The Trials of Joseph Watt

We have been looking at Wabash Valley Tapscotts who left no descendants living today. You might ask, Why do this? Without descendants as an audience, interest in the history of these exiles is likely to be minimal, possibly nonexistent. But these folk are still important: Their tales are often fascinating. The detective work is exhilarating. And we are rescuing castaways from oblivion. Death is bad enough, but death without people knowing you were ever alive is much more tragic.

Our last blog examined the life of Mattie (Lockard) Watt, daughter of Frances Ann Tapscott. But for quite a while our research revealed nothing of what became of Mattie’s husband, Joseph. We see him (and his brother-in-law, Fred, Mattie’s brother) in the 1890-1891 Terre Haute City Directory, and then he disappears—or so for a time we believed. We thought it likely that he died, probably in Terre Haute, around the turn of the last century, though no death record or notice could be found. Iron puddling was dangerous work. Owing to the heat, extreme labor, and fumes most puddlers died in their 30s. But we were wrong. Joseph would live another twenty years, outliving Mattie.

It turns out that Joseph had probably accompanied Mattie and Fred when they went to Wheeling, West Virginia, in the 1890s. In fact, he was likely the trip’s instigator, for he had once lived in Wheeling. Following the death of his father, James, Joseph had lived there with his widowed mother, Elizabeth, and his eight siblings, And he still had family there. His youngest sibling, William Wallace Watt, also an iron puddler, lived there. Wallace would be Joseph’s contact with the outside world in the difficult years that were to come.

And the years were difficult. Perhaps this explains Mattie’s move to California and out of Joseph’s life. On 21 Mar 1906 Joseph was admitted to the Southern Branch, National Home for Disabled Volunteer Soldiers (NHDAV), in Hampton, Virginia, because of his rheumatism. The NHDAV was established (initially under a different name) to care for volunteer Union soldiers disabled during the Civil War, a war in which Joseph had fought. He served as a private in Company I, 5th Ohio Cavalry for a little over eight months in 1865, a stint limited by the war’s end.

The National Home in Hampton, Virginia, where Joseph
began his 14-years of institutional life (Library of Congress).

His NHDAV admission record listed him as single, with his closest relative being his brother William Wallace. He was released 11 Jul 1906 and went to live in Steubenville, Ohio, where he was living prior to his 28 Dec 1907 admission to the Ohio Soldiers and Sailors Home in Sandusky, Ohio. It was there that he lived out his life except for a brief stint at the Battle Mountain Sanitarium of the NHDAV in Hot Spring, South Dakota. He entered Battle Mountain on 28 Sep 1912, again listed as single, with his brother William Wallace, his nearest relative. Of course by this time, Mattie had died. Despite an increase in his list of ailments—myalgia, rheumatism, chromic eczema, varicose veins, umbilical hernia—Joseph’s stay was brief. He was discharged on 11 Nov 1912. Joseph immediately returned to the Ohio Soldiers and Sailors Home, where he died 6 Nov 1920 and was buried in the institution’s cemetery. His obituary states that “Comrade Watt was never married. He was the oldest man in the hospital.” He may have been the oldest man at the hospital, though he was only 78 when he died, but he certainly had been married.

And with this abbreviated tale, we have rescued Joseph from obscurity.