Alice A. Crawford
Surnames: Bailey, Gorst, Wood
Source: Sketches of Wisconsin Pioneer Women, by Florence Chambers Dexheimer,
W. D. Hoard & Sons Co., Fort Atkinson, Wisconsin
Pages 101-102
Alice A. Crawford was the oldest child of John B. and Naomi Wood Crawford of Baraboo, Wisconsin. Mr. and Mrs. Crawford had established their home in Baraboo in 1853 and from this source constantly flowed influences making for the better and higher things. One of the fine institutions of the town was the Baraboo Female Seminary, under the leadership of Miss Mary Mortimer, which flourished until the end of the Civil War. Miss Mortimer later became President of Milwaukee College. Mr. Crawford was one of the trustees of this seminary and there daughter Alice received her early education.
After graduating from the Baraboo High School in 1872, Alice entered the Sophomore class at the University of Wisconsin and was graduated in 1875. There she met William H. Bailey of Iowa, an honor graduate of the class of 1873. His ancestors in several lines rendered distinguished service in the Revolutionary and Colonial Wars.
After teaching in the Baraboo High School, Alice A. Crawford was married to William H. Bailey in 1878. They established their home in Spirit Lake, Iowa, where Mr. Baily had begun the practice of law, having been graduated from the Iowa Law School of Iowa University in 1875. Here they remained until 1884, exerting with great enthusiasm all their influence for the best things and forces in that pioneer community. In 1884 they moved to Des Moines, Iowa where Mr. Baily soon took his place as a leading attorney of that city and the state.
Mrs. Baily was a charter member of the Abigail Adams Chapter of the D. A. R., and was admitted to the National Society as member 3345; this chapter was organized early in the history of the D. A. R. movement. Alice Crawford Baily served two terms as Regent of the Chapter and was in Washington to attend the Continental Congress D. A. R., in 1898 and when war was declared with Spain her chapter presented a Regimental flag to the Fifty-first Iowa Regiment when it started to the Philippines. Not all the boys came back but the flag returned with those who survived their service there. Mrs. Baily served the Des Moines Woman's Clubs as President in 1902-03 and was President of the Iowa Federation of Woman's Clubs from 1901 to 1903, having previously been Recording Secretary and Corresponding Secretary. In 1904-05 she filled the position of Chairman of the Woman's Auxiliary to the Iowa World's Fair, Commission for the Exposition held in St. Louis in 1904.
Mr. Bailey, an ideal husband and citizen died suddenly in 1910 and the life of his wife was woefully changed but her only child, Robert W. Baily, was a wonderful comfort and sustaining force through this sorrow. He was graduated from the Mechanical Engineering Department of Wisconsin University in 1907 and took his Master's Degree of M. E. in 1910.
In 1911 Mrs. Baily went abroad and was in Europe nine months, traveling from Algiers to the North Cape. In 1913 she again visited Europe.
In 1916 Mrs. Baily and her son went to Chicago to live as he was in business there. Mrs. Baily was married to Dr. Charles Gorst of Madison, Wisconsin in 1917. Mrs. Gorst transferred her membership from the Abigail Adams Chapter, Des Moines, Iowa to the John Bell Chapter, D. A. R. She was elected Vice-Regent in 1922 and 1923, and was chosen Regent of John Bell Chapter in 1924. She is Chairman of the Standing Committee on State Institutions in the Wisconsin Federation of Woman's Clubs. She is Chairman of the History Department of the Madison Woman's Club and is Chairman of the Missionary Department of the Woman's Society of Christ Presbyterian Church, Madison. Altogether Mrs. Gorst is a busy woman and is very happy to be of service to her fellow citizens.
