Place:Baileytown, Westchester, Porter, Indiana, United States

The story of Baileytown begins with a French fur trapper, Joseph Bailly, who came to the region in the 1820s and established a fur trading post near the Little Calumet River. Although Bailly wasn’t the only fur trader to explore the area and harvest beaver pelts, he is the person that is remembered locally as the most influential person in the settlement of the area. (Historic buildings associated with the Bailly family are interpreted by Indiana Dunes National Lakeshore. The Bailly Homestead is a National Historic Landmark although none of the buildings from the fur trapper era remain; the site commemorates Bailly’s role. Local school children continue to study fur trading and Joseph Bailly’s role in the area.) Bailly had grand plans for the area and established his family at the trading post. He wanted to create a town in his own name. The “Town of Bailly” was officially platted and registered in the Porter County records during 1834, but the “town” itself was rural in character and never developed according to the idea of its founder. Joseph Bailly resided in the area for only a few years before he died in 1835, but his children and grandchildren continued to live in the area until the twentieth century and owned large parcels of land. Although originally platted as a town, Baileytown was most likely located in Section 27 in the vicinity of Joseph Bailly’s fur trading post near the Little Calumet River. Some researchers have suggested that Baileytown was located in the southeast corner of Section 28 “where the stage road along the north branch of the Sauk Trail crossed the Calumet Beach Ridge road.” For reasons unknown, the surname of Bailly and Baileytown are spelled slightly differently. 4 What in essence became Baileytown in the latter half of the nineteenth century, was a rural settlement with Swedes and other residents located to the north of Porter and Chestertown. The Swedes who chose to live in Baileytown made a conscious decision to buy agricultural acreage instead of lots in town. Baileytown did not resemble an urban settlement in terms of the density of population but instead was characterized by scattered buildings, agricultural fields and woodlands. The area was interspersed by dirt byways including Oak Hill, Mineral Springs and Howe Roads.

Copied from: http://www.kankakeevalleyhistoricalsociety.org/Linden%20Cabin/Swedish%20Baileytown-%20A%20Nineteenth%20Century%20Rural%20Enclave.pdf

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This article refers to Chestertown, which is actually the town of Chesterton.

The Augsburg Lutheran Church became the spiritual and emotional center for the Swedish inhabitants of Bailey Town.