Samuel Tapscott

At times, here and elsewhere, I have mentioned Samuel Tapscott, my great great uncle and the last-born of Henry and Susan (Bass) Tapscott's twelve known children. Samuel was a cad and a miscreant.

His known misadventures began at age 22 when, on Wed 22 Feb 1871, in Terre Haute, Indiana, he viciously slashed the face of Alexander Thompson with a spade. Exactly two weeks later, on 8 Mar 1871, Alexander succumbed to his wounds, and the slashing and subsequent trial made newspapers as far away as Wheeling, West Virginia. During our recent trip to the Midwest, Mary Frances and I were able to uncover a number of newspaper articles describing the incident in much more detail than we have had in the past.

The day of the attack, Sam had gone to Terre Haute to visit his sister and brother-in-law Frances Ann and Samuel Lockard and his sister-in-law Mary Ann (Lockard) Tapscott, widow of Samuel’s brother Jacob, who had been killed a couple of years earlier in a Crawford County, Illinois, incident (28 May 2013 blog). Mary Ann Lockard and Samuel Lockard were brother and sister and had married a Tapscott brother and sister. On that fateful day, Samuel Tapscott went out in his sister's yard, which faced an alley, and encountered a neighbor, Alexander Thompson (“Alex”), who had gone out to his stable to milk his cow. Although the two had apparently never met before, they became involved in a heated argument, yelling according to observers, “What the hell are you doing here?” “None of your damned business.” “Get out of the alley you drunken scamp.” “I won't do it, and I don't want any of your jaw.” “Let me kill the damn son of a bitch.” “Let me go; I will kill any God damn man that calls me a damn son of a bitch, or strikes me, or strikes at me first.” But witnesses, several of whom were relatives of Alexander and Samuel, were unable or unwilling to say who said what to whom or who started the row. The argument ended violently with a single blow to Alexander's head and face with a spade. At that point, Samuel and possibly others, ran down the alley. One cannot help but wonder whether Samuel's brother-in-law was involved, though this was never suggested.

About 10 o’clock that night Samuel Tapscott was arrested attempting to leave town on a west-bound train. Former Terre Haute Chief of Police Daniel Crowe, who made the arrest, asked Samuel if his name was “Tapscott.” Samuel responded “No.” Daniel replied, “You are probably the man I want.” Samuel was jailed in Terre Haute with a bail of $2000, which was raised to $5000 a couple of weeks later. And then Alexander did the unthinkable, he died. On 14 Mar 1871 a Vigo County grand jury brought in an indictment against Samuel Tapscott of first degree murder.

Samuel languished in jail while continuances and postponements pushed dates for hearings further and further into the future. Month after month local newspapers announced trial dates, only to have the notices retracted. On 1 Nov 1871, the Terre Haute Weekly Express declared “The question is often asked when will Tapscott be tried for the murder of Alex. Thompson? He has now lain in jail eight months, at a heavy expense to the county.” On 4 Nov 1871 the Terre Haute Saturday Evening Mail covered all bases by announcing “We have positive assurance that Tapscott will be tried next week, unless the case is again postponed. This can be relied upon.” The case was postponed. Finally, on Thu 23 Nov, trial commenced.

The Vigo County Courthouse in Terre Haute, site of the

 Tapscott trial (Judson McCranie, Wikimedia Commons).

The proceedings were muddled. Members of both the Tapscott and Thompson families were near, possibly at, the crime scene, as were some neighbors, but nobody seemed certain of what happened. Everything indicated that Samuel, who did not take the stand, struck the fatal blow. Samuel Tapscott's sister said it "seemed" to her that Alexander had a long stick in his hand. Others mentioned that a rock was picked up by someone, but whether or not it was one of the combatants was unknown. The defense consisted solely of character witnesses from Clark County with such weak statements as “I know his general character. It is good as far as I know.” “I never heard his character questioned one way or the other.” “I never heard anything about his character.” With no defense other than damning by faint praise, one wonders how a jury could possibly vote for acquittal. But around 11 pm on Fri 24 Nov, after a lone hold-out juror finally voted with the majority (either because he wanted to go home or because he felt browbeaten by other jurors, depending on which version one hears), the jury decided for acquittal.

Samuel’s mother, Susan, attended the trial. Samuel's father, who may have been too infirm to travel, is never mentioned. Afterwards a Terre Haute newspaper stated that “We insist that the real sufferers are Mrs. Thompson [Alexander’s wife] and Mrs. Tapscott [Samuel’s mother].” A Clark County newspaper reported “from what we can learn, [Tapscott] bears a very fair character.” In view of his later adventures, which included horse theft and robbery, the description “fair character” seems inappropriate.

If you would like transcriptions of the newspaper articles about the murder of Alexander Thompson, let me know and I will email them. There are some Samuel Tapscott articles on the Hoosier State Chronicles website and on the Vigo County Public Library's Newspaper Archive site, but several of the articles I found appear (at present) on no internet site.