The Merry Cricket

Mary Elizabeth Lowry and her six sisters. (Thanks to Linda Grinnell.)

In our last post, we met Eliza Ann Sweet and Jackson Lowry of Clark County, Illinois, and heard mention of their granddaughter Mary Elizabeth Lowry, who compared her grandmother to a “rip-snorting dragon.”

Mary Elizabeth Lowry was born 6 Aug 1888 in Clark County, Illinois, to first cousins Mahala Elizabeth Sweet and Lewis Taylor Lowry, one of thirteen children, three of whom died very young. Mary became a teacher, got married (to Soren Peter Johansen, a native of Denmark), and migrated from Martinsville to Los Angeles with her husband and their two children, Dane and Karen. In California she began teaching again and was able to get a B.S. in Education from the University of Southern California. She taught for 33 years in Los Angeles city schools and won a number of awards for her public service.

It was after she retired from teaching that Mary accomplished the deed that earns her a well-deserved spot in this post. She wrote a book, a wonderful book, The Merry Cricket (the nickname given her by her parents). which describes her childhood in Clark County, Illinois. She wrote about her brother Ellsworth (whom she adored), her six sisters, her parents, her grandparents Austin and Mary Ellen Sweet, her uncle Morgan Sweet (who married Cora Isabelle Tapscott), her aunt Rachel Lowry, and, of course, her grandmother Eliza Ann Sweet. And she tells about the collection of neighbors — some funny, some weird, some a little scary — who lived around Possum Ridge, many of whom attended Sour Oak Church. And she gives a rich description of backwoods life in Clark County. From the jacket of the book,

Through her many happy memories Mary Johansen takes us back into the forever lost world of the one-room school, the rare outings to market town, home hymn singing, joyous reunions with cherished grandparents, the hazards of exploring a still untamed countryside, and the thousands and one farming and farmhouse crafts from pig-killing to jam-making known then to any self-reliant farmer and his wife before our age of trucks, refrigeration, supermarkets, and door-to-door service.

Mary’s book is a door to the world of the Lowrys, Sweets, Wrights, Mallorys, and Tapscotts who inhabited Martinsville, Auburn, and Anderson townships at the turn of the century — the last century!

The Merry Cricket, by Mary Lowry Johansen, was published by Carlton Press, New York, in 1967. My copy of the book, a gift many years ago from my cousin Dolores (Tingley) Berbaum, is signed by the author with a handwritten dedication to her children Dane and Karen. I have tried, without success, to find another copy. It appears in no library holdings, no used book inventories, and no on-line bibliographies. My copy, perhaps the only one still extant, will someday go to a library, where it will be available to all.

Mary Elizabeth Lowry Johansen, passed away 4 Jan 1981 in Orange County, California.

All genealogical data reported in these posts are from primary and/or reputable secondary sources, or reliable transcriptions thereof, and never from unsourced online trees. Contact the author to request sources, which have been omitted here to improve readability.

The Pipe-Smoking Dragon

“If Whistler’s Mother had smoked a small clay pipe which she always carried in her reticule or in the deep side pocket of her black silk dress, she would have been very much like Grandmother Lowry.” “Grandmother Lowry” was Eliza Ann (Sweet) Lowry as described by her granddaughter Mary Elizabeth (Lowry) Johansen. Eliza was one of twelve children of Nathaniel and Elizabeth (Maddox) Sweet (9 Sep 2015 blog) and she was my great great grandmother.

Eliza was a real Clark County, Illinois, character. Mary Johansen continued her description as “somewhat of a spoiled old darling who had all the endearing softness of a rip-snorting dragon, a tiny one weighing less than a hundred pounds and standing only for feet ten inches high…” The Marshall Herald described her as a “genuine pioneer.”

Eliza Ann (Sweet) Lowry on right, daughter Elizabeth

J. (Lowry) Wright at left. At the back may be her
granddaughter Mary Elizabeth Wright (c1915).

And a pioneer she certainly was. Born in Kentucky or Ohio (even Eliza seemed unsure) on 14 Jul 1822, she came to Illinois with her parents and siblings in 1836. In Danville on 28 Feb 1839 she married Jackson Lowry and the two had twelve children, several dying young. In Clark County the family lived in Auburn Township near the Tapscotts, Sweets, and Wrights. There, according to another granddaughter, Hattie (Lowry) Chick, “they lived in one room for a while then built two more rooms.… She and the girls farmed and raised sheep and spun yarn to make their own clothes.” And once Eliza encountered “A big bear [that] came out of the woods and took a blackberry pie which was cooling on the window sill.”

