Wabash Valley Tapscotts - Finding Fred

The last three blogs dealt with Frances Ann (Tapscott) Lockard, her daughter, Mattie, and her son-in-law, Joseph Watt. But Frances had a second child, Fred.

Fred’s actual first name, Frederick, is found in Terre Haute City Directories for 1887 and for 1890-1891. His middle name, George, is shown in the 1904 Alameda Co, California voter registration. But he nearly always went by “Fred G.”

Tracking Fred was laborious because when he went to live with his sister and her husband, Mattie and Joseph Watt, following the death of his mother, he took the surname “Watt” and it took a while to figure that out. The surname  change may have occurred because he was adopted by his sister and her husband though no record has been found. Fred was only twelve years old when Frances Ann died. And his father married again shortly afterwards.

Bowie Southern Pacific Hotel

Fred G. Watt lived in Terre Haute with his sister and brother-in-law in the 1880s, working as a pressman in 1887 and as a clerk at T. J. Griffith’s shoe store in 1890. In 1894, he was a salesman in Wheeling, West Virginia. Then he traveled with his sister to California, where he was a San Francisco hotel clerk in 1900 and an Oakland shoe salesman in 1910. Following the 1911 death of Mattie, Fred began work as a night porter for the Southern Pacific Railroad, ending up employed in the railroad hotel in Bowie, Arizona in 1920.

And it is in Bowie, where a beautiful train station with a first-class hotel and dining room once served thousands of passengers passing through, that we last see Fred. As far as we know, Fred was never married and had no children. Where he ended up is a complete mystery. Perhaps one of you readers know what happened to Fred. I don’t.

Wabash Valley Tapscotts - 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.

Wabash Valley Tapscotts - Mattie

We know little about Frances Ann (Tapscott) Lockard, discussed in the previous blog. Part of the problem is that she left no still-living descendants, but it did not help that she died young, around age 42. We know more about her children, Martha and Fred, but tracing them was an arduous, though adventurous task, primarily because neither kept the name “Lockard,” and Martha even went by a different first name.

Frances's daughter was born in July 1859, in Illinois, presumably in Clark County and presumably with the name “Martha L.,” but very soon she was going almost solely by the first name “Mattie.” On 23 Oct 1876 in Vigo County, where she was living with her parents, Martha married Joseph W. (Willis) Watt. Joseph, who was born in 1842 in Pennsylvania, was considerably older than Mattie. In 1880 the two were residing in Terre Haute, where Joseph was working as a puddler in a rolling mill. (Puddlers converted pig iron to wrought iron using a reverberatory furnace).

When Mattie’s mother Frances Ann died in 1881, Mattie’s brother Fred came to live with his sister and her husband. We see Joseph Watt in the 1890-1891 Terre Haute City Directory, and then he disappears, never to be seen again—or so we thought.

Newspapers show Mrs. J. W. Watt traveling to Marshall to visit in the 1880s. Then in 1893, an Indianapolis newspaper giving news from Marshall, Illinois, announced that “Miss Mattie Watt, of Wheeling W. Va., is the Guest of Joseph P. Lockard.” Joseph F. Lockart (the “P” was apparently an error) was Mattie’s uncle. And what was Mattie doing in Wheeling? Well for one thing, her brother Fred was living there. Even after the loss of Joseph (by death or otherwise) the two were sticking together.

Puddling iron in the 19^th century was a

dangerous job  (PBS LearningMedia).

Mattie is not seen again until 1907, when a newspaper article revealed that she and her brother Fred had traveled to Paris, France, an unexpected venue. In 1910 she was living with Fred in Oakland, California. It was Oakland where she died on 8 Nov 1911 and where she is interred in Mountain View Cemetery. Mattie left no known descendants.

And what happened to Joseph Watt? We first thought it likely that Joseph 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. As it turns out, we were wrong, as we will see in the next blog. And we will see what may have drawn Fred and Mattie to Wheeling.

Wabash Valley Tapscotts - Frances Ann Tapscott

I haven’t died, and I am still working on Henry’s Children, the Tapscotts of the Wabash Valley.

It is often difficult to trace the lives of those who left no present-day descendants—descendants to keep track of ancestors, to pay for memorials, or to report parents in records. Of their twelve children, Henry and Susan (Bass) Tapscott (founders of the Wabash Valley Tapscotts) had four who, today, have no known descendants—John, James Wesley, Frances Ann, and Lydia Ann. I just finished writing the chapter on Frances.

Born in 1839, Frances Ann was the last of Henry and Susan’s children to be born in Indiana, before the family moved to Illinois. On 28 Oct 1858 in Clark County, she wedded Samuel James Lockard (often misspelled “Lockart” or “Lockhart”). His sister, Mary Ann Lockard, had married Frances Ann’s brother Jacob just four day earlier.

