Shelby E. Bailey. In no community is there to be found a more certain and significant index of general prosperity and progressiveness than through the medium of banking institutions, their solidity, efficiency of service and adequacy of executive control. The thriving little City of Kiefer, Creek County, Oklahoma, is thus signally favored in having as sponsor for its civic and material stability and business vitality so excellent and admirably conducted an institution as the Central State Bank, the efficient and popular cashier of which is Shelby E. Bailey. This is the pioneer banking institution of the town and it dates its inception back to the year 1907, when it was established under the title of the Kiefer State Bank, its present name having been adopted after the requisite amendment of its charter. A substantial and well appointed building was erected specially for the use of the bank and is owned by the institution, its location being on Indiana Avenue and in the center of the business district of the town. The Central State Bank, duly incorporated under the laws of Oklahoma and its affairs doubly protected through direct state supervision, began operations with a capital stock of $10,000, and this was later increased to the present figure, $15,000. The present cashier assumed his office about two years after the bank was founded, and within his administration as practical executive officer the deposits increased from $65,000 to $185,000, as indicated by the official statement of the bank in the autumn of 1915.

Shelby E. Bailey was born in the City of Birmingham, Alabama, on the 7th of October, 1884, and is a son of William J. and Sarah Elizabeth (Bailey) Bailey, both of whom were born and reared in Alabama, as representatives of old and honored families of that commonwealth. When the subject of this review was about ten years of age his parents removed to Texas and established their residence at Paris, the metropolis and judicial center of Lamar County, and there the father became one of the prosperous and representative agriculturists of that section of the state, as well as a substantial citizen of no little prominence and influence. His death occurred at Paris on the 12th of May, 1912, at which time he was sixty-nine years of age, and his widow still maintains her home in that fine little city of the Lone Star State. Of the family of eleven children six sons and five daughters survive the honored father, Shelby E., of this review, having been the eighth in order of birth.

Though born in the City of Birmingham, Shelby E. Bailey was reared on the farm and remained on the parental homestead in Lamar County, Texas, until he had attained to the age of twenty years. He not only received the advantages of the public schools of that county but through private study and well ordered reading he materially advanced himself along higher educational lines, He was employed at clerical work in Paris, Texas, until 1909, when he established his residence at Kiefer, Oklahoma, and assumed his present position as cashier of the Central State Bank, which at that time still bore its original title. He has shown great discrimination and progressiveness as an executive and his well directed efforts and personal popularity have done much to further the development of the business of which he has practical charge and in connection with which he proves a valued coadjutor to the honored president of the bank, Isaac F. Crow, who is one of the substantial capitalists and representative citizens of Tulsa County. Mr. Bailey is a progressive young business man and loyal citizen who takes lively interest in community affairs, both he and his wife being popular factors in the social life of Kiefer. He is a democrat in his political allegiance and is affiliated with the Masonic fraternity and the Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks.

On the 31st of December, 1911, was solemnized the marriage of Mr. Bailey to Miss M. Lelia Dalton, who was born in the State of Nebraska, and whose parents, Mr. and Mrs. William T. Dalton, now reside at Broken Arrow, Tulsa County, Oklahoma. Mr. and Mrs. Bailey have a winsome little daughter, Sarah Belle.