Jackson, who briefly fought with the Union Army, died young, in 1871 at age 51, leaving his feisty widow to fend for herself. She fended well, living for a while in Martinsville, and eventually moving to Marshall to live with her unmarried daughter, Rachel, whose life she commandeered. According to Mary Johansen “Rachel developed that thin, harried look that women sometimes wear when their lives are devoted to waiting on elderly female dragons.” When Eliza badgered her daughter to trade her house in Marshall for small farm, the two went to live near Hog Thief Church. The move turned out to be Rachel’s liberation, allowing her to meet the next door farmer, Albert Huston, and marry him. At age 44, she was an “old maid” no longer.

After living with Rachel and her husband for several years, a situation calling for disaster, Eliza eventually moved in with her son and daughter-in-law Lewis and Mahala (Sweet) Lowry in Martinsville Township. There she had a log cabin in the family’s backyard, where she would roast corn and potatoes in the fireplace with her grandkids and where she would go to smoke her pipe, a lifelong friend. The 21 Jul 1915 edition of the Marshall Herald described her 93rd birthday.

Last Wednesday [14 July] was the 93rd birthday of Mrs. Eliza Lowery of Martinsville Township. Aunt Eliza as she is known to the people of the community was born in Ohio, July 14, 1822, and came to Clark County in 1836---a genuine pioneer. She was married to Jackson Lowery and reared a family of nine children, five daughters and four sons. Two sons and one daughter are living. They are Lewis Lowry of Martinsville Township, Frank Lowry of Oklahoma, and Mrs. Elizabeth Wright of Anderson Township. Mrs. Lowry's mental condition is good and also her hearing and sight. She smokes her pipe and has done so for 80 years. She makes her home with her son Lewis where a dinner was given Wednesday in her honor. There was quite a number of her old acquaintances present including Howard Norman, W.F. Romines and wife, Thomas Kinderdine and wife, Robert Hurst and wife, Austin Sweet and wife, Morgan Sweet and wife, Charles Sweet and wife, Robert Sweet and wife, Bert Mitchell and wife, Mrs. W.H. Cunningham, Doc Cunningham, John A. Sweet, Mrs. Jane Sweet and daughter, Mrs. Belle Sweet, Mrs. J. Reasor and Mrs. Elizabeth Wright and her daughter, Mary. Old time songs were sung, violin music was furnished by Howard Norman and there was much conversation relating to early times in this county, of deer hunting, log rolling, etc. And old time love songs were sung by W.F. Romines.

Eliza died three years later, on Apr 1918 at the advanced age of 95. She is buried alongside her husband in Auburn Cemetery, a fire-breathing dragon no more. But one must acknowledge that some “dragonality” was needed to bear twelve children, raise a family, and survive as a widow in the backwoods.

As a final comment, the death year and probably the birth year are incorrect on Eliza’s grave marker, and the number of children differs greatly between sources. Twelve is the number given by Eliza.

All genealogical data reported in these blogs are from primary and/or reputable secondary sources, or reliable transcriptions thereof, and never from unsourced online trees. Contact the author to request sources, which have been omitted here to improve readability.

Carl and Mary

The recent discovery of a 25 Jan 1939 Terre Haute Tribune obit for “Mayme Mullikin Tabscott,” wife of “Carl” has now added to the life of Carl Herman Tapscott, son of Mary Emma (Sanders) and Joseph Tapscott. Carl, it turns out, was married four times, not three as initially claimed in a blog of 28 Aug 2015 (now corrected). A couple of week’s research to work around a lot of missing data and many inconsistencies and to tie up loose ends gives us the essentials.