Born in Ross Co, Ohio, on 1 Oct in either 1837 (according to his death certificate) or 1838 (according to the 1900 census and his grave marker), Samuel was one of nine children of James and Belinda (Cutright) Lockard.

Samuel and Frances farmed a while in Marshall Twp in Clark County, but by 1870 they had moved to Terre Haute, where Samuel was a carpenter, the job he had most of his life. The 1880 census shows the couple (Frances with the name “Fairy”)  still living at 1012 Walnut Street in Terre Haute. Then tragedy struck. In Jan 1881, forty-two-year-old Frances was laid to rest in Terre Haute’s Woodlawn Cemetery, after dying of “paralysis,” whatever that may mean. She left two children—Martha and Fred.

Samuel lived another forty years in Terre Haute, where he married twice more. On 9 Mar 1882 he wedded Lucinda H. Murphy. Born 8 Aug 1840 in Pulaski Co, Kentucky, Lucinda had two earlier husbands—Michael Sowder, who she married in Pulaski on 24 Apr 1860, and Roland M. Smith who she wedded in Marion Co, Indiana, on 17 Sep 1865. Lucinda died in Terre Haute on 21 Dec 1897 and was buried there in St. Joseph Cemetery.

On 12 Apr 1899 Samuel  married a third time when he wedded Samantha B. Sanders. Born on 7 June 1860 in Sullivan Co, Indiana, to William and Mary A. (Hughes) Sanders, she almost always gave her middle name as “Belle,” possibly short for “Isabelle” or “Isabel,” which is shown in one census record. Samantha does not appear to have been related to the Sanders of Marion Co, Indiana, who had married into the Clark County Tapscotts. Like Samuel’s previous wife, Samantha had been married twice before. On 19 Jun 1887 in Sullivan County, she had married Henry C. Robinson, and on 15 Jun 1891 in Terre Haute she had married William P. Walker.

St. Joseph Cemetery marker, with
a missing body (Find A Grave).

From her second marriage, Samantha had a child, Earl Walker, who ended up in Terre Haute living with Samuel and Samantha. By 1920 things had turned around. Samuel, who was getting up in years, and Samantha were living with Earl and his wife, Ruth, in East Chicago, Indiana. It was there that he died, “from old age.” on 4 Jul 1926. Samantha, who went back to using the name “Walker” (after all, she had a son with that name) lived almost a quarter century more, dying on 27 Aug 1949 in rural Rosedale, Indiana, where Earl had moved.

In St. Joseph Cemetery, Terre Haute, stands a marker for Samuel J. Lockard showing a birthdate, but no death date. The marker was apparently erected following the death of Samuel’s second wife, Lucinda, who is buried there. But Samuel was actually interred in Elmwood Cemetery, Hammond, Indiana.

Next time we'll take a look at Frances Ann's peripatetic children, Martha and Fred.

Wabash Valley Tapscotts - Isaac Nathaniel Sweet

The last blog presented the rather strange relationship between Isaac and Jennie (Sanders) Sweet. Now an industrious family history researcher, Terry Bullock, has sent me some newspaper articles that gives the probable source of the apparent division. Isaac’s behavior was, to say the least, highly questionable.

The first known problematic behavior occurred two years before Isaac married, on 24 Oct 1890, when Isaac “terribly stabbed” his cousin George Cline (Isaac’s father, Austin, and George’s mother, Mary Jane, were children of Nathaniel and Elizabeth Sweet) at Mt. Pleasant Church  in Martinsville Twp. Isaac pleaded self-defense. His next known escapade occurred over a quarter century later, when “Isaac Sweet, former constable,” was fined $100 and cost and given ninety days on a penal farm for liquor law violation. This was not all that big a transgression. After all a lot of people, many respectable, were violating the Volstead Act in the 1920s. But more serious things were to come. On 13 Apr 1929, again designated a “former constable,” Isaac was arrested in Terre Haute for forging an assignment of title in the sale of an auto. (Though it has apparently nothing to do with this, just two days earlier, in Terre Haute, Isaac’s brother, Austin, had been killed by a constable, see Austin Sweet Jr.)

Conviction for automobile fraud carried a fine of $1,000 to $5,000 and imprisonment of two to ten years. Isaac was paroled by circuit court judge John P. Jeffries under the condition that he return to his former home in Illinois and stay out of Terre Haute. But despite the restriction, on 28 Aug 1930 Isaac was arrested in Terre Haute on a charge of “hog stealing” and turned over to the Sheriff of Marshall, the theft having apparently occurred in Clark Co. Then on 30 Apr 1932, again in Terre Haute, Isaac was arrested for assault and battery with intent to kill after stabbing a grocery clerk in a quarrel over the purchase of a bottle of pop. Isaac’s known malfeasances started and ended with a stabbing, indicative of an anger management problem. Surprisingly, not one of Isaac’s escapades can be found in a Clark County newspaper.

