Joseph R. Tapscott

William and Mary (Wallace) Tapscott’s third oldest child, Joseph may have lived a sad life, at least at times. Joseph and his wife lost two-thirds of their offspring at young ages.

Born 22 Aug 1858, Joseph’s name is often given as “Joseph John”; however, only one document—a birth record for his son, Noble—shows either a middle name or a middle initial, and that record gives the name “Joseph R.” A middle name “John”—found, as is often the case, in a number of unsourced online trees—is baseless.

Joseph, who spent his life as a Clark County, Illinois, farmer, in Anderson Twp and a member of Freedom Baptist Church, remained single until age 29, when on 3 Oct 1887 he married Mary Emma Sanders, one of eight children of William Francis and Elizabeth Jane (Fox) Sanders, who farmed near the Tapscotts. Lopping a few years off her age as she grew older, Mary Emma at the end of her life was stated to have been born 26 Feb 1870; however, she was much, much more likely born 26 Feb 1867.

Joseph is buried in Mt. Pleasant Cemetery,
presumably with six young children.

Joseph and Mary Emma had eight children, nine if one includes Grant Frederick (the subject of an upcoming post). Six died young and unmarried.

Joseph died of a “Malignant Tumor of the Liver” on 11 Jul 1917 in Wabash Twp and was buried in Mt. Pleasant Cemetery under a stone inscribed “JOSEPH TAPSCOTT AND CHILDREN.” Mary Emma lived almost two decades more, working part of the time as a practical nurse. She passed away in Marshall, Illinois, 18 Mar 1937 and was buried in Mt. Pleasant Cemetery alongside her husband and all but two of her children (Grant and Edith Mae).

Byron or Byram?

The middle name of James, the son of William and Mary Angeline (Wallace) Tapscott of Clark County, Illinois, has been a mystery. Most records give his name as “James B.” Four records—two documents from the probate file for his brother Millard, an obituary for his wife, and an obituary for his sister Cora—give it as “James Byron.” Two—a newspaper article and an obituary for his brother Millard—give the name “Byram.” His middle name is said to be "Byron" by at least some relatives, but it is consistently given as “Byram” in on-line trees, likely due to the copy and recopy syndrome suffered by their authors. One cannot ask James’s direct descendants. There are none. But we do know one thing. Two signatures in Millard’s probate file appear to read “James Byron Tapscott.” Although the vowel could be either “o” or “a” in the signatures, the last letter is almost certainly “n” rather than “m.”

Thus, against a tide of public opinion, I am taking James’s middle name as “Byron.” This appears to be what James and at least some family members used, regardless of the name James may have been given and regardless of what people creating unsourced trees may think.

Comments?

My Old Kentucky Home

On 25 Sep 1825 in Green County, Henry Tapscott, the Traveler, married Susan Bass. We know little reliable about Susan, who, unlike Henry, was literate. She is said to have been the daughter of Josiah Bass Jr. and Ann Moody. Josiah and Ann were married 27 Mar 1799 in Green County, Kentucky, and were there in 1806, around the time of Susan’s birth (probably between 1806 and 1808). But reliable sources showing that these were Susan's parents are lacking..

In 1830 Henry, his wife, Susan, and sons William and John, were living in Barren County, southwest of Green County. The household contained two additional boys, aged 5 to 10 and 10 to 15, too old to be any of Henry’s children and far too young to be any of his still unwed brothers, at least those of whom we have knowledge. The household of Henry’s father, William, who was also living in Barren County at that time, likewise contained unexplained children. Henry may have had siblings about whom we know nothing today, possibly because of childhood deaths. Or perhaps they were offspring of Henry’s second cousin once removed, Raleigh Tapscott, grandson of Henry’s great great uncle James and also a resident of Barren County in 1830. Raleigh (Rawley, Rolley, Rolly, Rolla) Tapscott had a prodigious family and may have been very willing to farm out some of his children.

By 1835 Henry and Susan (and William Sr.) were back in Green County, where Henry is shown landless in tax records for 1835, 1836, and 1837.