Her brothers’ surname in the obit provides “Mayme’s” birth name or at least a semblance of it (“Foshaar” not “Foschaar,” a minor error), but the name “Mayme” here and in the previous day’s obit, is found nowhere else. Extensive investigation finally showed that “Mayme Mullikin Tabscott” was born Mary (sometimes “May,” rarely “Mae”) Theresa Foshaar in Indiana in 1882 according to her cemetery marker or in Nov 1880 according to the 1900 census. Her parents were George and Mary (Weist) Foshaar (sometimes “Forshaar”), natives of Holland, where the family probably bore the Dutch name “Voshaar,” George and Mary immigrated to the U.S. in 1881, settled in Terre Haute, Indiana, and raised six kids — Mary, John, George, Harry (who died young from an accidental gunshot wound), Sadie, and Roy.

Mary, the oldest of the Foshaar children, was wedded three times, all the marriages ending by death. On 13 Aug 1900 she wedded Frank Orville White, in Terre Haute, with confusing documentation. Although Mary appears as “May Foster” in the official marriage records, the correctness of her father’s given name, her mother’s uncommon birth name (“Weitz”), the groom’s name, and the ages of the bride and groom leave little doubt that “Foshaar” was misunderstood as “Foster.” Equally confusing is that Frank appears twice in the 1900 Terre Haute federal census, in both cases as “Frank O. White,” born “Nov 1880” and employed as a “Switchman.” Now, duplicate census entries are by no means unknown, but in this case Frank appears once as a recently married man living with “May White” and once as a single man living with his parents, with census dates, both official and enumeration, preceding the marriage by two months. And that is bizarre. But extensive investigation shows that, without any significant doubt, the marriage and census records are all for the same Frank White.

On 21 Nov 1918 Frank died and the following year, on 27 Aug 1919, “Mary White” wedded Harry Mullikin in Clay County, Indiana, the next county east from Vigo County. It was due to Harry, one of five children of Samuel and Sarah E. (Hardin) Mullikin, that “Mayme” is shown with the name “Mullikin” in her obituary. The couple spent their relatively brief married life in Terre Haute, where Harry worked as a railroad telegrapher and, later, in landscaping. Mary’s second marriage ended with Harry’s death in Terre Haute on 26 Mar 1933.

It was around this time that Carl Tapscott moved to Terre Haute. He had been at loose ends since his acrimonious divorce, working as a farmhand and doing odd jobs for the town of Marshall (for which he received a “salary” of 90 cents in 1931 and $1.00 in 1932). In 1934, for unknown reasons, he spent some time in Terre Haute's Union Hospital, which could not have helped his finances. It was the height of the Depression and jobs were certainly less scarce in Terre Haute than in Marshall. And with the death of his mother in 1937, there was nothing to keep Carl in Marshall, or to call him back.

Behind Mary Theresa and Frank Orville White’s marker lies

 a stone for George and Mary Forshaar, Mary Theresa’s parents.

The move to Terre Haute quite likely introduced Carl Tapscott and widowed Mary White Mullikin for in May 1937, Carl, still listing Marshall as his home, and “Mary Mullikin” of Terre Haute obtained a Clark County marriage license. The couple appear in the Terre Haute City Directory for that year. The marriage was short-lived, less than two years, ending with Mary’s death on 24 Jan 1939. All records indicate that Mary, like Carl, left no children, from any of her marriages.

Mary was interred as “Mary Theresa White” with her first husband in Terre Haute’s Highland Lawn Cemetery, next to her mother and father. Five months later, Carl married his third wife, Beulah Frances.

Clark County Tingleys

In response to a couple of people who have contacted me recently about Tapscott connections to Tingleys, I have written the following.

A large number of Tingleys have inhabited Clark County and many still do. There are 113 known to be interred in the county, among which are 17 in Mt. Pleasant Cemetery and 41 in Marshall Cemetery. The 1940 census lists 73 Clark County people with the surname “Tingley” (only 19 Tapscotts). And my genealogy database includes 156 Tingleys, almost all from Clark County and all of whom are related or, at least, connected to me. But I know of only two instances, worldwide, of a person with the surname "Tapscott" marrying a person named "Tingley," both of which occurred in Clark County. (There is a third case if one allows the use of the last name “Tingley” for Nettie Sarah Walls/Tingley/Sweitzer, who married Carl Herman Tapscott, blog of 18 Aug 2015). Most Tingleys in my database are connected to me by marriages to relatives who do not bear the surname “Tapscott,” though they may be Tapscott descendants, and to in-laws or in-laws of in-laws.

