Samuel's Saga, Continued

On 25 Jun 2015, I blogged the story of my great great uncle Samuel Tapscott’s first, and as far as we know most serious, misadventure - his murder of Alexander Thompson in 1871. But his crimes did not stop there.

On Wednesday, 7 Nov 1877, the following article appeared in the Edwardsville Intelligencer.

Samuel Tapscott some ten days ago knocked down and robbed a man named Munday at Marshall. On the evening of the 28th, Tapscott was found by Sheriff Flood and City Marshall Nolan in the woods near that place, but attempted to escape by running. The officers immediately fired upon him, two shots taking effect, one in the head and another in the shoulder. At last accounts he was dying.

Four days earlier, the Terre Haute Saturday Evening Mail had gone so far as to state that Samuel had been "fatally shot" by Flood. A longer article appeared in the 31 Oct 1877 edition of the Clark County Herald:

On Sunday last [28 Oct], Sheriff Flood, Flem Neal, and John Mundy attempted to arrest Sam. Tapscott, near Auburn, for robbing the latter named person on the streets, a few weeks ago, but Sam, not liking the looks of things, broke and ran. The officers after called on him to halt, commended firing on him, two balls taking effect before he was brought down. One shot took effect near the left ear, and the other struck him while in a stooping attitude entering just before the shoulder blade, and lodging above the right nipple. All three of the parties in pursuit fired at him, and all having the same king of revolver it is not known which one inflicted the wounds. Tapscott is now lying at his own house, the chances being that he will never leave it alive. Whether or not the officers were justifiable in using such measures to capture their prisoner, we do not at this time pretend to say, but the facts will undoubtedly develop in a few days. The amount he was charged with stealing was $0.25. Later.-We learn from parties who were present that the officers were perfectly justified in taking the steps they did. Tapscott, had made threats against Sheriff Flood, sweating that he would never be taken, &c. He was halted a half dozen times before a shot was fired, and, even after he was hit the first time in the side of his head and knocked down, he jumped to his feet and again started, and was again halted several times, but he took to the brush, and the course the officers adopted was the only one to secure him. Tapscott is reported to be a very dangerous man. He was arrested in Terre Haute some time ago for killing a man, named Thompson, with a spade, and was once arrested for horse stealing in this county. The night he robbed Mundy, he knocked him down and rifled his pockets. Tapscott was still living at noon yesterday.

John Mundy was the brother-in-law of James Byron Tapscott, Samuel's nephew.

Samuel was confined at Southern Illinois Penitentiary,
now Menard Correction Center), Chester, Illinois (2010).

Samuel survived and in Apr 1878 was tried and acquitted. He lived another quarter century, providing him time to rack up new violations. In an 1881 court in Marshall he was charged with malicious mischief (quashed), assault (guilty plea for a $10 fine plus costs), and an unstated charge that included one Jacob Hill, costing the two defendants a total of $41.65 plus costs. From 28 Mar 1898 to 4 Sep 1900 he was incarcerated for burglary at the Southern Illinois Penitentiary in Randolph County, Illinois.

Registry of prisoners incarcerated at Southern Illinois Penitentiary, Vol. 1, p. 165 ( State of Illinois Digital Archives).

Samuel died under mysterious circumstances. On 15 Jun 1903, he was found near death in a barn belonging to the husband of his niece Lydia (Siverly) Moore. He died shortly afterwards of "concussion of brain" and was buried the next day in an unmarked grave in Auburn Cemetery. The following story was contained in the Herald:

Sam Tapscott died at the home of Aden Moore in Clark Center Sunday evening. He had been to Marshall on Saturday and went to Mr. Moore's that night. The next day just after dinner he started to go to see his daughter Mrs. [unclear], but only got as far as the barn, where he fell and was not discovered till several hours later. He found he was able to arise but could not talk. He died that evening at 7 o'clock.

All genealogical data reported in these blogs are based on primary and/or reputable secondary sources, or transcriptions thereof, and never on online trees. Contact the author to request sources, which have been omitted here to improve readability.

Samuel Tapscott

At times, here and elsewhere, I have mentioned Samuel Tapscott, my great great uncle and the last-born of Henry and Susan (Bass) Tapscott's twelve known children. Samuel was a cad and a miscreant.

His known misadventures began at age 22 when, on Wed 22 Feb 1871, in Terre Haute, Indiana, he viciously slashed the face of Alexander Thompson with a spade. Exactly two weeks later, on 8 Mar 1871, Alexander succumbed to his wounds, and the slashing and subsequent trial made newspapers as far away as Wheeling, West Virginia. During our recent trip to the Midwest, Mary Frances and I were able to uncover a number of newspaper articles describing the incident in much more detail than we have had in the past.

