Austin Sweet Jr.

Austin Sweet Sr. (post of 9 Sep 2017) and his wife, Mary Ellen Johnson, had fourteen children. One of those, Richard Morgan Sweet, married Cora Isabelle Tapscott (post of 21 Nov 2016). Another, Austin Sweet Jr., was a protagonist in a tragic episode.

Austin Jr. received degrees from Westfield College and in 1898 from Northern Illinois Law School, Dixon, Illinois. After working for a year in Marshall for the law firm of Golden and Tibbs, he moved to Terre Haute, Indiana, where he practiced law from 1899 to 1929, primarily defending criminals, even those who had little or no funds.

On 28 Aug 1901, in Hartsville, Indiana, Austin married Mary E. Beck. The marriage was brief. A 12 Oct 1904 newspaper article stated “Austin Sweet, who has instituted more divorce suits than any other local attorney, was defendant today in a divorce suit brought by his wife.” A Terre Haute divorce was granted the same day. There were no known children.

A little over two months later, on 22 Dec 1904, Austin married Goldie B. Fulghum in Terre Haute. The marriage was cut short by Goldie's 31 Jul 1907 death, but there was a child, Nina. Born 23 Oct 1906, Nina married Claude Lameer, and in 1927, was working as a stenographer in her father's Terre Haute law firm of Sweet and Edmonds.

On 6 Nov 1909 Austin was married for the third and final time, to Alma Elva Shook, in Marshall, Illinois, allowing the couple to “trot through life in double harness,” according to the Marshall Republican. The “harnessed” couple had two children, Dixon Holmes, born 5 Jul 1911,  and Ellen Jean, born 7 May 1914.

Things were going well for Alma and Austin, who was acquiring legal fame and fortune in Terre Haute, a fortune admittedly limited by Austin's policy of defending low-income individuals. But those halcyon days would soon end.

Big Raccoon Creek, spanned by Bridgeton Bridge (2001).

On Sunday, 7 Apr 1929, Austin, his son Dixon, and his office janitor, Howard Franklin, went fishing at Big Raccoon Creek in Parke County, Indiana. Unfortunately Austin had no Parke County fishing license and was spotted by game wardens. Sweet, known for argumentative outbursts, claimed that he had a permit, but the wardens found none. He then claimed he had not yet put his line in the water and was therefore innocent. Nevertheless, the wardens obtained a warrant and served it to Sweet in Terre Haute the following Thursday, 11 April. A member of the arresting party was Constable John Van Hook, with whom Sweet had been quarreling for years. The feud had undoubtedly increased in 1927 when Austin defended James Caldwell accused of murdering another Vigo County Constable, H. P. Dalton. (Particularly damaging to Van Hook's opinion of Austin was that Austin's law partner, William B. Edmonds, may have attempted to hide Caldwell from the law.)

Terre Haute Tribune,

Fri 12 Apr 1929

During the arrest at the office of Sweet and Edmonds, Van Hook exchanged heated words with Austin, pulled a gun, and shot Sweet once in the head. Austin died the same day. On 13 April a Vigo County grand jury presented Van Hook with an indictment, charging that on April 11 he did “unlawfully and feloniously, purposely and with premeditated malice kill and murder Austin Sweet by shooting with a gun then and there loaded with leaden ball, from the effects of which shooting Sweet died.” Investigation determined, in fact, that John Van Hook was a Deputy Constable with no legal status. He had been present at the attempted arrest of Austin Sweet only by invitation. On 26 Oct 1929 Van Hook was found guilty of manslaughter and was sentenced to serve 2 to 21 years at the Michigan City state prison.

Indiana State Prison, Michigan City,

c1927 (Michigan City Public Library).

Van Hook's victim was laid to rest in Terre Haute’s Highland Lawn Cemetery. Alma, who married again (to J. Frank Meunier), lived another 43 years, dying 26 Sep 1972 in Brazil, Indiana. She also rests in Highland Lawn.

Austin Jr.'s three children have also passed on. Nina (Sweet) Lameer died 21 Dec 1997; Dixon Sweet, who never married, 3 Jan 1969; and Ellen Jean (Sweet) Moss, 1 Sep 2001. Only Ellen had children. One was named “Austin.”

