Mattie

We know little about Frances Ann (Tapscott) Lockard, discussed in the previous blog. Part of the problem is that she left no still-living descendants, but it did not help that she died young, around age 42. We know more about her children, Martha and Fred, but tracing them was an arduous, though adventurous task, primarily because neither kept the name “Lockard,” and Martha even went by a different first name.

Frances's daughter was born in July 1859, in Illinois, presumably in Clark County and presumably with the name “Martha L.,” but very soon she was going almost solely by the first name “Mattie.” On 23 Oct 1876 in Vigo County, where she was living with her parents, Martha married Joseph W. (Willis) Watt. Joseph, who was born in 1842 in Pennsylvania, was considerably older than Mattie. In 1880 the two were residing in Terre Haute, where Joseph was working as a puddler in a rolling mill. (Puddlers converted pig iron to wrought iron using a reverberatory furnace).

When Mattie’s mother Frances Ann died in 1881, Mattie’s brother Fred came to live with his sister and her husband. We see Joseph Watt in the 1890-1891 Terre Haute City Directory, and then he disappears, never to be seen again—or so we thought.

Newspapers show Mrs. J. W. Watt traveling to Marshall to visit in the 1880s. Then in 1893, an Indianapolis newspaper giving news from Marshall, Illinois, announced that “Miss Mattie Watt, of Wheeling W. Va., is the Guest of Joseph P. Lockard.” Joseph F. Lockart (the “P” was apparently an error) was Mattie’s uncle. And what was Mattie doing in Wheeling? Well for one thing, her brother Fred was living there. Even after the loss of Joseph (by death or otherwise) the two were sticking together.

Puddling iron in the 19^th century was a

dangerous job  (PBS LearningMedia).

Mattie is not seen again until 1907, when a newspaper article revealed that she and her brother Fred had traveled to Paris, France, an unexpected venue. In 1910 she was living with Fred in Oakland, California. It was Oakland where she died on 8 Nov 1911 and where she is interred in Mountain View Cemetery. Mattie left no known descendants.

And what happened to Joseph Watt? We first thought it likely that Joseph died, probably in Terre Haute around the turn of the last century, though no death record or notice could be found. Iron puddling was dangerous work. Owing to the heat, extreme labor, and fumes most puddlers died in their 30s. As it turns out, we were wrong, as we will see in the next blog. And we will see what may have drawn Fred and Mattie to Wheeling.