Henry’s father was also landless. When William the Preacher died around March 1837 he possessed only a black mare, a cow and calf, and some harnessing equipment, an estate bringing a paltry $63.13. Unlike today’s television evangelists with their crystal cathedrals, nineteenth-century preachers almost never gained wealth and seldom achieved fame. Saving souls from perdition was reward enough.

As a teenager and young adult, Henry lived in Green and Barren counties, Kentucky (U.S. Census Bureau).

The Preacher’s Family

We know what happened to Henry, the oldest of William’s children. He traveled to Clark County, founding the Wabash Valley Tapscotts, and is the subject of an upcoming book (I hope). But what of his siblings - Winifred, William, George, and Richard?

Winifred, whose life has been difficult to unravel, deserves a posting of her own, and she has it (23 Aug 2014).

With no land, little inheritance, and only memories of an impecunious, motherless life to hold them in Green county, William’s three youngest sons, William Stewart, George Rice, and Richard, moved to nearby Casey County, living along Martins and Brush creeks.

George, who married Rachel Coffman, last appears at age 74 in the 1880 census for Casey County, where he lived out his life. Some of his descendants went to Illinois, but not near Clark County. A number are interred in the Tapscott Cemetery near Martin’s Creek.

William, who also remained in Casey County, Kentucky, married Rhoda Jane Coppage, and died young, killed by a falling tree at age 50. A number of his descendants also ended up in Illinois, but there are still a large number in Kentucky.

Richard married Cyntha Followell and moved to Marion County, Kentucky. It is said that he died there in 1855, but no reliable evidence has been presented. Cyntha remarried on 4 Oct 1859. Little is known of Richard’s descendants, primarily because little family history research has been done for that line.

The Traveler, Childhood

Lately we have been spending a lot of time on relatively recent Wabash Valley Tapscotts, but we may have failed to lay a good foundation for these recent folks – for Carl, and Golden Arthur, Nellie Mae and Wesley, and dear old Samuel. Off and on I will do so.

Our story of the Wabash Valley Tapscotts really starts with Henry Tapscott the Traveler, son of William the Preacher. His Virginia birth, North Carolina childhood, Kentucky maturation, Indiana residence, and Illinois adulthood provide us with a designation to distinguish him from a multitude of other Henry Tapscotts (eighteen by the latest count, not including many others with the middle name “Henry”), descendants of the Traveler’s great, great grandfather “Henry the Immigrant,” the subject of many postings).

William the Preacher's Green County home lay alongside
Robinson Creek (now in Taylor County) (2013).

The Traveler was born in 1797 or 1798 to William Tapscott and, possibly, Winifred Cobb. We say “possibly” because William’s wife died relatively young and no proof has been found for her name, a situation discussed in great detail in my book Henry the Immigrant (see post of 13 Aug 2013). At the time of Henry’s birth, his parents were living in Caswell County, North Carolina; however, three U.S. censuses give his birthplace as Virginia. That Caswell County lies near the Virginia border and that Henry’s parents had come from Virginia make that state a plausible birthplace. Henry’s mother could have returned there for his birth.

Henry, the oldest, had three brothers, George Rice, William Stewart, and Richard, and a sister, Winifred, all born in North Carolina or Virginia. After the birth of Richard, William Sr. pulled up stakes and headed with his offspring for Kentucky, arriving by 1812, probably as a widower. There William worked as a preacher, supplementing his scant income with hardscrabble farming.

William the Preacher settled along meandering Robinson Creek in Green County. (Today that site lies in Taylor County). There his five children, including our Henry, had what was probably a motherless upbringing by an impecunious, itinerant cleric, in an uncultured backcountry, which provided little opportunity or need for schooling. The Preacher could read and write, or at least sign his name. His sons could not.