In the most recent instance of a Tapscott marrying a Tingley, my aunt Nellie Pearl Tapscott married Walter Albert Tingley on 23 Feb 1919 in Marshall, Illinois, and had two children, my cousins. Walter was the son of James William and Christina Aldora (Taylor) Tingley and the great grandson of Samuel Tingley Sr., one of the first Tingleys in Clark County. I remember visiting my Tingley aunt, uncle, and cousins on their farm near Sidell in Vermilion County, Illinois, a little less than an hour’s drive or so north of Marshall. In every way the farm and the family was American picturesque.

The other, much earlier, Tapscott/Tingley marriage was by no means picturesque. Five years after his trial for murdering a man (blog 25 Jun 2015), my great great uncle Samuel Tapscott was forced to marry Susan Tingley, who was pregnant with his child. From the 12 Jul 1876 Clark County Herald:

Susan M. Tingley appeared before Squire Martin, one day last week, and swore to the fact of Samuel Tapscott being the father of her infant child, as yet unborn. The squire issued a warrant for Samuel to appear before him, and show cause why things were thusly. It was put into the hands of Constable Frank Jenney, who found the soon-to-be-daddy, at Ben Ohm's and brought him in. The young lady confronted him, and he thought better to marry her than to go into trial. A license was procured. Beuse [sic] performed the ceremony, and pair left happy.

The third Clark County Courthouse in
Marshall (1837-1889) was the site for both

 marriage and arraignments for Samuel.

Whether or not they really "left happy," the couple went on to have several children. Marriage did not reform Samuel who went from murder to horse stealing, robbery, malicious mischief, and assault (blog 13 Sep 2015). His final incarceration in the Chester, Illinois, penitentiary may have proved too much for Susan, for she is not found in the 1900 census or any later documents. Did she adopt a new identity? take a new husband? go into hiding? At the time this was first written, we did not know. But we were to find out.

All geneological data reported in these blogs are based on primary and/or reputable secondary sources, or transcriptions thereof, and never on online trees. Contact the author to request sources, which have been omitted here to improve readability.

Samuel's Saga, Continued

On 25 Jun 2015, I blogged the story of my great great uncle Samuel Tapscott’s first, and as far as we know most serious, misadventure - his murder of Alexander Thompson in 1871. But his crimes did not stop there.

On Wednesday, 7 Nov 1877, the following article appeared in the Edwardsville Intelligencer.

Samuel Tapscott some ten days ago knocked down and robbed a man named Munday at Marshall. On the evening of the 28th, Tapscott was found by Sheriff Flood and City Marshall Nolan in the woods near that place, but attempted to escape by running. The officers immediately fired upon him, two shots taking effect, one in the head and another in the shoulder. At last accounts he was dying.

Four days earlier, the Terre Haute Saturday Evening Mail had gone so far as to state that Samuel had been "fatally shot" by Flood. A longer article appeared in the 31 Oct 1877 edition of the Clark County Herald:

On Sunday last [28 Oct], Sheriff Flood, Flem Neal, and John Mundy attempted to arrest Sam. Tapscott, near Auburn, for robbing the latter named person on the streets, a few weeks ago, but Sam, not liking the looks of things, broke and ran. The officers after called on him to halt, commended firing on him, two balls taking effect before he was brought down. One shot took effect near the left ear, and the other struck him while in a stooping attitude entering just before the shoulder blade, and lodging above the right nipple. All three of the parties in pursuit fired at him, and all having the same king of revolver it is not known which one inflicted the wounds. Tapscott is now lying at his own house, the chances being that he will never leave it alive. Whether or not the officers were justifiable in using such measures to capture their prisoner, we do not at this time pretend to say, but the facts will undoubtedly develop in a few days. The amount he was charged with stealing was $0.25. Later.-We learn from parties who were present that the officers were perfectly justified in taking the steps they did. Tapscott, had made threats against Sheriff Flood, sweating that he would never be taken, &c. He was halted a half dozen times before a shot was fired, and, even after he was hit the first time in the side of his head and knocked down, he jumped to his feet and again started, and was again halted several times, but he took to the brush, and the course the officers adopted was the only one to secure him. Tapscott is reported to be a very dangerous man. He was arrested in Terre Haute some time ago for killing a man, named Thompson, with a spade, and was once arrested for horse stealing in this county. The night he robbed Mundy, he knocked him down and rifled his pockets. Tapscott was still living at noon yesterday.