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Wabash Valley Tapscotts - Amelia Jennie Sanders

Like a mystery? So do I. And the story of Amelia Jennie Sanders, another member of that huge Sanders family descended from Sarah Ann Tapscott, presents several. I hope to clarify things for my book Henry’s Children, the Tapscotts of the Wabash Valley.

As a child she appeared as “Amelia” in the 1870 Marion Co, Indiana, census and in the 1880 Clark Co, census but thereafter she was just “Jennie.” In Clark Co on 5 May 1884 she married Clement V. Shade. Born 5 Aug 1863 in Mt. Gilead, Ohio, to John and Rachel (Graham) Shade, Clement was the brother of Joseph Shade, husband of Jennie’s sister Susan. Clem (as he was usually known) and Jennie had a single child, Cleveland Leslie, but by 13 Apr 1892, when Clement married Josephine (“Josie”) Church)— Jennie and Clem had apparently divorced. That same year, on 17 Sep 1892, in Coles Co, Illinois, Jennie married Isaac Nathanial Sweet, brother of Richard Morgan Sweet, who had earlier married Jennie’s cousin Cora Isabelle Tapscott. It was a tight-knit community.

Clement and Josephine went on to have four children (Charles, Glen, Fred, and Ruth) before Clem died in Martinsville on 17 May 1932. Josephine lived another 30 years, passing away on 3 Oct 1962, also in Martinsville. She and Clement were interred in Auburn Cemetery. But let’s get back to the Tapscott descendants.

When first married, Isaac and Jennie lived in Martinsville Twp where, in 1900, Isaac was farming, but then Isaac began spending more and more time in Terre Haute taking on a variety of occupations. In 1910 he appears in two censuses, with Jennie in Martinsville Twp, where he is still listed as a farmer, and as a boarder in Terre Haute, where he is working as a streetcar conductor. And he continued to spend much of his time in Terre Haute. In 1920 Isaac once again was found in two censuses, with Jennie and son Austin in Martinsville, and with Austin and a housekeeper, Jeannette Sluder, in Terre Haute. But Isaac is now a constable, a job continued five more years while living in Terre Haute.

And then things get strange. In 1922 the Terre Haute city directory shows Isaac with a wife, “Jennie,” and in 1925, with a wife “Jeannette.”  Was “Jennie” really his housekeeper Jeanette? Did the directory publisher make a mistake listing “Jeannette” as his wife? Could his wife Jennie have also been known as “Jeannette”? In 1922 he was a constable, but, in 1925 he was listed as a “barber and constable,” quite a combination. Then in Terre Haute in 1927 he is a notary public and in 1929, a “Lawyer,” where the directory entry shows his wife as “Jeanett.” Wow! Very confusing. Cross checks of addresses and other information confirm only a single Isaac N. Sweet at the time.

Martinsville, Illinois c1900 (Penny Postcards , USGenWeb).

And what was Jennie Sweet doing while Isaac was working at a variety of jobs in Terre Haute? A large number of Marshall newspaper articles in the Marshall Public library database (120 in the 1920s alone) show her living in the Martinsville area or traveling to Indiana (to Brazil or Indianapolis), usually with Austin, to visit relatives. In some cases she stayed in Indianapolis for significant periods. And in 1922 Jennie moved into a house once occupied by her son Olin in the Mt. Pleasant area of Martinsville Twp; Isaac was not mentioned.

In the 1930 census Jennie and Isaac were both living in Clark County, but not together. Jennie is living in Martinsville Twp with her son Austin, daughter Pearl, and Pearl’s children, and she is listed as widowed. Isaac is living in Wabash Twp, with a housekeeper “Jennett Neal” and no occupation.

Were Jennett Neal, the “wife” Jeanett, and Jeanette Sluder the same person? Probably. the censuses give birth years of about 1884 (considerably different than the birth year of 1866 for Jennie). “Neal” and/or “Sluder” may be married names. On 1 Sep 1935, almost three years after the death of Isaac Sweet, a “Jeanett Neal,” birthdate 4 Mar 1885, married Thomas Long in Terre Haute. The death certificate (which omits parentage) for “Jeanette” Long who died in Vigo County on 7 Jan 1945 gives a birthdate of 4 Mar 1884. We know nothing more about Jennett/Jeanett/Jeanette Sluder/Neal or her relationship with Isaac.

Isaac and Jennie marker (Find a Grave).