The day of the attack, Sam had gone to Terre Haute to visit his sister and brother-in-law Frances Ann and Samuel Lockard and his sister-in-law Mary Ann (Lockard) Tapscott, widow of Samuel’s brother Jacob, who had been killed a couple of years earlier in a Crawford County, Illinois, incident (28 May 2013 blog). Mary Ann Lockard and Samuel Lockard were brother and sister and had married a Tapscott brother and sister. On that fateful day, Samuel Tapscott went out in his sister's yard, which faced an alley, and encountered a neighbor, Alexander Thompson (“Alex”), who had gone out to his stable to milk his cow. Although the two had apparently never met before, they became involved in a heated argument, yelling according to observers, “What the hell are you doing here?” “None of your damned business.” “Get out of the alley you drunken scamp.” “I won't do it, and I don't want any of your jaw.” “Let me kill the damn son of a bitch.” “Let me go; I will kill any God damn man that calls me a damn son of a bitch, or strikes me, or strikes at me first.” But witnesses, several of whom were relatives of Alexander and Samuel, were unable or unwilling to say who said what to whom or who started the row. The argument ended violently with a single blow to Alexander's head and face with a spade. At that point, Samuel and possibly others, ran down the alley. One cannot help but wonder whether Samuel's brother-in-law was involved, though this was never suggested.

About 10 o’clock that night Samuel Tapscott was arrested attempting to leave town on a west-bound train. Former Terre Haute Chief of Police Daniel Crowe, who made the arrest, asked Samuel if his name was “Tapscott.” Samuel responded “No.” Daniel replied, “You are probably the man I want.” Samuel was jailed in Terre Haute with a bail of $2000, which was raised to $5000 a couple of weeks later. And then Alexander did the unthinkable, he died. On 14 Mar 1871 a Vigo County grand jury brought in an indictment against Samuel Tapscott of first degree murder.

Samuel languished in jail while continuances and postponements pushed dates for hearings further and further into the future. Month after month local newspapers announced trial dates, only to have the notices retracted. On 1 Nov 1871, the Terre Haute Weekly Express declared “The question is often asked when will Tapscott be tried for the murder of Alex. Thompson? He has now lain in jail eight months, at a heavy expense to the county.” On 4 Nov 1871 the Terre Haute Saturday Evening Mail covered all bases by announcing “We have positive assurance that Tapscott will be tried next week, unless the case is again postponed. This can be relied upon.” The case was postponed. Finally, on Thu 23 Nov, trial commenced.

The Vigo County Courthouse in Terre Haute, site of the

 Tapscott trial (Judson McCranie, Wikimedia Commons).

The proceedings were muddled. Members of both the Tapscott and Thompson families were near, possibly at, the crime scene, as were some neighbors, but nobody seemed certain of what happened. Everything indicated that Samuel, who did not take the stand, struck the fatal blow. Samuel Tapscott's sister said it "seemed" to her that Alexander had a long stick in his hand. Others mentioned that a rock was picked up by someone, but whether or not it was one of the combatants was unknown. The defense consisted solely of character witnesses from Clark County with such weak statements as “I know his general character. It is good as far as I know.” “I never heard his character questioned one way or the other.” “I never heard anything about his character.” With no defense other than damning by faint praise, one wonders how a jury could possibly vote for acquittal. But around 11 pm on Fri 24 Nov, after a lone hold-out juror finally voted with the majority (either because he wanted to go home or because he felt browbeaten by other jurors, depending on which version one hears), the jury decided for acquittal.

Samuel’s mother, Susan, attended the trial. Samuel's father, who may have been too infirm to travel, is never mentioned. Afterwards a Terre Haute newspaper stated that “We insist that the real sufferers are Mrs. Thompson [Alexander’s wife] and Mrs. Tapscott [Samuel’s mother].” A Clark County newspaper reported “from what we can learn, [Tapscott] bears a very fair character.” In view of his later adventures, which included horse theft and robbery, the description “fair character” seems inappropriate.

If you would like transcriptions of the newspaper articles about the murder of Alexander Thompson, let me know and I will email them. There are some Samuel Tapscott articles on the Hoosier State Chronicles website and on the Vigo County Public Library's Newspaper Archive site, but several of the articles I found appear (at present) on no internet site.