Typhoid

National Library of Medicine.

Starting in 1914 and continuing into 1916, Clark County, Illinois, home of the Wabash Valley Tapscotts, experienced outbreaks of typhoid fever. Infected milk was blamed, as was contaminated well water. Better sanitation and avoidance of flies was urged. Dr. Lord, who had an office on Marshall’s Main Street, listed typhoid among the diseases that would “yield quickly” to his nonmedicinal treatments. But despite studies, and sanitation, and treatments, typhoid took Clark County citizens, with children, particularly those in rural areas, being the most vulnerable.

Of the fourteen children of Cora Isabelle (Tapscott) and Richard Morgan Sweet. two were twins, Ruth Isabelle and Ruby Sweet. Born 2 Jul 1901, the girls grew up during the typhoid outbreaks, in Martinsville Township, on a farm, where the greatest dangers lay. Ruth was spared. Ruby was not. She suffered for three weeks, but finally succumbed on 30 Sep 1916 at the age of 15, and was buried in Mt. Pleasant Cemetery.

Ithamar

“Ithamar” (Hebrew אִיתָמָר) was the youngest son of Aaron, a Biblical high priest, and the eldest son of "Bell" (Tapscott) and Morgan Sweet. The unusual name makes Ithamar Sweet easily traceable, though one must take into account mistaken and alternative spellings. “Ithmar,” “Ithamer,” “Ithemar,” “Ithenear” are all found for Ithamar Sweet.

Born in Martinsville, Clark County, Illinois, Ithamar’s birth date is a little uncertain. The age of 30 years, 10 months on his grave marker indicates a birthdate of Dec 1887, a date that appears wildly incorrect based on the birth dates of his siblings. His brother Robert is known to have been born on 31 May 1887. A Texas death record shows a birthdate of 29 Dec 1884, a date that agrees with census data, is a reasonable nine months, three weeks following Bell and Morgan’s marriage, and fits in well with the birth dates of the other Sweet children.

On 16 Jun 1906 in Danville, Illinois, Ithamar enlisted in the Army, achieved the rank of sergeant, and was discharged 15 Jun 1909, in Walla Walla, Washington. He reenlisted the following day and was shipped off to Fort Stotsenburg, at Luzon in the Philippines. On 15 Jun 1912 Ithamar was discharged at Ft. Clark in Texas, but he apparently reenlisted since he spent the rest of his life as a reserve officer in the Army.

Sometime between 1910, when he was still single in the Philippines and 1913, when his first child was born, Ithamar married Frances Isadora (“Fannie”) Baker, a Texas girl. Born 25 Dec 1889 in Brownwood, Texas, Frances was the oldest daughter of John William and Minnie (Conklin) Baker, a Texas farm family. Ithamar’s transfer by the Army to Texas, had brought with it a chance to meet Minnie.

In 1915 Minnie and Ithamar lived in Marfa, Texas, where soldiers at Camp Marfa patrolled the Rio Grande during the stormy Mexican Revolution. In 1915 the couple lived in Eagle Pass, Texas, where an unsteady Army camp was increasing in strength due to WW I.. In 1917 Ithamar, who was then a first lieutenant, submitted his resignation as a reserve officer, but he was still serving at the Army Post at Eagle Pass on 24 Oct 1918, when he died of bronchopneumonia, probably brought on by influenza. An estimated 675,000 Americans died from the misnamed 1918 “Spanish Flu” pandemic. A much lower 116,708 Americans died from all causes during WW 1 military service.

Ithamar was returned to Clark County, where he rests in Mount Pleasant Cemetery. He left a single child, Eugene Madison Sweet (15 Jul 1915-30 Oct 1989). His and Minnie’s other child, Ithamar Jr., born 5 Dec 1913, died by 1915.