Golden Arthur Tapscott

One of my dad’s many Tapscott cousins was Golden Arthur Tapscott. "Golden" always seemed to me a most unusual name. But there were several Clark County residents with that name including the euphoniously-named Golden Buckle, who lived in Martinsville Twp near the Sweets and the Lowrys and not far from the Tapscotts. (Of course there were some Clark County inhabitants whose names were not so euphonious including Rosie and Harry Bottom. I kid you not.) Unusual or not, there have been, as far as I can tell, no other Golden Tapscotts, in Clark County or elsewhere.

Born to William Riley and Minerva (Rountree) Tapscott on 8 Oct 1892 in Clark County’s Anderson Twp (according to the birth record) or in Clark Center (according to Golden), Golden Arthur sometimes seemed at loose ends. Skinny as a rail, and not always in good health, he worked for many years as a farmhand. His first relationship may have resulted in an illegitimate child, something discussed at length in a post of 18 Aug 2015.

After being drafted into the Army during WW I, Golden was discharged 29 Dec 1918, having served just a little over seven months. On 14 Jun 1922, he married Mary Combs in Clark County. The bride, daughter of Milo C. Combs, a Dolson Twp farmer, and Rosabelle Lycan, was eighteen; the groom, thirty. In 1925, the short marriage ended in divorce. Mary went on to marry Benjamin Harrison Waymire Sr., whose first marriage to Emma Pearl Sweet, had ended abruptly on 8 Jul 1922 when the buggy in which Emma, her husband, her sister, and her two-year-old child were riding home from Chrisman, Illinois, was struck by an automobile. Emma died almost instantly. The automobile driver, Miss Madge Boone, did not stop. It turns out that Emma Sweet was Golden’s first cousin.

National Home for Disabled Volunteer Soldiers, Danville
Illinois (Veterans Health Administration Historical Photo).

Golden continued working as a farmhand, lodging with farmers and finally, in 1940, living with his widowed mother Minerva, also a lodger. During this time he spent well over a year, 4 Sep 1929 to 22 Jan 1931, at the National Home for Disabled Volunteer Soldiers, Danville, Illinois, being treated for chronic prostatitis and lumbago, peculiar illnesses for such a long stay.

After his mother died, in 1944, Golden moved across the river to Terre Haute, Indiana, where he presumably met Mary Elizabeth Robinson, a widow. The two were married 19 Dec 1946 in Vigo County, Indiana.

As he aged Golden’s driving ability may have diminished. On Tue 25 Nov 1975 during the first Terre Haute snowfall of the year, he slid into another car. On Fri 25 Feb 1977, at the ripe old age of 84, he drove into the path of a motorcycle, though Golden may not have been at fault. The motorcyclist received hip and leg injuries.

Aging problems forced Golden and Mary to enter Casey Nursing Home in Clark County. There Mary passed away on 5 Aug 1980. Golden lasted just a few weeks longer, dying 25 Oct 1980. The couple are interred in Casey’s Cumberland Cemetery. With the possible (probable?) exception of Russell Raymond Tapscott (see 18 Aug 2015), Golden left no descendants.

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. Permission is granted to use any posted material for any purpose as long as the source is cited.

Nellie Mae Tapscott and Possum Ridge School

Nellie Mae Tapscott. (Collection of  Nancy (Martin) Rhoades.)

Possum Ridge School c1900. Teacher may be Nellie Mae
Tapscott. (Photo courtesy of Sharon Poteet.)

One of the Wabash Valley Tapscott schools (see posting of 8 Nov 2015), was Possum Ridge, about two miles southeast of Freedom Baptist Church across Hurricane Creek. And one of the teachers at Possum Ridge was Nellie Mae Tapscott, daughter of William Riley and Minerva (Rountree) Tapscott. Born 1 Sep 1882, probably in Anderson Twp., where her parents were living at the time, Nellie taught at the school in 1901. But when she was married the following year she had to give up any thoughts of teaching. Married women were not hired as teachers.

James Harvey Martin, c1940.
(Collection of Nancy Martin Rhoades.)

