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.