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.