The Bailey Brothers
Recently, I found an early 20th century cabinet card featuring two young children. A note on the back of the photo changed everything.
The photo shows two children dressed in dark Edwardian garments, polished lace-up boots, and perfectly styled white hair bows. Looking at the image, one might naturally assume they are looking at two young girls.
Flip the card over, however, and a note sets the record straight:
"Kenneth & Faber Bailey. There mother always dressed them like girls."
While it was a common late Victorian and Edwardian custom to keep young boys in gowns or tunics, their mother, Sophia Bailey, clearly possessed a flair for fashion. She let her sons' hair grow out into long, ringlets and adorned them with oversized hair bows that rivaled any young girls.
Armed with a location (Ohio) and these two distinct names, a look through the US Federal Census records brought the story of these two boys to light.
Kenneth (born circa 1904) and Faber (born circa 1906) grew up on East 84th Street in Cleveland, Ohio. Their father, Frederick, worked steadily as a hardware salesman, while their mother, Sophia, managed the household and styled her boys.
As the years rolled on, the census records show the ringlets and hair bows giving way to adulthood, showing a contrast in the brothers' personalities and career paths:
- Kenneth: By 1930, the older brother had carved out a career in the corporate world, working as a clerk and accountant for the railroad.
- Faber: Perhaps influenced by his mother’s eye for aesthetics and photography, Faber took an artistic path, working his entire life as a commercial artist and designer for an advertising studio.
What makes the story of Kenneth and Faber truly remarkable isn't just their unique childhood wardrobe, but the lifelong bond they shared.
As the decades blinked by in the census pages—1920, 1930, 1940, and 1950—one detail remained completely unchanged: the brothers never separated.
Through the Great Depression, World War II, and the passing of their father, Kenneth and Faber remained lifelong bachelors. They lived under the same roof in East Cleveland well into middle age, continuing their careers while faithfully caring for their mother until her death in 1956.
The brothers remained side by side until the end of their lives. Kenneth passed away in 1968, and Faber followed nearly a decade later in 1977. Today, they rest together alongside their parents in the family plot in Mayfield Heights, Ohio.
Without that note scribbled on the back of a photo, Kenneth and Faber Bailey might have been lost to time as anonymous, beautifully dressed children in an old family album. Instead, we are left with a record of a brotherly bond that spanned seven decades, from matching childhood hair bows to a quiet, shared resting place in Ohio.
