By STU CLAMPITT
Mike Bailey is the man hired by the Westfield Washington Historical Society & Museum to rebuild the historic cabin in downtown Westfield at 136 Penn St., near City Hall.
The Reporter sat down with Bailey to talk about the cabin, his interesting life.
“Jim and Diane Peyton and the Historical Society saved the cabin about four years ago,” Bailey told The Reporter. “They had some volunteers take it down. They sorted it. At the time they were about to start they had already raised significant funds in tandem with the city.”
According to the Historical Society, this cabin was built by Nicholas Barker about 1835. He was a member of the Quaker Meeting of Friends, and Historical Society members are convinced he was involved in the Underground Railroad. This 22-by-20-foot cabin has some extra special hand-planed wooden beams that are more finely crafted than most cabins of the day. It is a one room cabin with a huge fireplace. Some of the native hand-hewn logs are 23 to 25 inches tall.
“The Peytons heard about me because I purchased some products from Perma-Chink in Noblesville,” Bailey said. “They called me. I just happened to be in Kokomo building an 1830 log cabin for their outdoor learning program. That was a full two-story cabin, bigger than the one we’re doing out here. I came and met with the historical society, but I was booked for five years, which is not uncommon in my business. That was two years ago.”
In the intervening years, a project Bailey was working on in Kokomo was canceled, leaving him the opportunity to work with the Westfield Washington Historical Society on this project.
According to Bailey, there are only a handful of people throughout the nation who do the kind of work he does, which is why he has been booked for five years in advance for the last 15 solid years.
“I have been in business full time doing this for about 21 years,” Bailey said. “I take all my buildings down in southern Indiana because that was the highway of the pioneers. The earliest and best cabins are along the Ohio River in Indiana, Kentucky and Ohio. They are everywhere. They are inside of farmhouses. Up here your history is maybe 20 years newer, so you don’t have as many log cabins up here in farmhouses. They were doing a lot of stick-frame construction because in those 20 years the industry developed sawmills. I personally have moved – taken down and put up – 55 log cabins.”
Bailey’s life
“When I first went to college in Grand Rapids Baptist College in the seminary – it is now called Cornerstone University – in all the years I was up there I was a youth pastor at different churches,” Bailey told The Reporter. “I had a wonderful experience at Bible college, but I didn’t feel called to ministry. When I got out, I started an ad agency in about 1982.”
Bailey called himself an “idea guy” during that time. He had neither experience nor any formal education in marketing or advertising.
“The business took off in short order and I ran that business for 20 years,” Bailey said. “I moved it from Grand Rapids, Mich., to Toledo, Ohio, to Indianapolis where my agency was located on East Washington, just east of downtown. It was fun and creative. I was a specialist in cross-promotions.”
One of the clients he worked with was Putt-Putt golf courses across the country.
“In the course of all that I ran for U.S. Congress four times,” Bailey said. “After my last race in 2000, I was ready for a life change. But while I was still in advertising, I turned a barn into a house to live in for myself. They are fascinating. I loved building. I had no experience at it prior, but that never stopped me from doing something.”
Bailey had six sons he and his wife were homeschooling, and he wanted to be able to spend time with them every day. He started taking one to work with him on day, then another the next day.
“For 21 years I have been taking my boys to work,” Bailey said. “That’s been my crew. I am running out of sons now!”
Bailey’s next chapter
“I’m changing gears now,” Bailey said. “I wrote a book. It will be my second book. I wrote a book during the campaign years. So, after the last campaign I started this business in about 2001. We are in our 22nd year. We are obviously significantly experienced now.”
Bailey’s second book, which should be published in the next year, is called Old Man Bailey.
“It’s my story,” Bailey said. “It’s very Christian-oriented, but it’s really targeted toward young people before they get into debt. I’m trying to inspire young people that they can build a house debt-free out of historic barns and cabins. And I show them how in this book. It’s 350 pages. It’s a textbook, but it’s also my story.”
Bailey’s story has deep roots in his Christian faith and spirituality.
“When I first started building the barn house, I didn’t know jack,” Bailey said. “My boys were like 10, 8 and 6 at the time. We’re going to go up on a roof – we’d never done any construction work – and our prayer was, ‘Lord, send your angels or we’re gonna die.’ And we prayed for wisdom outside of our pay grade.”
Bailey learned by hiring tradesmen and not letting them work, but rather paying them to instruct him.
“I’d say, ‘You can sit in that chair and have a cigar for all I care, but I’m doing all the work’,” Bailey told The Reporter. “You can’t learn by not doing it – by just watching. That’s how I learned my trade. I have been a part of the restoration of over 55 cabins and 25 homes now. Most of these we have turned into livable houses. This project is unusual. We don’t normally work for towns or for historical societies. Most of our clients are independent businessmen.”
You can follow Mike Bailey on Facebook at facebook.com/theoldmanbailey.
You can learn about the cabin project and how you can help see it to completion on the Westfield Washington Historical Society & Museum’s website at wwhs.us.