On August 1, 2026 at 9:00 a.m. the public is invited to celebrate the unveiling of a Hometown Heritage Marker honoring John Bailey on the Town Square in Burnsville. Funding for the Marker was generously provided through a grant to the Town of Burnsville from the William G. Pomeroy Foundation.
The Quest for Burnsville
In 1834 a young man named John “Yellowjacket” Bailey had an idea that became an adventure of a lifetime and a lasting legacy. John and his wife Lovada “Lovie” Ray Bailey owned a tract of prime farmland in the center of Yancey County, North Carolina. The property was a gift from Lovie’s father to the young couple. At the time Yancey County was young as well, just 1 year old at the time and without a County Seat. John decided he would offer the ideally situated 100 acres of his and Lovie’s farm to the newly formed Yancey County Commission to establish a Town and a County Seat. The price for the conveyance was $1.00 per acre. But that was only the beginning of the story.
In those days it took an Act by the General Assembly to establish a County Seat. This meant someone had to go to the State Capital in Raleigh and petition the legislature on behalf of the County Commission to form the Town and create the County Seat. Because he felt so strongly about the need to establish a Town in Yancey County, John Bailey offered to go himself. Today a trip to Raleigh is about 4 hours by car; in 1834 it was an arduous quest on horseback that would take a month one way. Nevertheless, John Bailey set out to go.
When he arrived a month later, he was faced with another challenge. Lay individuals could not simply appear on the floor of the Assembly and make requests. He would need help and he found it in an unlikely alliance formed with an old seafaring privateer from the North Carolina coast, Captain Otway Burns. John convinced Captain Burns to plead the case for the new town in the young County in the rugged mountains of Western North Carolina. Politics, being what it was in those days the representatives from the eastern part of the state were not eager to expend political capital to help increase the power of the emerging western counties. The legislative process took another month, but in the end Captain Burns was successful in winning approval for the establishment of a Town and County Seat for a tiny slice of Western North Carolina he would never visit.
With the paperwork in hand John started the month-long journey home. The commissioners were thankful for this momentous achievement and gifted John with an additional $0.50 per acre for his efforts on their behalf. After 3 months away from home the quest for a new town was complete. In gratitude John insisted that the new County Seat be named for his friend and fellow North Carolinian, Captain Otway Burns.
In 1930 the Yancey County Commissioner passed a resolution declaring the Burnsville Town Square be named “Bailey Square” to honor John Bailey for his contribution to the establishment of the Town.
The establishment of a Town in 1834 is a true legacy, but John and Lovie Bailey did more than provide the space for the Town they also contributed to populating this place in the mountains. They raised a family of 20 children in Yancey County. Many of their descendants still call Yancey County and Burnsville home while others have scattered far and wide around the state and the country.