At her folks’ Anderson Twp farmhouse, on 14 Dec 1902, Nellie was wedded to James Harvey Martin. James, a nearby farmer, had been born 3 Jan 1876 in Rockville, Indiana, to David Radford Martin and Mary Branson.

Nellie and James did considerable moving, something unusual for a farm family. In 1910 they were living in Duck Creek Twp in Stoddard County, Missouri, in 1920, in Wabash Twp in Clark County, and in 1930, in Licking Twp in Crawford County, the next county to the south of Clark. Licking Twp was just north of the small town of Oblong and south of the much smaller town of Moonshine (pop. 2 in 2015, a little larger in years past), which lies in Clark County.

Nellie passed away in Robinson, Illinois, on 12 Aug 1936 and James, who had been sick for some time and was staying with his daughter Opal in West Terre Haute, on 14 Jan 1940. The Couple left five children, now all deceased—Opal Mary(4 Sep 1903-1 Nov 1973), Carl Ransome (30 Mar 1905-7 Jul 1977), Delbert L. Sr. (12 Jan 1909-10 May 1977), Mabel L. (18 Oct 1912-15 Sep 2001), and Lloyd James (14 May 1917-30 Oct 1990). At least three children died as infants.

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. Permission is granted to use any posted material for any purpose as long as the source is cited.

Anderson Township

Tapscott farms (bounded in blue) with villages, schools, churches and cemeteries.

By 1855, the Clark County, Illinois, Tapscotts were living in Anderson township between the hamlets of Allright to the south and Auburn to the north.

Until 1892, the community just off Fox Road that would become Allright consisted of just a church (later, becoming a Congregational church) and a store, In that year a post office was established in the home of Henry Kile so that locals could avoid journeying to Auburn or Marshall to get their mail. Obtaining postal services required that residents select a name for the nameless hamlet, which they did and Henry Kile traveled to the Marshall courthouse to report the name. According to Carroll Kannmacher, an Allright resident and historian, “He got all nervous, stuttered and stammered and said ‘all right.’ The officials said, okay, you’ll be Allright from now on.” Eventually, the village had three general stores, but the post office, used by the Tapscotts, lasted only a few years, closing in 1908. The town limped along for another half century, the church shutting its doors in 1956. Today nothing remains of Allright.

The village of Auburn was settled in 1833 by one Jonathon Rathburn, who built a log cabin along the Great National Pike. In 1836, the village was platted. One block was set aside for public buildings and another for a school (two lots) and cemetery (eight lots). The town soon contained a hotel (opened by Samuel Williams, from Kentucky), the “Old Buck” Tavern, two groceries, and two blacksmiths. The stores sold as much liquor as the tavern.

The name of the town was changed to “Lodi” and a post office was established there in 1842. In 1857 the name was changed to “Clark Centre” and in 1893 to “Clark Center.” Some claim that the name “Clark Centre” was chosen in hopes that the town would be selected as the county seat after a decision was made to abandon Darwin as the seat of government, but Darwin had lost out many years earlier, in 1839. The Clark Center post office was discontinued in 1907.

Baptist, Methodist Protestant, and Methodist Episcopal circuit riders (who often walked rather than rode) covered the area, holding services in private homes or whatever quarters they could find. They ran revivals and camp meetings, usually filling the “mourners benches” with penitents. They visited the sick and dying. And they often rode or walked from town to town in rain and snow and mud. These early “fire and brimstone” preachers were poorly paid but were filled with the spirit, bringing religion into, what were then, rough frontier towns.

In the late 1700s, the authority of the bishops in the Methodist Episcopal Church (MEC) began to be challenged. Some of the membership wanted local and lay representation at Methodist Conferences and a voice in the running of the church. A convention of those hoping to reform the church was held in Baltimore in 1824, and in 1827 a minister and several members were expelled from the church for agitating for reform. In the absence of this expulsion, a complete break would have been unlikely. In 1830, however, those expelled were joined by others in establishing the Methodist Protestant Church (MPC), identical to the Methodist Episcopal Church in all ways except governance. The first session of the Illinois Conference of the MPC was held in Alton, Illinois, on 25 Oct 1836.

