11 Facts About Gillum Baley

Gillum Baley was one of the earliest settlers of Bailey Flats, California, which was named for him, and eventually settled in nearby Millerton where he served as County Judge for twelve years.

Gillum Baley 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.

Gillum Baley's father moved the family to Missouri when Baley was a small child.

Gillum Baley died of measles in 1836, leaving Baley with an infant son, Moses.

Right Baley and his family remained there, but in early 1860 Gillum relocated his family to a site near Fort Miller where they lived in disused army buildings.

Gillum Baley built a house and started a cattle and dairy farm in the area now known as Bailey Flats which lay at the conjunction of three forks of the Chowchilla River.

Gillum Baley got a job as a justice of the peace, and in 1867 was elected the County Judge, a post which he held for the next 12 years.

Gillum Baley went into the grocery business with his son-in-law and was later elected County Treasurer.

The claim was eventually rejected, although Gillum Baley died in 1895 before the final decision.

Gillum Baley's funeral was held in Fresno's St Paul's Methodist Church of which he had been the founder.

The book is a semi-fictionalized biography of Sallie Fox who as a twelve-year-old child had travelled with the Rose-Gillum Baley Party, surviving both the Mojave attack which killed her stepfather and the trek back to Albuquerque during which her half-brother died.