Charles Bailey was born in England in 1830. At the age of nine he began working in an English woolen mill as a piece worker. In 1842 he became a hand loom weaver. In 1852 he married. Bailey and his family emigrated to America from Liverpool, England on March 19, 1857 on the Cornelia Lawrence. The family settled in Little Falls, New York where he went to work in Seth Stitt’s woolen mill as a weaver. After his wife died in 1860 he moved the family to Fly Creek in Otsego County, NY where his interest in brass instruments led to his becoming an instructor of a band in that community. In 1862 Bailey and his brother-in-law started a shoddy mill which was basically a wool recycling mill where old woolen scraps were mixed with small amounts of new wool to make a cheap cloth that could be used for clothing. By 1863 Charles was listed as eligible for the Civil War draft. At the time he was again a laborer in the shoddy mill in Little Falls. After the death of his first wife he remarried in 1863. In 1871 he founded the Little Falls Knitting Company. Charles and his sons, Squire and Thomas, purchased the former Spring and Axle Works on Willett Street in Fort Plain in 1900. Here they organized the Bailey Knitting Mills which became the largest manufacturer in the village employing 450-500 people. Charles continued to live in Little Falls but his son Thomas built a house on West Street in the village of Fort Plain. Thomas’ son, Charles, worked at the knitting mill first as a foreman and then as a clerk. Charles lived on Washington Street with his family until his mother died in 1949 when he moved into the house on West Street. The Bailey Knitting Mill was sold in the 1930’s to the Luxuray Company. Charles Bailey, grandson of Charles Bailey died in 1976.