Squire Jasper and Mary Elizabeth

Squire Jasper (“Bud”) Phillips, second husband of Mary Elizabeth (Tapscott) King, was born 19 Feb 1867 to John and Sarah (Kays) Phillips in Washington County, Kentucky. In that same county lived Bell Barnett, born in 1871 or 1872 to John and Julia (Brown) Barnett and on 6 Jan 1889 Bell and Squire were wed. The marriage may have ended dramatically, for in the 1900 census for Washington County are found Squire Phillips and his only known child, Roy (born 16 Jun 1891), living with his in-laws, John and Julia, but there is no sign of Bell or her fate. The census shows Squire Jasper to be married, not widowed, and since he was living with his in-laws, a divorce seems quite unlikely. However it happened, he may have been unattached when Mary Elizabeth headed to Kentucky to bury her first husband, Samuel.

Mary Elizabeth Tapscott could have married her second husband, Squire Jasper Phillips, in Kentucky, but by 1910 they were living in Bloomington, Illinois, in Mary’s old home county of McLean. Mary could have been drawn back by her two married daughters, Martha and Bessie. And now comes an interesting twist.

In the 1900 McLean County, Illinois, census appear a Squire L. Phillips and his wife Mary A., both born in Kentucky, with respective birth years of 1866 and 1865. Squire Jasper and Mary Elizabeth were born in Kentucky with respective birth years of 1867 and 1865. Could they be one and the same? Some people have certainly thought so and several distorted family trees have been published in an attempt to combine them. But despite similarities in birth, location, and names, Squire Logan Phillips and Mary Ann Lanham have no known connection to Squire Jasper Phillips and Mary Elizabeth Tapscott.

Mary Elizabeth’s and Squire Jasper’s marriage was shaky. And, in fact, it is a 1916 article about that situation from that wonderfully revealing newspaper, the Bloomington Pantagraph, that provides their marriage date, though not the location:

Mary E. Phillips filed a bill for divorce in the circuit court yesterday against Squire Jasper Phillips. They were married Oct 2, 1909, and separated November 12, 1916. The oratrix presents that her husband is guilty of habitual drunkenness and used obscene language in her presence.

The suit was dropped the following year, and the marriage lasted another thirteen years. But then it ended abruptly. The night of 17 Sept 1930, Squire was crossing Sugar creek in Bloomington by walking on the 10-foot-high Illinois Traction System bridge near St. Mary's cemetery when an interurban car suddenly appeared. He leaped from the trestle to avoid being hit and badly shattered his leg. Rescue from the muddy creek only occurred when, according to the Pantagraph, “Weird Moans From Near Cemetery [were] Traced to Injured Carpenter.” He died just three days later and was buried in Bloomington’s Evergreen Memorial Cemetery.