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.