Frances remarried, to George M. Doney, on 27 Sep 1919 in San Antonio, Texas, and Eugene adopted his stepfather’s last name, going by “Eugene Madison Doney” or “Eugene Sweet Doney.” The family settled in Lynwood, California, where George became the Chief of Police. But things did not go well for George. In 1930 the police department was under investigation for misappropriation of funds, and on 31 May 2016 when George was interviewed by members of the district attorney’s office, he named names and implicated colleagues. The following day, Police Chief Doney was found dead in his car with a bullet wound in his chest, and clutching a revolver. He left a note fit for a B-grade gangster movie:

To the District Attorney's office: I told you a pack of lies. The men of this police force are all OK. I was the crook, so drop that statement your man got out of me, because they are square guys and never take a nickel from anybody that I know. This is the truth, so help me God. ____ never paid me or not one else one cent, so drop any charges you have made.

St. Louis Post Dispatch, 3 Jun 1930.

The story made newspapers nationwide. The police department concluded that George had committed suicide out of remorse for turning on his friends in the department. But was it a suicide, or a cover-up by murder? Some thought it was the latter.

Frances, who appears to have been married one more time, briefly, to a man named “Nugent,” lived for a while in Medford, Oregon, but returned to California, where she died 10 Jan 1959 in Shasta County.

Cora Isabelle Tapscott

Family of Richard and Cora

The book, The Tapscotts of the Wabash Valley, is coming along, albeit very, very slowly. One problem is the sheer number of individuals covered. Henry the Traveler, who founded the Wabash Valley clan, has 199 descendants with 155 spouses through 4 generations, which is as far as this book goes. The earlier book, Henry the Immigrant, covered only 132 descendants of Ann Edney (both Tapscotts and Georges) with 122 spouses through 4 generations. While many of the Wabash Valley Tapscott men had few descendants (see “not good husband material” in blog of 28 Aug 2015), this was definitely not true of the women, One example is Cora Isabelle Tapscott, daughter of William and Mary Angeline (Wallace) Tapscott, who is the cause of multiple pages in the current book.

Born 21 May 1869 in Anderson Twp, Cora Isabelle (usually called “Bell” or “Belle”), had a brief childhood. Before age fifteen, she was married, on 1 Mar 1884, in Clark County. The groom, Richard Morgan Sweet, was twenty-two. Morgan, the name he always used, was one of fourteen children of Mary Ellen Johnson and Austin Sweet Sr., a Clark County veterinarian and farmer.

Richard Morgan and Cora Isabelle
Sweet, at Martinsville home, c1932.
 (Courtesy of Sharon Poteet.)

Bell and Morgan, who lived all their married lives near Martinsville, wasted no time. Their first child, Ithamar, was born 29 Dec 1884, their last, Nila, was born 4 Apr 1908. In between were born twelve children, a child every two years.

On 23 Oct 1932, Bell Tapscott passed away. Morgan, who went from farmer to blacksmith in his later years, lived another few years, dying on 13 Apr 1937 at his daughter Nila’s house. Bell and Morgan are interred in Mt. Pleasant Cemetery, in Martinsville Twp.

Byron or Byram?

The middle name of James, the son of William and Mary Angeline (Wallace) Tapscott of Clark County, Illinois, has been a mystery. Most records give his name as “James B.” Four records—two documents from the probate file for his brother Millard, an obituary for his wife, and an obituary for his sister Cora—give it as “James Byron.” Two—a newspaper article and an obituary for his brother Millard—give the name “Byram.” His middle name is said to be "Byron" by at least some relatives, but it is consistently given as “Byram” in on-line trees, likely due to the copy and recopy syndrome suffered by their authors. One cannot ask James’s direct descendants. There are none. But we do know one thing. Two signatures in Millard’s probate file appear to read “James Byron Tapscott.” Although the vowel could be either “o” or “a” in the signatures, the last letter is almost certainly “n” rather than “m.”

Thus, against a tide of public opinion, I am taking James’s middle name as “Byron.” This appears to be what James and at least some family members used, regardless of the name James may have been given and regardless of what people creating unsourced trees may think.

Comments?

The Rest of the Story

For some time we have been stuck in the mire of the Sweets and Lowrys. Today, we finally get back to the Tapscotts—sort of.

