Joshua L. Baily commonplace books

Joshua Longstreth Baily (1826-1916) was a Quaker merchant in the dry goods business. He attended all of the American Yearly Meetings between 1845 and 1855. He contributed to African American causes, was interested in peace issues, and worked toward temperance, establishing temperance coffeehouses in Philadelphia. He was also the vice president of the National Temperance Society. He was treasurer of the Mohonk Arbitration Conference, president of the American Bible Society, and was affiliated with the Pennsylvania Prison Society for 66 years, including as the organization’s president at the time of his death. He was an author on topics related to Bible study and temperance.

Baily married Theodate Lang in 1856. The couple had five children: Frederick Lang Baily (b. 1858), Albert Lang Baily (b. 1859), William Lloyd Baily (b. 1861), Charles Winter Baily (b. 1866), and Henry Paul Baily (b. 1868). Theodate died in 1886, and Baily never remarried.

Theodate Lang was the daughter of John Damon Lang, a preacher of the Society of Friends and one of the Indian Commissioners of the United States Government, and Ann Elmira Stackpole Lang, both from Vassalboro, Maine. She was born February 2, 1833, and died November 25, 1886.

Sources: Dictionary of Quaker Biography, Prison Reform in Philadelphia, Genealogy of the Baily Family, pg 302-303, Obituary in Friends Intelligencer vol 43(1886):777, History and Genealogy of the Stackpole Family, pg 172.