Gillum Baley
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Gillum Baley | |
|---|---|
 Baley circa 1885 | |
| Born | June 19, 1813 |
| Died | November 11, 1895 (aged 82) |
| Known for | American pioneer and County Judge of Fresno County, California |
Gillum Baley (June 19, 1813 – November 11, 1895) was an American pioneer and judge. With Leonard Rose he led the ill-fated Rose–Baley Party, the first emigrant wagon train to attempt the journey from New Mexico to California via Beale's Wagon Road. He was one of the earliest settlers of Bailey Flats, California, which was named for him,[1] and eventually settled in nearby Millerton (at the time the seat of Fresno County) where he served as County Judge for twelve years.
Baley's ancestors originally came from Virginia. He was born in Gallatin County, Illinois, on the Ohio river, between Flynn's and Ford's Ferry where his father William Baley had a farm. His father moved the family to Missouri when Baley was a small child. However, at the age of 13 he returned to Illinois working on farms for five years, first in Sangamon County and then in Pike County. When the Black Hawk War broke out in 1832, Gillum and his older brother Caleb enlisted in the Illinois Mounted Militia where he was elected a sergeant despite being only 19 at the time. After the conflict ended, he returned to Pike County and married Catherine Decker in 1834. She died of measles in 1836, leaving Baley with an infant son, Moses.[2][3]
After his wife's death, Baley returned to Missouri, initially settling in Jackson County where he farmed and raised livestock and in late 1836 married Permelia Eleanor Myers. By the late 1840s, Baley, his older brother Caleb, and his younger brother Right had all settled in Nodaway County. In addition to running his farm, Baley also served as a Methodist lay preacher and rode circuit as a justice of the peace for the county despite having only studied law informally.[4] With the advent of the California Gold Rush in 1849, the three brothers left their wives in charge of the farms in Missouri and made the overland journey to California to seek their fortunes. Caleb died there in 1850, shortly after arriving. Gillum and Right stayed on in the gold fields for two years before returning to their families in Missouri but had become convinced that their future lay in California.[2][3]
The Rose–Baley Party
In April 1858, Baley and his brother Right assembled a wagon train to travel to California where they intended to spend the rest of their lives. By this time Gillum and Permelia Baley had nine children, the youngest only six weeks old. Right Baley and his wife Nancy had eight children, and she was pregnant with their 9th. Also in their party were their Missouri neighbors, Thomas and Joel Hedgpeth and their families. In mid-May while resting at Cottonwood Creek, near present-day Durham, Kansas, they were joined by a party led by Leonard Rose which had left Iowa in April and also intended to travel to California via the Santa Fe Trail. In the interests of safety, the groups agreed to an informal merger. When the combined party reached Albuquerque, New Mexico, they decided to attempt the final stretch to California via Beale's Wagon Road, at the time little more than a rough trail.[5]
On August 30, as the emigrants were preparing to cross the Colorado River, the first of the party's wagons to arrive at the crossing point were attacked by Mojave Indians, leaving twelve emigrants wounded and eight dead, including five children. Having lost most of their livestock and fearful of further attacks, the surviving members of the Rose–Baley party trekked the 500 miles back to Albuquerque. The two Baley families made it safely to Albuquerque in November 1858, despite the extreme hardships of the journey back, and remained there for several months. They made two more attempts to reach California the following year. The first ended in failure when their cattle died and provisions gave out. Faced with starvation they returned to Albuquerque. They eventually made it to California on their third attempt, this time by crossing the Colorado at Fort Yuma, and made their way to Visalia in the San Joaquin Valley to begin their new life.[6]
