The Indian Problem

On 30 May 1934 James Irby Bailiff, my nephew's wife's first cousin three times removed, married Gevena May (Gazaway) Given. 

James Irby Bailiff (1903-1999) is the man in uniform

Courtesy of BailiffFamily.com and provided by Mary Bailiff Crittendon

Geneva was a half-blooded Choctaw Indian and was born when the "civilized" Indian tribes were being enrolled by the Dawes Commission so they could be allotted land and assimilated as other immigrants did. Whites sympathetic to Native Americans couldn't understand why the country had absorbed over 5 million European immigrants but 250,000 Native Americans couldn't be assimilated.  Indian Commissioner, Merrill Gates, described the "problem:"

"We must make the Indian more intelligently selfish before we can make him unselfishly intelligent. We need to awaken in him wants. In his dull savagery he must be touched by the angel of discontent. Then he begins to look forward, to reach out. The desire for property of his own may become an intense educating force.  The wish for a home of his own awakens him to new efforts. Discontent with the teepee and the staving rations of the Indian camp in winter is needed to get the Indian out of the blanket and into trousers -- and trousers with a pocket in them, and a packet that aches to be filled with dollars!?

So Congress passed what became known as the Dawes Severalty Act of 1887. This Commission was responsible for negotiating agreements with the Five Civilized Tribes – the Cherokee, Chickasaw, Choctaw, Creek, and Seminole. The stated objective of the Dawes Act was to stimulate assimilation of Indians into American society. Individual ownership of land was seen as an essential step. The act also provided that the government would purchase Indian land "excess" to that needed for allotment and open it up for settlement by non-Indians.

A 1911 ad offering "allotted Indian land" for sale

Between 1898 and 1914 the Dawes commissioned surveyed the tribes. The enrollment cards are held at the National Archives and Records Commission. And that's how I found out Geneva May Gazaway was a Choctaw Indian. Despite intentions, the Dawes Act had a negative impact on Native Americans. It dramatically reduced the amount of land Native Americans owned and the acreage not allotted to tribal members was sold to white settlers.  In 1887 tribes owned approximately 138 million acres of land; by 1934 they held only 48 million acres.

Senator Dawes went to his grave thinking his legislation was the "Indian Magna Carta."

Meet the Caloriemeter -- It's Not What You Think

Columbus Berry Bailiff was the first cousin four times removed of my nephew's wife. He was born in September 1879 in Tennessee and died in Nashville of typhoid fever in 1915, suffering for three weeks before death. He was 35 years old and known as Lum to family and friends.

Lum married Beulah Grooms sometime after 1900. They lived on 1305 Greenwood Avenue in Nashville, Tennesse. Their marriage produced no known children. Beulah never remarried and lived with her mother, who was also widowed young, the rest of her life.

Lum was working for Harvester Company of the Americas in the Collections Department as a commercial trader when he died. Typhoid is a bacterial disease transmitted by the ingestion of food or water contaminated with the feces of an infected person.

In the same year Lum died, the Alumnae Association of Bellevue, Pension Fund Committee, published a short history of Bellevue Hospital and of the training schools, which included information about treating various diseases.  The guide had this to say about the new, "modern" methods of treating typhoid:

The old treatment of typhoid fever was to supply food very sparingly to the patient, leaving him weak and emaciated at the end of the fever. Fatal results were feared if the patient was given much nourishment. The most modern treatment, however, is that with extreme care and expert knowledge in the selection and administration of food, it is safe to provide enough nourishment to keep up the patient's weight and strengh. Scientific knowledge of foods, combined with understanding the bodily requirements, is essential.

The respiration calorimeter was invented to monitor the heat the typhoid  patient's body produced.

Coloriemeter

The respiration caloriemeter consists of a big box, in which a patient is placed for two or three hours, with a set of instruments that will record every vestige of heat produced inside the box. Arrangements are made to keep it at an even and comfortable temperature and to supply good ventilation. The record will show the heat production at the rate of a certain number a calories a day, weight and size making much difference between normal individuals.

Thankfully, the incidence of typhoid fever in the United States has markedly decreased since the early 1900s and is no longer treated using the respiration caloriemeter!