Wright Family Gathering

In 2002 a c1922 photo of a collection of individuals including some Tapscotts was loaned to me for scanning by my cousin Dolores (Tingley) Berbaum (daughter of Nellie (Tapscott) Tingley). On Monday, August 29, 2016, I posted the photo, which I labeled “Tapscott Family Gathering,” and attempted to identify some of those present. The posting was only partially correct. The date was indeed 1922 and some Tapscotts are present, but it was brought to my attention by Gail Ann (Reed) Schenck that the gathering was probably initiated by or for Nicholas Reed and his wife Mary Malinda (also “Melinda”) Wright (daughter of Rev Richard Wright, see post of 17 Aug 2017), likely at their home in Auburn Twp, Clark County. Since it now appears that all were Wright descendants or their spouses, I have chosen to label the photo "Wright Family Gathering" Gail believes the purpose may have been to celebrate Mary Malinda and Nick Reed's wedding anniversary.

Since Mary Malinda was the aunt of Edna Earl Wright, who married John Wesley Tapscott, Tapscotts are found in the photo. And since Mary Malinda’s first husband (who died very young, aged 31) was Eli Sylvester Shade, Shades also attended. And, of course, Reeds, who may have hosted the gathering, are there since Mary Melinda's second marriage was with Nicholas Reed. Gail (great granddaughter of Nicholas and Mary Malinda), Patrick (“Pat”) Shade (great grandson of Eli Sylvester and Mary Malinda), and I (grandson of John Wesley and Edna) have identified individuals in the photo about whom we have some certainty and the results are shown below. The earlier, inaccurate, and incomplete posting has been removed.

Wright family gathering, autumn 1922. Where possible, numbers are placed on the person designated. Otherwise, the number is placed immediately above that person. 1. Glenn Daniel Tapscott, 2. Lillie Alice Tapscott, 3. Alta Leona (Tapscott) Hiddle, 4. Edmund Hiddle Jr., 5. Edna Earl (Wright) Tapscott, 6. John Wesley Tapscott, 7. Nicholas Reed, 8. Mary Malinda (Wright) Reed, 9. Lee Arthur Reed, 10. Irene (Leggett) Reed, 11. Clark Nicholas (“Nick”) Reed, 12. Jean Arthur Reed, 13. Agnes Maurine Reed, 14. William Hartford  (“Cap”) Shade, 15. Mariah Mae (Hurst) Shade, 16. Edna’s mother Elizabeth J. (Lowry) Wright, 17. Clifford Lloyd Tapscott, 18. Elizabeth Shade, 19. Burns (“Pat”) Shade, 20. Robert Dean Shade, 21. Sylvester Shade, 22. Anna Mae (Reed) Veach, 23. Ernest Eugene Shade.

Connection between people identified in the photo (in red). Many family members have been omitted.

The photo may have been widely distributed when it was made. Copies have been found in possession of members of the Reed, Shade, and Tapscott families. In 1978, Nellie (Tapscott) Tingley, a daughter of John Wesley and Edna (Wright) Tingley (and my aunt), sent a letter to Sylvester Shade, who appears in the photo. The letter, made available by Pat Shade, mentions the photo:

I also have one of the pictures of the reunion at Uncle Nick Reed's. I wasn't there, but Mother and Father, my oldest sister Alta and her husband Edmund Hiddle, Lillie Kuhn, who was a Tapscott then, Glenn and Lloyd were there in the picture.

Thanks to Gail for bringing the connection to the Reeds to my attention and to both Pat and Gail for helping research this photo. Thanks to Pat's uncles Sylvester Shade, who made a list of everyone present with their photo location, and Edgar ("Ed") Shade, we now have identifications for most or all of the people in the photo. Since they are, indeed, all descendants of Rev. Richard Wright or spouses of those descendants, the photo with everyone identified is being put on a new blog site, the Wrights of the Wabash Valley (http://wabashvalleywrights.blogspot.com/), post of Wednesday May 10, 2017.

The Potters of Clark County

On 15 Mar 1917 in Marshall, Walter Ernest Scott (son of Alexander Scott and Martha Ellen Robinson) and Ruby Lavona Mallory (daughter of William Luther Mallory and Emma Tapscott, a Wabash Valley Tapscott) were wed and therein lies an interesting story.

Martha Robinson was not the first wife of Walter’s father, Alexander. A little before 1850, Alexander Scott had arrived in Clark County from Ohio, a very young child, with his parents Jacob and Hettie (Brown) Scott. The family settled first in York Twp and then in Melrose Twp, near where Ohio Chapel Methodist Protestant Church would someday stand. Melrose became the Scott family homeland and Ohio Chapel, the Scott burial ground. The Scotts were among the families donating money and effort to the construction of the church, which was dedicated in 1892.

Sometime around 1868 (their first child was born in 1869), Alexander Scott married Sarah J. Condon, daughter of Henry Condon and Eliza Dixon. The Condons were unusual in that nearly all Clark County records and newspaper articles give their name and that of their descendants as “Cowden,” but many more records outside that county give the name “Condon.” The problem arose because county residents insisted on substituting “Cowden,” a well-known Clark County name, for “Condon,” which was almost unknown in the county.

Between 1866, when they were married in Muskingum County, Ohio, and 1870, when they were living in Anderson Twp, a new couple appeared in Clark County—Uriah Wilbur and Hester M. Stockdale and their son, William, along with Uriah’s parents, Enoch and Mary.

The Wilburs were members of an early family of Ohio potters, the beginnings of the renown 20-century Zanesville art potteries. Abundant clay, firewood, and a navigable tributary of the Ohio River made the Zanesville area perfect for pottery. The Wilbur potters were located in Putnam, Ohio, now part of Zanesville and one of the state’s oldest settlements. Pottery became known as “Putnam Currency,” and in 1827 Uriah’s grandfather, Thomas, developed a pottery with a capacity of 50,000 gallons. Those Wilburs who migrated to Clark County continued as potters, but the area had neither the resources or the market of Muskingum County.

On 19 Feb 1874 the first of several legal announcements appeared in the Marshall Weekly Messenger stating that a notice of “non-residence” of Sarah J. Scott had been filed by Alexander Scott and that unless Sarah showed up in court “on the second Monday of April 1874” to answer complaints a divorce decree would be filed. Sarah had run off – with potter Uriah Wilbur!

On 6 Jun 1874, presumably after the divorce was granted, Sarah and Uriah were married in Boone County, Iowa, where Sarah’s mother and father, Henry and Eliza Condon had moved a few years earlier. Sarah left her two children, Ella and Edward, behind with their father, Alexander. But Sarah soon had a new child, Henry Wilbur, whose birth in 1873 or 1874 may have resulted in Sarah’s demise. On 15 Jun 1876, Uriah was married a third time, in Pettis County, Missouri. to Estella A. Grant. Henry appears with his father, Uriah, and step mother “Stella,” in the 1880 census for Boonville, Missouri.

Like Sarah, Uriah had also abandoned offspring. His son William is found with his mother, Hester, his stepfather, William Jones, and his half-sister, Artie, in the 1880 census for Plymouth Twp in Richland County, Ohio. Hester had married the widowed William around 1876, a couple of years after her husband and Alexander Scott’s wife had “eloped.”

Confused? So am I. Perhaps this chart will help. Or perhaps it will only increase the haze.