Sarah Ellen Preston (1843-1927)

Sarah Eleanor 'Ellen' Preston (10/21/1843)(6/22/1927), daughter of John Fairman Preston and Jane Rhea, m. Col. David Flournoy Bailey (1/23/1845)(10/30/1922) on 2-29-1872. David Bailey was the son of Joseph Richard Bailey and Julia Ann Womack. After David's death in 1922, Julia taught school to support herself. Sarah was born and married in Washington Co., VA. David was born in Charlotte Co. VA and died at "Alcova", in Arlington County, VA. David served in the Confederate Services during the Civil war as a private. After the war he moved to Bristol (he had been to Bristol before the war also.) and married Sarah Eleanor Preston. David learned the art of printing at the Bristol News and at one time owned and edited the paper. He studied law at Cumberland Univ. and began practicing that profession in July 1869. Represented the county in the Virginia Legislature in 1879-80 and was chairman of the Judiciary Committee. He was Senator 1881-1885. They had 6 children.

1. Jane Rhea Bailey b.12-15-1872 d.9-9-1948 married on Sept. 30, 1896, Joseph Cloyd Byars b.12-9-1868 d.5-17-1954. Joseph was the son of James Monroe Byars and Virginia Clark Watson. Jane was educated at the Andrew Jackson Institute in Abingdon. She was Presbyterian. Joseph was born on his father's farm in 'Southern View' VA. He was educated at Pantops Academy and the Univ. of VA. He located in Bristol in 1891, admitted to the bar in 1896 and was elected City Attorney for Bristol in 1900 and then elected to the Senate from the 1st Senatorial District in the year 1901. Both Jane and Joseph died at the Old Deery Inn in Blountville and are buried at East Hill Cemetery, Washington Co., VA. Their children were:
• Virginia Byars b.5-21-1901 married twice, 1st to Kenneth Coontz and they had one son, Robert J. Coontz. Secondly she married Judge Joseph A. Caldwell. I visited with Virginia briefly in 1985. At one time she had the Old Deery Inn in Blountville, TN (just south of Bristol). When I was there it was like a large museum. She wasn't home when I went there, she was having a meeting with the mayor, still very active at 84-85 years of age. Met with and Mary Preston Gray on the same trip, she was about 89 years old, we went to dinner together.
• J. Cloyd Byars II.
• Bailey Byars b.3-2-1906.
• Richard B. Byars, died in infancy.
2. Julia Flournoy Bailey b.2-20-1874 d.5-13-1960 married on April 25, 1894 to William Thomas Tillar b.6-20-1874 d.7-9-1934. See Chart on Wm. Thomas Tillar. They had 6 children.
• Sarah Eleanor Tillar b.2-21-1895 d.1975 married William Land on 4-4-1917.
• Benjamin Flournoy Tillar b.10-7-1896 married Mabel F. Cato on 4-15-1919.
• William Preston Tillar b.6-1898 d.7-1898.
• William Thomas Tillar Jr. b.5-2-1901 d.1975 married Margaret Haines Marston on 8-29-1928.
• Julia Bailey Tillar b.2-15-1906 married John Campbell Anderson Jr. on 11-12-1925.
• Donaldson Preston Tillar b.12-28-1909 married Elizabeth Bellingslay on 12-28-1934.
3. Martha ('Mattie') Preston Bailey b.6-25-1876 d.5-4-1930 married on June 2, 1897, Judge John W. Price b.4-11-1869 d.5-30-1947. They had one son.
• John W. Price II b.4-23-1900 married on 4-23-1929, Marcelle Pauline Jeanne Landolt in Lousanne, Switzerland.
4. Nannie Louise Montgomery Bailey b.abt 1872.
5. Robert Preston Bailey b. abt 1878.
6. David Ellar Bailey b.abt 1880.