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Ann Polsen Baillies Sawyer
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Jane Orr Baillies Thomas
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Thomas Baillies Jr.
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John Hamilton Baillies Sr.
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Mary Baillies
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Elizabeth Baillies
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Margaret Ellen Baillies Healy
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Polson Baillies
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Jessie Stuart Baillies Deakin
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BAILLIES FAMILY HISTORY
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Thomas Baillies, who was of pure Scottish descent, had the misfortune to be born in Ireland. Although his parents home was then in Glasgow, Scotland, they were in Ireland at the time of his birth in the year 1815, for his father, an officer in the British army, was stationed there. When joking friends
reminded Thomas of his birthplace, he would reply, Does it make a man a horse to be born in a barn?
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A carpenter and cabinet maker by trade, in 1846, Thomas, then 31 years old, married Elizabeth Hamilton, twelve years his junior.
They made their home in Paisley, Scotland, where her father was manager of the Paisley Shawl Manufacturing Plant.
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Having read about and studied maps of the New World, Thomas and his father-in-law determined to migrate to America and become Wisconsin farmers.
On the day they sailed, John Hamilton, Elizabeths father, married Margaret Raside, the superintendent of the girls in the shawl factory.
(Elizabeths mother had died when Elizabeth was seven years old.)
The party left Scotland in the middle of August, 1849; it consisted of John Hamilton; his new wife, Margaret; his nephews, Jim and Matt Witherspoon,
13 and 11 years old; Margarets niece, Lizzie Nevin 14 years old; Thomas Baillies, 34, his wife, Elizabeth, 22 and thirteen month old daughter, Ann.
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During the voyage, the two couples became the friends of a Welsh couple, a Mr. And Mrs. Perry, neither of whom could speak English.
On reaching New York, after the six week voyage, Mr. Perry trusted his new friends to take his English pounds to be changed into American money for him.
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Leaving New York almost immediately, they again set out by boat on the Great Lakes for their new home, reaching Milwaukee about the middle of October, 1849.
Another Scottish family, the McConochies, were already settled in the present community of Rosedale. Meeting our family party at Milwaukee,
they brought them by team directly to the land which is now known as the Hamilton farm. Here, close to the road, the men of the party built a log house.
Here close to the road is the first home which is remembered by Aunt Jane Thomas, who was five or six years old when her parents,
Thomas and Elizabeth Baillies, moved from the two storied log house. In 1856, they began the construction of a frame house on the site of the
present Oscar Reuhl home. The winter was spent in completing the dwelling, and by spring the Baillies family was happily settled in their new home.
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Meanwhile, Grandfather Hamilton has also been building. His family, which consisted of the two Witherspoon boys and Lizzie Nevin, now had a new
frame house, the same house with many additions, which is still standing on this property.
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Seven of the nine children born to Thomas and Elizabeth Baillies grew to manhood and womanhood. These are the names and dates of the birth and
death of these children:
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Ann Polsen, 1848, 1919
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Jane Orr, 1851, 1942
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Thomas, 1853, 1941
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John Hamilton, 1856, 1924
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Mary, 1858, 1863
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Elizabeth, 1861, 1863
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Margaret Ellen, 1863, 1953
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Polsen, 1866, 1925
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Jessie Stuart, 1870, 1947
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This brief but very interesting history of the Baillies family owes its life to Aunt Jane Thomas. She remembered each of the incidents related,
either from things told to her or from her own memory, never faltering over a date or a name. Without her very patient help and marvelous
memory this paper
could never have been even begun, and because of her and her brothers and sisters, we, their descendants, will keep and cherish it.
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