Auburn Church, the home church and burial place of many Clark County Tapscotts, was a Methodist Protestant Church. In 1842, the Reverend Witherspoon organized the Auburn MPC, which was made part of the Mill Creek Circuit. This Circuit covered all of Clark County and extended south into Crawford County and north into Edgar County. In 1850, the smaller Mission Circuit was carved out to extend from Darwin in the southeast to Grand View in the northwest.

The first quarterly conference for the Mission Circuit was held at Auburn 15 Feb 1845 with Rev. E. C. Peacock presiding. Rev. Richard Wright, the Grandfather of Edna (Wright) Tapscott (wife of John Wesley Tapscott), was the district superintendent. An uncle of Edna, Rev. Henry Patrick Lowry, was a local preacher at Auburn around 1887.

In the early years, there was no church building at Auburn. Meetings were held in homes. In 1860, a new log school house was erected about two miles northwest of Auburn and was used as the church building until the church itself was constructed. In 1883, the trustees purchased two lots held by the school trustees and built the church on those lots. The following is an account of the construction: 

It was finally decided to erect a frame building. Much talk followed, but little action, ‘til one day Ben Lowry took his crosscut saw and ax and went down to Howard McNary’s. Howard asked him what he was going to do. He replied, “Oh, I’m going to cut logs for the lumber for the new church.” Whereupon, Howard called his boys and told them to get their saws and axes and go too. Then the men came to the hill just north of our present home and cut the trees from which the timbers and the lumber was made for the church.

With donated labor, a rough 30-ft x 40-ft building was erected in 1886 at a cost of $1000, but it was not completed until the following year. The building was erected under pastors William Burkett and Daniel McCormick, and was dedicated on 5 Jun 1887 by Rev. Richard Wright.

Rev. Wright was the first president of the South Conference of the MPC. This conference existed until 1922, when it was united with the North Illinois Conference to form the Illinois Conference. In 1939, the Methodist Protestant, Methodist Episcopal, and the Southern Methodist churches united (reunited?) to form the Methodist Church. In 1941, Auburn was placed on the Marshall Circuit and the Mill Creek Circuit was abandoned. Unlike Allright, the village of Auburn (today, Clark Center) and Auburn Cemetery still remain, but Auburn Church was abandoned and, in 2011, demolished.

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. Permission is granted to use any posted material for any purpose as long as the source is cited.

The Militant Lowrys

Only one Wabash Valley Tapscott, Wesley “Tabscott” [31 Oct 2015 post], served in the American Civil War, but some Clark County families into which the Tapscotts married played much larger roles. One was the Lowrys.

Towards the end of the War, on 15 Feb 1865, Jackson Lowry, husband of Eliza Ann Sweet [27 Sep 2015], was mustered into Company C of the 155^th Illinois Infantry, a most unusual action for a 45-year-old married man with seven children. The 155^th was assigned to duty in Tennessee, guarding the Nashville and Chattanooga railroad. By the time the regiment was disbanded, on 4 Sep 1865, it had lost seventy-one men to disease, but not a single one to military action. Jackson's decision to enlist may be due to the actions and fates of two of his sons.

Battle of the Wilderness (Library of Congress, Prints & Photographs Division).

Much earlier, on 5 Sep 1861, Jackson Lowry’s oldest child, Henry Patrick had mustered into the 25^th Illinois Infantry, Company D. Henry was with General Grant at the start of his 1864 Overland Campaign to force rebel forces from Virginia. After crossing the Rapidan River, Union Forces fought a bitter battle with Lee's army on May 5 through 7 across the Wilderness of Spotsylvania, an area crisscrossed by small streams and covered with heavy underbrush. The three-day battle resulted in 29,800 casualties out of 162,920 men engaged. In the days to come, Grant would fight in the Battle of Spotsylvania Courthouse, the Battle of North Anna, and the Battle of Cold Harbor. At some point around this time, Henry was struck by a rebel shell. The date recorded for the injury, 23 Jun 1864, is over a week after the conclusion of the last (Cold Harbor) engagement. Henry's niece claimed that the injury occurred during the Battle of the Wilderness. Of course records of injuries during war are often incorrect. Henry survived, although years later his shoulder still bothered him.

