Attaquin, Betsy Jones

Betsy J. Attaquin was born on February 16, 1821, the daughter of Ezra and Sally Jones Attaquin.  As a young teenager living at Mashpee, she was a signatory to a January 1834 Mashpee petition written by William Apes.  Her name was added to that of 288 other Mashpee residents and community members complaining of a number of longstanding grievances against the overseers and the Congregational missionary to the tribe.  This was the same year that she was enumerated, age 13, with her parents and nine siblings in a compilation of vital records of the Mashpee.

The 1840 federal census found Betsy still living at Mashpee in the household with her parents, several siblings, and, most likely, one of her grandmothers.  By 1844, she had married George T. Ockrey or Oakley, the same year their eldest child, Euphrasia, was born. A commissioner's report describing the condition and enumerating members of the Mashpee community in 1848 included George and Betsy Ockrey, ages 30 and 28, and their daughter Euphrasia, age 4.  George was a farmer and likely worked the 60 acres of land that he held in severalty

In 1859, 1860, and 1862, she and George were listed as the heads of a household at Mashpee now with six children, Euphrasia, b. 1844, James A., born 1848, George L., born 1852, Gertrude C., born 1855, Martha C., born 1857, and Addie B, born 1858. Their son Arthur was born in 1863, followed by Irving in 1865.  In June of 1870 the large Ockrey family was still residing together at Mashpee on the southwest side of Mashpee Pond, a short distance northwest of the Parsonage.  By this point records more commonly contain the name Oakley. By 1880, the household had gotten smaller with the establishment of separate households or the deaths of several of the adult Oakley children. Betsy J. Attaquin Oakley died, March 18, 1898 at Mashpee.  Massachusetts, Town and Vital Records, 1620-1988, Vol. 1, Ancestry; Petition of the Mashpee Indians to the Senate and House of Representatives of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, 1834.01.29.00; 1840 United States Federal Census, Marshpee, Barnstable, Massachusetts, Ancestry; Bird Report, 1849; Earle Report, 1861; 1860 United States Federal Census, Marshpee, Barnstable, Massachusetts, Ancestry; U.S., Indexed County Land Ownership Maps, 1860-1918, Massachusetts Barnstable, 1880, Ancestry;1870 United States Federal Census, Marshpee, Barnstable, Massachusetts, Ancestry; 1880 United States Federal Census, Marshpee, Barnstable, Massachusetts, Ancestry; Massachusetts, Death Records, 1841-1915, Ancestry. Image from Earl Mills, Sr., Son of Mashpee.