Born 14 Feb 1870 in Martinsville, Isaac Sweet died 4 Dec 1932 in Martinsville Twp. Jennie, who was born May 1866 in Indiana, died in the town of Martinsville on 21 May 1952. Apparently separated during much of their marriage, the couple rest under a single marker in Mt. Pleasant Cemetery, Martinsville Twp.

Can you help me write my book? Did Isaac and Jennie really live separate lives? How could Isaac hold jobs as farmer, streetcar conductor, constable, barber, notary public, and lawyer? And who was Jennett/Jeanett/Jeanette Sluder/Neal?

Wabash Valley Tapscotts - 1899

I’m still working on the descendants of Sarah Ann Tapscott, who married William M. Sanders. One of their children was Edward F. Sanders, who was born 22 Nov 1861, near Glenns Valley in Marion County, Indiana.

Edward’s story is intriguing, with most of the intrigues arising as a result of his first marriage, involving people other than Edward, and centered around the year 1899. It is said that Edward lived his entire life in Marion County, Indiana, where he was born. He did live most of his life there, but he lived a few years in rural Marshall, when his father moved there about 1877 after his mother, Sarah, had died. It was in Clark County that on 27 Dec 1887 he married Emma Lucy Tingley, the sister of Edward’s sister-in-law Alfaretta.

Emma and Edward’s marriage was short-lived. Around 23 Dec 1896 in Marshall, Emma was granted a divorce after Edward failed to appear for a hearing. He may have been back in Marion County, Indiana, where he would live most of the rest of his life.

And now we get to the intrigues.

On 8 Nov 1899 in Clark County, Emma married J. W. Smith. J. W. was Jacob Warren Smith, a local homeopathic physician.  The doctor went by “J. W.” professionally, “Jacob W.” in his early life, and “J. Warren” in later years, making family history research difficult.

The year 1899 ended with Dr. Smith marrying Emma (Tingley) Sanders, but it began with being shot four times, later being tried in Kentucky for murder, and then being divorced from his first wife. What a year! The story was told by the Clark County Herald.

On 1 Jan 1887 in Clark County Jacob W. had married Rosanna (Ulery) Soward, the widow of Michael Soward. At the time J. W. was not a doctor, so Rosanna used the money she received from her late husband to send Smith through medical school. But Rosanna’s son Guy was not happy about his heritance being spent and he became increasingly angry at his stepdad. Then on New Year’s Eve, 31 Dec 1898 things came to a head. At his home in Martinsville, where he had his office at the time, Dr. Smith encountered Guy and the new year started with a bang. Five bangs in fact, as Guy emptied his revolver at his stepfather. Dr. Smith was hit four times, in the hand, the arm, and twice in the back, but the injuries turned out to be minor.

Clark County Herald, 10 Aug 1899,

Guy was arrested. The Herald reported “Young Soward has been rather on the wild order for several years. It is related that he was very fond of riding his horse at breakneck speed when just outside the city limits, firing his revolver as he rode, cowboy fashion.” Eventually, Rosanna would also be indicted for attempted murder. The family situation forbad domesticity and Dr. Smith moved from Martinsville to Marshall, living at the Marshall House hotel and setting up his office first above Ferry's drug store and then over Beamer's grocery. Rosanna, threatened with a charge of attempted murder, developed a plan to turn the tables—transform the victim into an accused.

When Smith was a boy of sixteen, he had killed a seventeen-year-old boy, Henry Craig, in Bath County, Kentucky. Though there are differing tales about how it occurred and what happened afterwards, it appears that, under indictment for murder, Smith left Kentucky, going to Ohio, Kansas, Missouri, and his original home in Seymour, Indiana, before ending up in Martinsville, where he met and married a well-to-do widow who paid for his education, Rosanna. Unfortunately, Dr. Smith told his wife about what happened in Kentucky, providing Rosanna a way to distract her accusers. In August 1899 Rosanna traveled to Kentucky and told her story. But officials there were not eager to spend money traveling to Illinois to bring Smith back for trial. So Rosanna actually paid for their travel, twice since two trips were needed owing to a problem with the original warrant. On 9 Sept 1899, a warrant for Smith’s arrest was delivered to the Marshall sheriff, and Smith was conveyed to the city jail in Owingsville, Kentucky, the seat of Bath County.

In a nutshell, Smith was tried, beat the charges, and returned to Marshall, where both Roseanna and Guy had now been indicted for his attempted murder. On 7 Nov 1899, Guy Soward was allowed to enter a plea of guilty to the charge of assault and to that of carrying concealed weapons. He was fined $50 on the first charge and $25 on the second. It was at Dr. Smith's request that this leniency was shown. At the same court Dr. Smith was granted a divorce from Roseanna. Less than twenty-four hours later, he married Emma (Tingley) Sanders, apparently the woman with whom he had “conducted himself improperly” according to charges related by the Herald.