Wesley's Wall

The blog of 7 Jun 2015 promised that investigation of the mysterious Wesley Tapscott would continue during our June trip to Missouri and Illinois, in hopes of demolishing or at least fracturing the “brick wall” separating us from knowledge of Wesley’s parentage. Here are the new things found (with just a little repetition for continuity).

On 29 Nov 1889 Wesley purchased 20 acres of land in Anderson Twp from Clark H. Hammond and his wife, Roxana, for $100, an amount higher than what Wesley would be expected to have had. A plat map shows that by 1892, Wesley had acquired an adjacent 20 acres from an unknown source. Most of Wesley Tapscott’s 40 acres was considerably flatter than the neighboring 80 acres owned by Henry the Traveler’s oldest son William Tapscott (my great grandfather). Cut through by the Auburn Branch of Mill Creek, William’s farm was an assembly of ravines with scarcely any cultivatable land. Wesley had acquired some acceptable farm land. But he was probably too sick to make much use of it.

 

Tapscott lands in Anderson and Auburn Townships. Mill Creek Reservoir is a modern addition.

On 16 Aug 1893, sensing the end, Wesley wrote his last will and testimony:

   I Wesley Tapscott of Anderson Township County of Clark and State of Illinois do make this my last will and testament.

   First it is my will that any just debts against me be paid out of my estate.

    I then give and bequeath all of the residue of my personal property of whatever kind and moneys, also a debt due me from David Birchfield of ten dollars for which I have no note to Joseph Shade and his heirs.

   I hereby appoint and make Joseph Shade executor of this my last will and testament.

   Signed and sealed the sixteenth day of August A. D. 1893.

       Wesley {his X mark} Tapscott

 Witnesses

James L Coon [?]

John N. Washburn

John M Coons

          The will shows the last name “Tapscott,” rather than “Tabscott,” the spelling used on most of Wesley’s documents. But being illiterate, Wesley had no idea how his name was spelled or should be spelled. Spelling was left to those doing the writing. The Army thought his name was spelled “Tabscott,” and that was the name used in Wesley’s numerous military, medical, and Soldier and Sailor Home records. Most others used the customary spelling “Tapscott,” and that is the name found on all but two of his probate records and on his grave marker.

Two of the will’s witnesses were “John Washburn, a 33-year-old railroad worker living in Clark County’s Wabash Twp., and John Coons, a merchant living in Auburn Twp. The name of the other witness appears to be “James L. Coon,” a young laborer living in Martinsville Twp. Their connection with Wesley is unknown. Joseph Shade, the will’s only beneficiary, was the son-in-law of Sarah Ann Tapscott, one of the Traveler’s five daughters.

Soldiers and Sailors Home brick “cottage” (2015).

The following year Wesley went to the Illinois Soldiers and Sailors Home in Quincy, Illinois, listing his next-door neighbor in Clark County, William Tapscott, as his contact. Mary Frances and I visited the institution. The facility is still used (though the name has been changed to the “Illinois Veterans Home”) and many of the early buildings still stand. Residents were housed in two-story brick buildings termed “cottages” to bring a feeling of “Home” to the facility. The Home was built in 1886 and the first resident was admitted on 3 Mar 1887, just seven years before Wesley’s arrival on 30 May 1894. Lying on the Mississippi River, Quincy was a stop on the Chicago, Burlington, and Quincy (CB&Q) railway, which had a depot on the northern edge of the home, and this may be how Wesley arrived.

Wesley stayed in the Home only a few months, returning to Marshall, Illinois, where he died on 21 Nov 1894, willing all his personal property to Joseph Shade, who likely ended up with nothing but a headache. Wesley left more debts than assets. What happened to his 40 acres is still undetermined, but the land was likely sold before his death.

Thus after searching for hours in the Clark County Courthouse, the Clark County Genealogy Library, and the Marshall Public Library and visiting the Illinois Soldiers and Sailors Home, we still know little about Wesley’s origins. We know from where he came, but not from who. And, though he came from Green County, Kentucky, the home of William the Preacher, perhaps he is not a Tapscott after all, or at least not the son of a male Tapscott. His name may have come from an NPE, a non-paternal event - a name change, an illegitimate birth, an adoption, The brick wall remains.