Vincent Buell and Mary Elizabeth

Let’s finish with Mary Elizabeth Tapscott, granddaughter of Richard and Cyntha Tapscott, so we can get to more interesting or pressing issues.

We last heard about Mary Elizabeth after her second husband, Squire Jasper (“Bud”) Phillips, was forced to leap from a trestle to avoid being hit by an interurban electric train in Bloomington, Illinois. The leap added barely two days to his life.

Mary Elizabeth Tapscott's final days were spent
at her home on Lee Street in Bloomington.

After Bud Phillip’s death on 20 Sep 1930, Mary waited until 27 Mar 1934 before marrying again, to Vincent E. Buell, a retired farmer, who had spent most, though not all, of his life in McLean County, Illinois. Vincent had gone through three previous marriages, all ending by death. Earlier brides had been Mary A. Strickland (22 Mar 1868 - 19 Nov 1903) on 13 Oct 1892, Mary’s older sister Susan (28 Jun 1853 - 23 Feb 1924) on 27 Aug 1904, and Minerva Moore (5 Jul 1857 - 10 Sep 1933) widow of Charles W. F. Keehma on 24 Dec 1924. (Watch out! There were several Charles W. F. Keemas in the McLean County area, all apparently related and one of them a real scalawag—carjacking, draft dodging, incest. Minerva's Charles was not the scalawag.)

The marriage between Vincent and Mary Elizabeth lasted just a little over four years. Vincent passed away in Bloomington on 27 Mar 1934. Mary lasted well over a decade longer, dying in Bloomington on 7 Dec 1946. She left six children, all from her first marriage. A seventh child, William, also from her first marriage, had died young. Contrary to some published trees, she had no children with Squire Phillips.

I had not intended to go this far down the Richard Tapscott tree, but interesting details kept appearing, and I wanted to correct some errors in published trees, particularly confusion of Squire Jasper Phillips with Squire Logan Phillips. We will go just a little further next time to pick up an interesting tidbit or two about Mary Elizabeth and Samuel King’s daughter Lillian Myrtle King and her (proposed) connection to "Scarface" Al Capone.