Emily Keeler was born October 31st, 1828 in Ridgebury, Connecticut (a region of Ridgefield, Connecticut bordering on Danbury, Connecticut). Her parents were Nehemiah and Polly (Brush) Keeler. She was the second youngest of nine siblings, eight of whom were alive when she was born and grew up alongside her.

In 1854 Emily married Halcyon Gilbert Bailey in Ridgefield, CT, near both their families. A year later, the couple lived in Brooklyn, New York and had their daughter, Annie. Their son Clayton, was also born in Brooklyn in 1858. The family still lived in Brooklyn during the 1860 census, and they had a live-in servant, Agnes Burnes, an illiterate white Irish immigrant. Halcyon worked in a clothing store. In 1863, Clayton Wall Bailey died at age 5.

In 1862 (for reasons unclear but possibly related to the American Civil War), the family moved to Danbury, Connecticut. Later newspaper articles say that Halcyon ‘retired’. At this point, as Emily later says in her first divorce petition, “Halcyon G. Bailey became and ever since continued to be by the immoderate use of intoxicating liquors grossly and habitually inebriate”.

Emily and Halcyon had a tumultuous relationship which ended in at least three lawsuits and a divorce in late 1872. She took custody of their daughter, 17-year-old Annie Keeler. This is covered in detail in Court Cases. 

The short version is Emily and her relatives believed that Halcyon was bad with money, so they brought a case against him to remove him from control of family finances. Halcyon won this case and wrote poetry about it. Then, Emily attempted to divorce Halcyon. She withdrew her divorce case on the agreement that some of their joint property would go into a trust for and her child's benefit. There was a caveat that, if she sued or tried to divorce Halcyon again, the property would revert back to Halcyon.  Halcyon continued his shenanigans and so Emily divorced him and the land went back to Halcyon.

Emily Keeler slips into poorly documented obscurity after her divorce. She first moved in with her father, Nehemiah Keeler, in Ridgebury. 

• In November 1882, Emily Keeler left the Congregational Church of Ridgebury and was admitted to the First Congregational Church of Danbury.
• By 1886 she lived with her daughter in Danbury at 143 Main St.
• In 1887 she lived with her daughter at ‘Judd’s Block’, 179 Main Street. In 1888 the two lived at 3 Chapel Place.
• In 1891 they lived at 12 Chapel Place, where they stayed for the rest of their lives.

In July 1896, a South Norwalk, CT newspaper covered who was in town for the season. It noted:

“Dr. Annie K. Bailey and mother are spending at week at the Bell Island hotel.”
--Evening Sentinel, South Norwalk, Connecticut

Death

Emily Keeler died of pneumonia on February 21, 1907 at the age of  78. Her daughter, Annie, was the inheritor and executrix of Emily's entire estate. Emily was buried at the family plot in Ridgebury Cemetery, alongside her son Clayton Wall Bailey.

Sources

• Connecticut State Library. Connecticut Church Records. Index Danbury Congregational Church 1754-1930. 1946.
• Danbury City Directory. 1886.
• Danbury City Directory. 1887.
• Danbury City Directory. 1888.
• Danbury City Directory. 1891.
• Stephen Whitney Phoenix. The Whitney Family of Connecticut, and Its Affiliations: Being an Attempt to Trace the Descendants, as Well in the Female as the Male Lines, of Henry Whitney, from 1649 to 1878. Priv. Print. [Bradford Press], 1878. 1006 pp. url: https://books.google.com/books?id=X5dQAAAAYAAJ .
• “Summer Saunterers. Who They Are and Where They Go in Search of Rest and Recreation.” In: Evening Sentinel [South Norwalk, Connecticut]. (July 11, 1896). url: http://hdl.handle.net/11134/450002:o27981650_2600.
• Office of the Registrar of Deaths for Danbury, Conn. Removal Permit. Apr. 15, 1907.
• U.S. Census Bureau. 1880 United States Federal Census. 1880.
• U.S. Census Bureau. 1900 United States Federal Census. 1900
• Danbury, Conn. “Danbury Probate Records Wills, Inventory.” In: vol. 63, pp. 249–250.
• “Died (Clayton Wall Bailey).” In: New York Tribune (Nov. 16, 1863).
• “Business Growth of the ’Burgh. Hutchings & Bailey’s Great Clothing Warehouse, 53 and 55 Fourth Street.” en. In: Brooklyn Daily Times (June 1873), p. 2.
• Conservatorship case against Halcyon G. Bailey. Part of Connecticut State Archives records. 2011-072. Box 18, file 1428. July 1864.