My grandmother Hazel Gary Bailey, came north from Virginia during the Great Migration. She died in 1933 in an insane asylum in Marcy, New York. What happened? How did she end up where she did? I'm trying to fit the pieces together and find out who she was.
In 1924 Hazel married James Edgar Bailey in Sag Harbor. It's the first glimpse I have of her. Below is her marriage registration.
James Edgar was the grandson of James Robert Bailey, enslaved for 31 years in Virginia, he came to Southampton, New York with his wife and kids for a better life. He was a farmer, and eventually he bought 15 acres. The road on his farm still bears his name, Bailey Road in the Tuckahoe section of Southampton.
Above is the subdivision plan from James Robert's will dated 1922 sliding into how the land looks today. He left a piece to each of his kids, Francis, Elijah, Elisha, Lena, Ida, Amos, Mary and James, Hazel's father-in-law. (Three generations were named James!)
Here's Elisha (James' uncle) winning the 100 yard dash on July 4 1892 in Sag Harbor, and James Robert and Elisha taking second in the three-legged race. James Robert would be Hazel's father-in-law and James Edgar's father.
Here are some of Hazel's new family. Back row from the left are James' cousins, Harry, Lawerence and George. Front row left are aunt Ida Bell, and cousins Mary Jane and Lewis. The only date on this photo is pre-WWII.
Here are Hazel and James in the 1925 New York State census living on North Sea Road in Southampton.
Demus Dean was one of the witnesses. He would go on to found the First Baptist Church of Bridgehampton. Hazel and James likely got married in one of his two houses in Sag Harbor.
On Dec 21, 1929 Hazel was taken to Bellevue Hospital in New York City, pregnant and alone. She would be sent to Central Islip State Hospital on Long Island. In May of 1929 the Governor would detail the appalling conditions. The buildings were so over-crowed patients would have to crawl over each other to get to a bed.