Cowboy Legacy -- Pioneer trails Westward 1800 - 1935

Connecticut to Iowa 1800 - 1845

About 1800, Oliver Bailey (1738 - 1822) (my sixth great grandfather), who had served in both the French Indian and Revolutionary wars, began our family's westward movement.  Oliver and most of his children migrated from Connecticut (where the Bailey family had been established for more than 160 years) to Bradford County, Pennsylvania.  Thomas Bailey (1765 - 1854), Oliver's second eldest son, stayed in Pennsylvania.  Thomas' eldest son Smith Bailey (1789 - 1862)(my fourth great grandfather) moved on to Franklin County, Ohio in 1821.  

Orange Bailey (1811 - 1905) (photo above), the eldest son of Smith Bailey, (my third great grandfather) was born 1811, in Canton Township, Bradford County, Pennsylvania, but grew up in Ohio.

Orange Bailey (obituary above) married Lydia Waggoner in Ohio, 1832.  In 1845, they migrated and homesteaded in Iowa Territory.  Orange died in 1905.  He is the longest-living Bailey ancestor thus far discovered.  He lived to be 94 years old.  He outlived two wives and several of his twenty children. 

Iowa to Nebraska before 1870

David Solomon Bailey (1837 - 1915) (photo above) was Orange Bailey's second eldest son and my second great- grandfather.  He was born in Ohio 1837.  He moved to Iowa Territory with his parents in 1845. 

David Solomon Bailey served with the 3rd Iowa Cavalry 1864 ( he lost a leg in the battle at Brice's Crossroads).  He moved his family and homesteaded in Elkhorn, Nebraska before 1870 (census record), and died there in 1915.

Nebraska to Idaho 1903

David Jackson Bailey (1865 - 1949), my great grandfather and the eldest son of David Solomon Bailey was born in Iowa in 1865.  He moved to Nebraska with his parents before 1870.

David Jackson Bailey homestead in Liberty Township, Valley County, Nebraska 1884, where he battled the elements farming for nearly twenty years.  Drought, wind, and dust storms finally got the best of him, so he moved his family and homesteaded in Kendrick, Latah County, Idaho in 1903.  He died in Lewiston, Nez Perce County, Idaho in 1949.

Montana to California 1912 - 1935

(left to right) Velma, Muriel, Hazel, Lydia (grandma), Frank (granddad), and Vernon

Frank Jackson Bailey (1886 - 1968), my grandfather, was born in Liberty Township, Valley County, Nebraska in 1886 (in a sod house).  He married and homesteaded in Kalispell, Flathead County, Montana in 1912.  Seeking a better opportunity and wanting to be closer to his parents, he removed to (and homesteaded) in Kendrick, Latah County, Idaho in 1918.  He lost his farm and moved to Los Angeles, California during the Great Depression.  He died in Los Angeles, California, in 1968.  His daughter (my mother) was born in Montana, but all of his descendants for the next several generations have been native Californians.  Frank Jackson Bailey was the last Bailey pioneer completing a 135-year (coast to coast) journey westward.