James Anthony Bailey (July 4, 1847-April 11, 1906) was born James Anthony McGuiness in Detroit, Michigan, and died in Mount Vernon, New York. Orphaned at the age of eight, McGuinness was working as a bellhop in Pontiac, Michigan when he was discovered by Fred Harrison Bailey (a nephew of circus pioneer Hachaliah Bailey) as a teenager.
Bailey gave McGuiness a job as his assistant and the two travelled together for many years. James Anthony eventually adopted Bailey's surname to become James A. Bailey.
Bailey later associated with James E. Cooper and, by the time he was 25, he was manager of the Cooper and Bailey circus. He then met with P.T. Barnum and together they established Barnum and Bailey's Circus (for which Bailey was instrumental in obtaining Jumbo the Elephant) in 1881. In 1919, Barnum and Bailey's joined with the Ringling Brothers to form the Ringling Brothers and Barnum and Bailey Circus.
James Anthony Bailey was married to Ruth McCaddon of Zanesville, Ohio.
Bailey's Crossroads has never been part of the corporate limits of Falls Church, Virginia, but the Bailey family was long connected with the community.
Hachaliah's son Lewis Bailey (1795–1870) operated a travelling circus and is pioneered the use of canvas circus tents before eventually settling in 1840 to farm land in Bailey's Crossroads.
Another nephew, Fred Harrison Bailey, recognized a potential circus talent in JamesAnthony McGuiness, later JamesAnthonyBailey, who united the Cooper and Bailey with Phineas Taylor Barnum's circus to form the Barnum and Bailey Circus, which later joined with the Ringling Brothers Circus to form the Ringling Brothers and Barnum and Bailey Circus.
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