The Bailey Family Migration to Missouri - Part 1, Family Lore

When I was young my mother use to tell the story of relatives who left Kentucky and headed west a long time ago. She told the tale in a haunting way that invoked a sense of mystery and wonder. She was, unfortunately, a bit vague on details. I don’t remember her ever mentioning their name, or how they were related; and she didn’t seem to know when they left Kentucky, or where they were going. Mom said the last time anyone heard from them they were in Joplin, Missouri, and she thought the Indians probably got them. I grew up with this mystery simmering in the recesses of my mind, and with the frustration of having no clue as to how to solve it.

In 1992 my wife, Mary, and I drove Mom and her brother, Charles Frank, back to their Kentucky roots. That was to Falmouth and Catawba in Pendleton County. There we met Mildred Jacobs, my first cousin, once removed, the only child of Bud and Minnie Jacobs. Mildred, raised in the area, and only a bit younger that Mom and Uncle Charlie, was one of the few remaining to have knowledge of our common ancestors. Those ancestors were Charles and Julia Jacobs - Mom’s maternal grandparents. Mildred knew of Mom’s story, and better yet, she had some old letters written to Charles and Julia from Missouri The letters were penned by Jane (Harrison) Bailey, Julia’s mother.

Mildred kindly sent me the letters. I made copies and preceded to translate them. The letters were written in English, but like many living a century ago, Jane was possibly the only one in her family who could write. She was inventive and used neither periods nor commas - no punctuation at all, so it was often puzzling to determine where one sentence ended and the next began. She was equally creative with the use of capital letters. A sentence did no always start with a capital. Proper names might or might not be capitalized. This added to the difficulty in identifying complete thoughts. Her spelling and grammar followed in character, but in spite of all that, she managed to communicate, and in the vernacular of the day. I wanted to preserve the “flavor” of the letters so I made few changes. Mainly I added periods, a few commas, and some capital letters.Five letters, dating from 1874 to 1886, tell of the hardscrabble life of a family that repeatedly moved from county to county along the northern border of Missouri. In twelve years they lived in Mercer, Harrison, Daviess, and then Saline County. It didn’t take much “reading between the lines” to see that it was a tale about impoverished farmers who barely succeeded in scratching out a living.
GO TO: The Bailey Migration - Part 2, The Letters Home