A Brick Wall Demolished

Remember Wesley Tabscott/Tapscott? He was that illiterate fellow who lived in Clark County, Illinois, the last half of the 19th century and whose origins were completely unknown (postings 6/7/2015 and 8/6/2015). We knew his birth date and place, death date and place, military record, land holdings, varied name spellings, all sorts of things. Most everything, in fact, except who his parents were. Was he an unknown child of Henry Tapscott, the Traveler, who founded the Wabash Valley Tapscotts? Or a child of Henry's father, William the Preacher? Or perhaps a descendant of William's second cousin Raleigh Tapscott, who lived in Kentucky near William, a descendant who tagged along with Henry when he traveled to Clark County. Perhaps he was really James W. Tapscott, a son of Henry about whom we knew little, though this seemed highly unlikely. James was believed to be literate. Or perhaps he was was not a Tapscott at all, a product of an NPE, non-paternal event - a name change, an illegitimate birth, an adoption. But the brick wall remained ... until Wed 27 Dec 2017, at precisely 2 PM, when it fell with a resounding crash.

At that date and time, while visiting my son, Michael, in Phoenix, and looking through copies of old Clark County deeds, I saw something surprising. On 19 Feb 1877 for $600 Wesley Tapscott had purchased Lots 2, 3, 8, 9, Block 19, in the town of Auburn (today, Clark Center). A few months shy of three years later, on 2 Dec 1879, those exact lots at that same price were sold to a Susan Tapscott (presumably James's mother) by James W. Tapscott, son of Henry the Traveler and Susan (Bass) Tapscott. Between the two sales dates, no record is found showing the sale of land by Wesley to James. Moreover, the latter deed of sale was signed with a mark. Like Wesley, James was illiterate! Suddenly, everything fell into place. James W. Tapscott and Wesley Tabscott were one and the same, presumably James Wesley Tapscott.

The 1850 and 1870 Clark County, Illinois, censuses showed the name “James W.” or just "James," because that is how his family knew him and he was living with his mother and father (Henry and Susan Tapscott) at the time. The name “James W. Tapscott” was entered for his mark in the deed of sale to Susan Tapscott because the justice of the peace acknowledging the signature was James’s brother William Tapscott, who, like the rest of his immediate family, used that name. The occupation “at home” shown for James in the 1870 census is that which was often shown in censuses for nonworking invalids or near-invalids, as Wesley certainly was. Early records, 1852 and 1853 Federal land purchase documents, show the name "James W.," but he became "Wesley" in the military and continued using his middle name throughout his life. At last, the mystery of Wesley is solved. And from knowing little of James W. Tapscott, we now know a lot.

Esther Smith Gaddis O'Farrell Tapscott Mallory

Esther Gaddis Tapscott deed of sale.

During our trip to Illinois last summer Mary Frances and I picked up copies of 35 deeds for Clark County land sales involving Tapscotts. (If you would like scans drop me an email and I’ll send them to you.) We already had a large number from past trips, but these were newly uncovered.

A large number of the deeds involved mystery man Wesley Tapscott (posts of 7 Jun 2015 and 6 Aug 2015), and perhaps they will help unravel his origins.

But the deeds provided a new mystery, a mystery woman. On 17 Oct 1944 Frank Cole sold a block of land in Marshall for $1.00 to “Esther Gaddis Tapscott.” Frank was involved in real estate, abstracts, and brokering and his name appears on records for a huge number of Clark county real estate transactions. The $1.00 was undoubtedly a “nominal consideration,” widely used to keep actual considerations private. But who was Esther Gaddis Tapscott? There were very few Esthers among the Clark County Tapscotts or their spouses, and none with the middle name “Gaddis.” With a lot of labor and little luck I found who Esther Tapscott was. She was, for a short while, the wife of Omer Frank Tapscott (posting of 7 Sep 2014). I never knew that Omer had been married, but he had, briefly.

Esther May was born 17 May 1899, probably in Clark County, to Andrew Johnson and Minnie Bell (Lynn) Smith. She married four times, her last two times to Omer Tapscott and his cousin Elzia William Mallory. Since Esther had four children from her first marriage, to Robert Gaddis, she often used “Gaddis” as her middle name or, between marriages, as a surname. The details and sources are presented in my book on the Wabash Valley Tapscotts (still being written), but the marriages are synopsized in the following diagram.

Elzia Mallory and Omer Tapscott, husband number three and four, were cousins, not through the Tapscott line since Elzia was not a Tapscott by blood, but through the Mundy line. Elzia’s mother, Martha Mundy, and Omer’s mother, Sabra Mundy, were sisters.