John Mundy was the brother-in-law of James Byron Tapscott, Samuel's nephew.

Samuel was confined at Southern Illinois Penitentiary,
now Menard Correction Center), Chester, Illinois (2010).

Samuel survived and in Apr 1878 was tried and acquitted. He lived another quarter century, providing him time to rack up new violations. In an 1881 court in Marshall he was charged with malicious mischief (quashed), assault (guilty plea for a $10 fine plus costs), and an unstated charge that included one Jacob Hill, costing the two defendants a total of $41.65 plus costs. From 28 Mar 1898 to 4 Sep 1900 he was incarcerated for burglary at the Southern Illinois Penitentiary in Randolph County, Illinois.

Registry of prisoners incarcerated at Southern Illinois Penitentiary, Vol. 1, p. 165 ( State of Illinois Digital Archives).

Samuel died under mysterious circumstances. On 15 Jun 1903, he was found near death in a barn belonging to the husband of his niece Lydia (Siverly) Moore. He died shortly afterwards of "concussion of brain" and was buried the next day in an unmarked grave in Auburn Cemetery. The following story was contained in the Herald:

Sam Tapscott died at the home of Aden Moore in Clark Center Sunday evening. He had been to Marshall on Saturday and went to Mr. Moore's that night. The next day just after dinner he started to go to see his daughter Mrs. [unclear], but only got as far as the barn, where he fell and was not discovered till several hours later. He found he was able to arise but could not talk. He died that evening at 7 o'clock.

All genealogical data reported in these blogs are based on primary and/or reputable secondary sources, or transcriptions thereof, and never on online trees. Contact the author to request sources, which have been omitted here to improve readability.

A Very Sweet Family

Nathaniel's marker (photo
 by Shirley I. Shawver Nees).

In 1834 Henry and Susan (Bass) Tapscott left Kentucky and headed for Illinois with their kids, and with more born on the way. A few years earlier another couple had done the same. But Nathaniel and Elizabeth (Maddox) Sweet of Fleming County, Kentucky, detoured through Ohio, rather than Indiana, arriving in Vermilion County, Illinois, in 1836. In the 1840s the Sweets pulled up stakes again and traveled to Clark County, where at first they scattered - Auburn, Cumberland (later Casey), and Melrose townships. Later many congregated in Martinsville Township, just a few miles west of Henry and Susan Tapscott’s newly established farm. Descendants claim that the Sweets broke the virgin prairie soil with a primitive plow and six yoke of oxen, not unlikely though they probably would have had to borrow some cattle from neighbors. But true or not, they started a collection of Sweet farms in the Martinsville area. And they had sufficient descendants to populate that community, for like Henry and Susan Tapscott, Nathaniel and Elizabeth had twelve offspring.

Nathaniel died 3 Jun 1874 at the age of “73y. 8m. 27d.” according to his cemetery marker; Elizabeth passed away on 15 Sep 1878, aged “76y. 2m. 19d.”. Nathaniel and Elizabeth are interred in Mt. Pleasant Cemetery in Martinsville township, today the resting place of over seventy Sweets and innumerable other descendants lacking the Sweet name (as well as four Tapscotts).

The last several weeks have been spent doing a final unraveling of the Sweet family, which married into the Tapscotts and has thus earned a chapter in The Tapscotts of the Wabash Valley, possibly a very large chapter since it was a very large family. And, of course, we shall hear about some of these Sweets in the days and weeks to come.

P.S.: Nathaniel and Elizabeth Sweet are my great great great grandparents, but through my grandmother Edna Earl Wright, not through my grandfather John Wesley Tapscott

All genealogical data reported in these blogs are based on primary and/or reputable secondary sources, or transcriptions thereof, and never on online trees. Contact the author to request sources, which have been omitted here to improve readability.