Kasiah/Kissiah/Kesiah Tapscott

Permission for “Keziah” Miles to marry Abraham Followell shows the likely source of Kasiah
 Tapscott’s name.  Family Search. Thanks to Chris Summers for bringing this to my attention.

Born between 1842 and 1845 (probably closer to 1842), Richard Tapscott’s only daughter appears in censuses with three given names “Kasiah,” “Kissiah,” and “Kesiah,” all known, though not common, appellations. I have arbitrarily chosen to use the name “Kasiah,” which is found for her in two different contemporary sources. It is likely that she was named after her maternal grandmother Keziah S. (Miles) Followay, and that the spelling was confused. After all, her father and mother were both illiterate (as was Kasiah).

In the 1860 census, she is found at age 17 in two different Marion County, Kentucky, households — that of her stepfather, Christian Weatherman, where she is named “Kasiah Weatherman” (possibly due to an error by the census enumerator) and that of Garrett (“Garit”) Vandike, where she is named “Kasiah Tapcot.”

Ten years later, in 1870, “Kesiah Tabscott” was living in Marion County with two children, 1-year old “Cynthian” (probably meant to be “Cyntha”) and 5-year-old “Mary E.” — two girls with the last name “Tabscott,” Kasiah’s maiden name. Descendants have passed down the story that Mary E. (“Mary Elizabeth Tapscott”) was the illegitimate daughter of Kasiah and a “Garret Van Diner.” It is very likely that the name was actually “Garrett Vandike,” that of the farmer with whom Kasiah was living at the time of the 1860 census.

It may be that a live-in servant, possibly Kasiah’s function, was just too tempting for a 60-year-old man (Garrett’s approximate age when Mary was born). Did Kasiah’s other child, Cyntha, have the same origin? Perhaps, though it is difficult to imagine that Vandike could have continued a relationship over a period of four years, for he had a wife, Sarah F., and five known children, to monitor his actions. And, of course, we have no proof that Garrett was the father.

What is particularly interesting about this tale is that in 1870, Kasiah had a roommate, 32-year-old Mary Emeline Atwood, the niece of Kasiah’s stepfather Christian Weatherman. Christian’s sister, Sarah, had married John Atwood in North Carolina, and following the birth of the first three children (James, Mary Emeline, and John W.), the family traveled to Kentucky (around 1850), presumably with Christian. In 1870 Mary Emeline was living with Kasiah, and she also had children with her — William N., Laura A., Mary E., and Sarah A., all four born between 1860 and 1868. That they bore the last name “Atwood” indicates that they too may have been born out of wedlock. Two single women living together with apparent offspring. Could the two have been banished by their families? Could all the children have been fathered by… but, no, it seems unfair to place suspicion on Garrett once more. Or is it? DNA results could help unravel the mystery.

By 1880, Kasiah’s two children were living in Casey County with others — Mary Elizabeth as a servant in the household of Robert L. King (probably a relative, but not a brother, of her future husband, Samuel Franklin King) and Cyntha with her first cousin once removed on the Followell side (see post of 25 Apr 2016). The oldest (William) and youngest (Sarah) of Mary Emeline Atwood’s children were living with their grandparents, John and Sarah Atwood. Kasiah, Mary Emeline, and Mary Emeline’s two other children are nowhere to be found, nor are they seen again. It seems like a lot of people to have passed away around the same time, if that is what happened.

Kasiah’s youngest child, Cyntha, had a similar fate. After 1880, she disappeared. But Cyntha’s sister, Mary Elizabeth Tapscott (or “Tabscott,” as usually named) lived a long, complex, and exceedingly interesting life, the subject of the next post.