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Individual Page


Family
Marriage: Children:
  1. George A. Blakeley: Birth: 18 NOV 1869 in Blakely Twsp, Gage Co NE.

  2. Jessie Blakeley: Birth: 1870. Death: 1938 in Beatrice, Nebraska USA


Sources
1. Title:   ulrichtreejuly04.FTW
2. Title:   Census record of 1830, 1840, 1850
3. Title:   Oltman oral history
Author:   Kathryn Dorothy Oltman (Ulrich, Brown)
4. Title:   OneWorldTreeSM

Notes
a. Note:   H00146
Note:   Cornelia Dorothy Bailey always claimed Native American Heritage. She had her children breast fed by the Native American women at the Otoe-Missouria Reservation near Beatrice, NE. It existed 1854-1882 known as the Big Blue Reservation. It was near Caldwell Nebraska and is now called Barneston after a man who had a general store on the reservation. Gage became a county in 1855 and Beatrice its county seat in 1859. Cornelia claimed to know the man there who owned the store. The Indian Agent was A.L. Green. The man who owned the general store was Francis M. Barnes. His wife was Miriam (Mary Dipps) . Both were of Native American origin, although Francis may have been of mixed ancestry. There was a special reservation for mixed breed people near Nemaha Nebraska and Francis lived there for some time before marrying and moving to Missouri, then later to Beatrice Nebraska. He met his wife, who was born in Nebraska, in Missouri where his family lived. They were an early family in Missoiuri and intermarried with the Missouria and Oto Indians who were originally Winnibago from Wisconsin. This Native American connection in regard to Francis M Barnes and Miriam Dipps is ignored in many of the Nebraska Histories, however, the IGA lists both as Native American, Otoe-Missouria Tribe. Cornelia Dorothy Bailey claimed to know them and the Chief of the Reservation, Ar ke kee tah. She has many stories about her relationship with the people there. Nelda Oltman, my mother's sister, did many years of research on this oral history and believed Cornelia was indeed Indian or part Indian, as she herself maintained. She told each of her children and grandchildren, "Never forget your Indian heritage." DNA analysis has proven the existence of African and Native American in our line. The exact origin of this DNA is difficult of trace with any absolute assurance, however. There are two possibilities: 1) Cornelia Dorothy Bailey was adopted as a mixed racial child or as a Native American child. The 1860 Federal Census lists her as "Household laborer" not as a child of Asa Fitch Bailey and Jeannette Dickenson Ford. She is never listed as 'daughter' in the census record. Her appearance and behaviour was quite different from the other Bailey siblings, according to family interviews. This would account for the her self-identifying as Winnibago. Further, Racine was the stopping point of the Underground Railroad before jumping to Canada. Many of our Maternal DNA matches contain lines from the states in the Southeast of the US. None of the members of the family tree related to my mother, Kathryn Dorothy Oltman, ever lived there. They lived in New England, New York and Pennsylvania. Some slave woman would have to have come on the Underground Railroad and given birth to Cornelia in Racine. Cornelia would then have been adopted by Asa Fitch Bailey in Racine and then used as a house laborer until they all left for Nebraska. They left for Nebraska during the Civil War and Nebraska was a free state, not a slave state. Intermarriage between the Blacks and the Cherokee were not uncommon in that part of the USA. There are whole studies about "tri-racial isolates" there as any Google search will bear out. 2) The sad story of Asa Fitch Bailey's grandfather and grandmother, Asa Bailey and his wife Abagail Abbott, lends another possibility. Asa Bailey was a Revolutionary War hero. His son became a famous clock maker and linguist in New England. This son relates to us that Asa Bailey was an outstanding soldier and businessman. He was, however, prone to outbursts of anger and was in addition a bit "free with the ladies." This freedom extended to both his African American household help and even to his his own daughters. He is said to have had children with these members of his household, sadly to say. He and Abagail Abbott had 14 children, but our DNA indicates that not all the children were biologically related to Abagail Abbott! She was a heroic woman about whom an interesting film could be made. I personally admire her courage and moral conviction. She received a divorce settlement from Asa Bailey after a lengthy legal battle which included Asa trying to get her lost in the NY-NH forest to avoid publicity and loss of money. The courageous Abagail used all the money for child support. They had been all given to various families in the New England area. Abagail herself died sick and in poverty. This is all related in the book MEMORIES OF MRS ABIGAIL BAILEY. This would mean that Caleb Bailey and/or Chloe Bailey might be a child of one of these illicit liaisons between the Colonel Asa Bailey and the Black/Native house help. According to Nelda Oltman this could have been a Pequot/African mixture, which was not at all unusual in New England. Nelda was Kathryn D. Oltman's Sister. Nelda travelled widely in New England researching her family origins. She feels that the African/Native American mixture began before the Baileys or the local Indian tribes left for Wisconsin. She maintained the the pictures of the old Pequots looked very much like Cornelia and her sisters born before the journey from Wisc to Nebr by Asa Fitch Bailey. Some of the New England tribes ended up in Wisconsin at various reservations. Chloe was the daughter of Asa, and Caleb his son. Caleb was Asa Fitch Bailey's father. Chloe was Jeannette Dickenson Ford's mother. This means that Asa Fitch Bailey and his wife Jeannette Dickenson Ford were cousins. It seems possible that Chloe was the source of the Indian/African connection. It was possibly she who told Jeannette not to forget her heritage and that this statement was passed down to the family through her daughter, Cornelia Dorothy Bailey. We will never know the name of Chloe's mother, but her DNA is still passed on in our line. Cornelia Dorothy Bailey was keeping the Native Indian connection alive with her close association with the people of the Big Blue Reservation. She knew Francis M Barnes and his wife Mary Dipps. She also claimed to know the chief of the reservation, A ke kee tah. She self-identified with the Winnibago, Oto and Missouria peoples. Her husband William Bailey met the tribes, who were Siouxian people in his travels in Minnesota and Iowa. He wintered and traded with them at times. He met them often in Iowa and Wisc. so that by the time he got to Nebraska he was already attuned to the culture and behaviour. William also had consumption. It was necessary to spend various amounts of time convalescing. during these times he learned to love the wilderness and its people. Here he always felt better than cooped up inside where his consumption became unbearable. He finally left New England wandering about Iowa and Minnesota, meeting with various Siouxian tribes. This is one reason he was appointed to deal with the aftermath of the Indian War along the Platte and Big Blue. He had to settle land claims and injuries. His relationships with the Indians in the area may have also made it possible for him to accept a bi-racial or tri-racial wife. The first possibility indicates that Asa Fitch Bailey was not biologically related to Cornelia. We will never know who her biological mother was and this branch of the family tree ends at that point. The second possibility means the the family tree ends with either Caleb or Chloe Bailey. We may never know who the biological mother was. The father would be of course Asa Bailey. The exact origins of the DNA profile are not definitive. It still remains a challenge for any genealogist taking interest in the Oltman-Bailey lines. But the DNA reveals interesting possibilities from which some enjoyment in speculation may be derived.


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