On 1 Mar 1884, at the Clark County, Illinois, office of Justice of the Peace John G. Towell, Cora Isabelle Tapscott (often called “Bell”) married Richard Morgan Sweet (who usually went by just “Morgan”). Morgan was a grandson of Nathaniel and Elizabeth (Maddox) Sweet. His father was Austin Sweet, a brother of Eliza Ann (Sweet) Lowry, about whom we have heard so much. Cora was a granddaughter of Henry and Susan Bass Tapscott.

In 1880, there were only sixteen Sweets in all of Clark County, most living near Martinsville, a few miles west of the Tapscott farms in Anderson township. The union of Richard and Cora eventually added thirteen descendants to this number—Ithamar, William, Robert, Charles, Emma, Murl, Faris, Ruth, Ruby, Leslie, Eugene, Harold, and Nila. My uncle Clarence Benson Tapscott claimed that there was a fourteenth Sweet, Thomas, but if so Thomas must have died as an infant. No documentation of his existence has been found.

With the many children in the family of Morgan and Bell Sweet and the rather common surname, tracing them down for a book on the Tapscotts of the Wabash Valley has been an onerous task.  One person who was particularly difficult to track was Leslie Morgan Sweet.

Leslie was born to Cora and Richard on 14 Oct 1903. Sometime in the early 1920s, after working on the family farm, he moved to Michigan City, Indiana, and then on to Detroit. There Leslie worked as grinder in an automobile factory, married Agnes May Ford (the ceremony actually occurred across the state line in Ohio), and was divorced in 1952. He next appeared in the 21 July 1957 edition of The Marshall Herald, in which it was reported that the Sweet clan had been called together by the “by the sudden death of their brother and uncle, Leslie Sweet, of Effingham, Ill.” Leslie was buried near Martinsville in Mt. Pleasant Cemetery, the resting place of a multitude of Sweets.

Leslie’s life appeared nicely wrapped up until I saw a 24 Jul 1959 Marshall Herald article about a reunion of “Morgan and Bell Tapscott Sweet” descendants held in Covington, Indiana. Among those attending was “Mrs. Leslie Sweet of Effingham, Ill.” Unless Leslie’s ex-wife decided to attend a reunion of her in-laws, which seemed unlikely, Leslie’s life was not “wrapped up.” Moreover, the earlier report that he had died suddenly was a bother. Thus when Mary Frances and I headed for Illinois to do family history research this summer, we set aside a day in Effingham in attempt to put together the rest of Leslie’s tale. (And to eat at an outstanding Effingham restaurant, the Firefly Grill, just down the street from our hotel.) The records collected from the courthouse and the Helen Matthes library have been reviewed, and with the provision of some detailed information by Michael L. Hébert, we can complete the story of Leslie's life.

Leslie Sweet death certificate.

Around 1950, Leslie moved from Detroit to Effingham, where he apparently met Cora Katherine Campbell, to whom he was wedded sometime between 1952, when his first marriage was dissolved, and 1954, when Cora was designated “Cora Sweet” in an obituary for her father. Raised by John and Susan (Hilton) Campbell in the town of Montrose in Effingham County, Cora was first married to Oakley Earl (“Jack”) Hargrave on 15 May 1926. The marriage produced one child, but ended in an acrimonious divorce on 4 Nov 1935, with Jack Hargrave later arrested for nonpayment of alimony.

Cora’s marriage to Leslie Sweet was short. On 9 Jun 1957, at 8:15 in the evening, Leslie stepped in front of a car while crossing a busy street in the city of Effingham and was struck by a driver who may have been blinded by oncoming traffic. He died instantly. Leslie left no descendants.  Less than a year earlier, on 3 Aug 1956, Leslie had been involved in an automobile accident near Mattoon in which he hit the rear end of an automobile. The accident injured five people with one dying.

Two years later, Cora married Gerald E. Lockart, a widowed funeral home owner and operator from Shelby County, Illinois. Dying on 24 Aug 1983, Cora is interred in Montrose Cemetery in Effingham County.

From the 1950s through the 1990s, ABC radio broadcaster Paul Harvey would present little-known or forgotten facts on events and people, concluding his broadcast with the phrase "And now you know the rest of the story." Here, for Leslie Sweet, was the “Rest of the Story.”

