver, Colorado.

Adella Brown was very active in the social, professional, club, and political life of Denver, and was featured in various publications during her lifetime. She was a Congressionalist and a very active member of the Republican Party. She was among the women sent as a delegate or alternate to the presidential nominating conventions in 1908. In 1914, she was included in Representative Women in Colorado, and noted for her philanthropic efforts, rising popularity amongst women, and remarkable executive abilities. The next year, she was featured as one of the women in the Woman's Who's Who of America: A Biographical Dictionary of Contemporary Women of the United States, 1914-1915, that detailed her political, social, and club involvement. At that point in time, she was an active member of many clubs, supported the Equal Suffrage Association, and served as President of the Women's Club of Denver (WCD). She was elected to that position for four terms.

By 1919, her involvement in the WCD continued and she became more politically active. That increase coincided with her husband's election to be the Mayor of Denver. She collaborated with many other organizations by writing letters to Congress speaking out for the Women's Division (for Colorado) of the Bureau of the Department of Labor. The following year, she ran as a Republican candidate for Presidential Electors.

Sources:

Colorado, County Marriage Records and State Index, 1862-2006, https://search.ancestry.com/cgi-bin/sse.dll?indiv=1&dbid=61366&h=900016691&tid=&pid=&usePUB=true&_phsrc=ZIi35&_phstart=successSource. Accessed May 15, 2018

"Adella Brown Bailey." Find A Grave (2009), https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/34611870.

Leonard, John William. Women's Who's Who of America: A Biographical Dictionary of Contemporary Women of the United States and Canada, 1914-1915. New York: American Commonwealth Company, 1914, pp. 918. [LINK]

Semple, James Alexander. Representative Women of Colorado. A Pictorial Collection of the Women of Colorado Who Have Attained Prominence in the Social, Political, Professional, Pioneer and Club Life of the State. Denver: The Alexander Art Publication Company, 1914, pp. 18.

Congressional Recording, Proceeding and Debates of the First Session of the Sixty-Sixth Congress of the United States of America, Volume LVIII-Part 1: May 19 to June 12, 1919, Washington, D.C.: U.S. Government Printing Office, 1919, pp. 608.

"General Election Notice," Kiowa County Press. Vol. 27, no. 25 (October 29, 1920).

Harper, Husted Ida, ed., The History of Suffrage Volume 6: 1900-1920, National American Woman Suffrage Association, 1922, pp. 64. [LINK]

back to top