Pedigree

James Ulmstead Hedley was born Aug 17, 1869 in Charlevoix County, Michigan, the second son of James William Hedley and Mary Ulmstead Rorison. Mary died two months after the birth of her son  James, and apparently James’ widowed paternal grandmother, Margaret (Grierson) Hedley of Torbolton Township, Carleton Co., Ontario cared for James and his two-year-old brother John R. for some time. (See Chapter 4: 1871 Census for Carleton Co., Torbolton Twp.)
It is assumed that the two brothers were returned to their home in Michigan after James William Hedley’s second marriage, in 1870, to Harriet A. Wood.  That marriage produced a daughter, Mary Margaret Hedley and a step son, George Nickerson Hedley. James’ third marriage, to Emma Hays, produced three more children, Frank, Ethel and Ralph Hedley. James, Emma and their five children moved from their home in Charlevoix, Michigan to Black Jack, Kansas shortly after the birth of their first child Frank. James U. and his elder brother probably lived in Black Jack during their teenage years.

When (or possibly before) the James Hedley family left Kansas and moved to Minnesota in the 1890s, James U. and his brother John, then young men in their early twenties, went to Butte, Montana, where their uncle, Anthony Humble Hedley, had been living for many years. The name James U. Hedley appears, along with that of his brother John,  in the list of land claims filed Nov. 2, 1893  in Jefferson County, Montana (Bureau of Land Management Database). Although James’s brother John lingered in Montana, married and had a family there, James U appears to have had other interests.

In 1894 James U., age 24, married 18-year-old Eda Berry, who was born in June 1876 in  Nebraska, the daughter of John Berry, a native of Illinois and his English wife Mary E. Berry.
In 1900 Eda and James U. Hedley were living in Colorado, where James was working as a miner.
       
           I900 U.S Census for Colorado State, Teller County, Cripple Creek Township



Ten years later, James U. and his wife Eda were living in Washington State, where James was working in a quartz mine. Apparently James U. and Eda did not have any children of their own, but in 1920 Eda’s 20-year-old brother was living with them.

             1910 U.S. Census for Washington State, Spokane County, Echo Township



The marriage of James U. and Eda Hedley dissolved, and in 1920 Eda Berry, age 43 and divorced,  was living in Spokane City, Washington State and working as a “sales lady” (1920 U.S. Census for Spokane, Washington)
James U. had re-married, and was living with his second wife Cecelia J. (–?–) in Salt Lake City. James was working as a quartz miner.

1920 U.S. Census for Utah State, Salt Lake County, Salt Lake City

              
Cecilia Jane Hedley, born 1859, died April 27, 1944 at age 85 in Salt Lake, Utah (Utah Death Index)
James Ulmstead Hedley, born Aug.17, 1869 in Michigan, died March 3, 1945 in Los Angeles at age 76 (California Death Index).