But the Lowry who suffered most from the War was Jackson’s son Lewis Taylor. Military men often overlooked the age requirement of eighteen for enlistment. As many as one-fifth of Civil War soldiers were below the minimum age. Lewis was one of those. On 30 Mar 1864, at age 15, he mustered into Company I, 54^th Illinois Infantry  in Mattoon, Illinois. Just two days earlier, a gang of "Copperheads" had attacked some members of the regiment in Charleston, Illinois, killing an officer and four privates. Lewis's story has been recorded by his daughter Mary Elizabeth (Lowry) Johansen in her book The Merry Cricket [29 Sep 2015]:

[Lewis] enlisted in Mattoon, Illinois, and was sent with hundreds of other young recruits to join General Sherman on his march to the sea. However, before his unit could reach the army in Georgia, news was received that Savannah had fallen. The city was a sea of flames, the campaign in Georgia had been a complete success, and there was much rejoicing throughout the North. But until someone could decide where father's unit should be sent next, it was ordered to stay encamped right where it was.

The green recruits from Illinois were glad to have the chance to rest up. They were led by officers as inexperienced as the men themselves. None of them had been trained in the techniques of war. So, although deep in enemy territory, they lit their campfires and relaxed, all unaware that they had attracted the attention of strong rebel bands which closed in on them easily and which captured the entire unit before it had a chance to resist.

“It was a long march from there to Andersonville,” father said, remembering, but not with bitterness. “Many of the boys who were guarding us were farm boys like ourselves. When their officers were not listening they'd be friendly as could be. What was it like farming up North, they would ask, and what would us Yankees do after Lee had licked us?”

He smiled. “But we changed our minds about them when we finally got to Andersonville. We'd heard about it. The stories had gotten around. But even the worst we'd heard didn't come up to what we found. It was much more than just the most awful filth-infested pest-hold anyone could ever imagine.”

“It was a place where Southern men, and boys, encouraged by the example of the worst bullies amongst them, lost whatever sense of decency they might have been born with and just let themselves have fun being inhuman, not just jailers but murder-loving fiends ! Only a person willing to give up acting like a man could treat other men like animals instead of like human beings.”

“The food was always spoiled, the bread moldy, the soup soured. There was never anything to drink except water and there was just one water spout. This was out in the courtyard and there was a low, stone wall all around it. A prisoner who was thirsty, even those who were sick, had to crawl to this watering trough. But if anyone poked his head up too high over this wall, he was shot at by the guards. Many prisoners, crazed. by thirst, or the pain of their wounds-men whose spirits had been broken or who had given up all hope-deliberately chose this way out.”

“Wirz was hanged for his brutality, his inhuman treatment of the Union prisoners at Andersonville. But he'll be hanged over and over and over again so long as there is anyone left to remember him!”

Andersonville (Library of Congress, Prints & Photographs Division).

Lewis, who mustered out in Little Rock, Arkansas, on 15 Oct 1865, was a survivor. Of the 45,000 Union soldiers confined at Andersonville, nearly 13,000 died at the prison. The prison commandant, Captain Henry Wirz, was the only person to be executed for war crimes during the Civil War.

There is one bothersome problem about Lewis Lowry’s story. Lewis’s name does not appear in lists of Andersonville prisoners. Nevertheless, his story is probably true. Present day prisoner lists are compiled from various sources and are known to have errors. Lewis is known to have served in the Civil War and the details of his story appear to be correct.

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. Permission is granted to use any posted material for any purpose as long as the source is cited: Robert E. Tapscott, title of posting, Tapscott Family History, Blogspot.com, date of posting.