Josiah William Bailey was born on September 14, 1873, in Warrenton, North Carolina. Bailey was a newspaper editor, conservative reformer, and politician. From 1913 to 1921, he served as the IRS collector for the state of North Carolina. In 1930, he unseated the popular and politically powerful Furnifold M. Simmons as a United States Senator from North Carolina, a position he kept until his death. He died in Raleigh, North Carolina on December 15, 1946.