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

The Merry Cricket

Mary Elizabeth Lowry and her six sisters.
(Thanks to Linda Grinnell.)

In our last post, we met Eliza Ann Sweet and Jackson Lowry of Clark County, Illinois, and heard mention of their granddaughter Mary Elizabeth Lowry, who compared her grandmother to a “rip-snorting dragon.”

Mary Elizabeth Lowry was born 6 Aug 1888 in Clark County, Illinois, to first cousins Mahala Elizabeth Sweet and Lewis Taylor Lowry, one of thirteen children, three of whom died very young. Mary became a teacher, got married (to Soren Peter Johansen, a native of Denmark), and migrated from Martinsville to Los Angeles with her husband and their two children, Dane and Karen. In California she began teaching again and was able to get a B.S. in Education from the University of Southern California. She taught for 33 years in Los Angeles city schools and won a number of awards for her public service.

It was after she retired from teaching that Mary accomplished the deed that earns her a well-deserved spot in this post. She wrote a book, a wonderful book, The Merry Cricket (the nickname given her by her parents). which describes her childhood in Clark County, Illinois. She wrote about her brother Ellsworth (whom she adored), her six sisters, her parents, her grandparents Austin and Mary Ellen Sweet, her uncle Morgan Sweet (who married Cora Isabelle Tapscott), her aunt Rachel Lowry, and, of course, her grandmother Eliza Ann Sweet. And she tells about the collection of neighbors — some funny, some weird, some a little scary — who lived around Possum Ridge, many of whom attended Sour Oak Church. And she gives a rich description of backwoods life in Clark County. From the jacket of the book,

Through her many happy memories Mary Johansen takes us back into the forever lost world of the one-room school, the rare outings to market town, home hymn singing, joyous reunions with cherished grandparents, the hazards of exploring a still untamed countryside, and the thousands and one farming and farmhouse crafts from pig-killing to jam-making known then to any self-reliant farmer and his wife before our age of trucks, refrigeration, supermarkets, and door-to-door service.

Mary’s book is a door to the world of the Lowrys, Sweets, Wrights, Mallorys, and Tapscotts who inhabited Martinsville, Auburn, and Anderson townships at the turn of the century — the last century!

The Merry Cricket, by Mary Lowry Johansen, was published by Carlton Press, New York, in 1967. My copy of the book, a gift many years ago from my cousin Dolores (Tingley) Berbaum, is signed by the author with a handwritten dedication to her children Dane and Karen. I have tried, without success, to find another copy. It appears in no library holdings, no used book inventories, and no on-line bibliographies. My copy, perhaps the only one still extant, will someday go to a library, where it will be available to all.

Mary Elizabeth Lowry Johansen, passed away 4 Jan 1981 in Orange County, California.

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

Progress on the Latest Book

I have not disappeared, but progress on the Tapscotts of the Wabash Valley has been slower than anticipated. To date have found 731 descendants (and 437 spouses) for Henry and Susan (Bass) Tapscott, the progenitors of the Wabash Tapscotts, and there will undoubtedly be many more. Even if I restrict the book to the first five generations (counting Henry and Susan as the first generation), there will be 341 descendants and 232 spouses. And something about the parents and siblings of each spouse is also being included! Sometimes I wonder if I have bitten off more than I can chew.

Henry and Susan Bass had twelve children. I am working on the descendants of their oldest child, William Tapscott, who married Mary Angeline Wallace (as it turns out, my great grandparents). William and Mary Angeline had nine children. Research is about complete on the family of one of their daughters, Cora Isabell, who married Richard Morgan Sweet, who were prolific-fourteen Sweet children, most of whom left descendants. As it turns out, Cora and Richard had 85 descendants, not counting very,very recent additions.

Anyway, the work is getting more and more strenuous, but I am optimistic that it will be completed ... some day.

DNA Testing

DNA really works. Based on my Ancestry.com DNA profile, I was able to locate a Shotts descendant of Cora Isabelle Tapscott and Richard Morgan Sweet of Clark County, Illinois, through their daughter Ruth Sweet, wife of Aaron R. Shotts. He was predicted from the Ancestry.com testing to be my 3rd cousin.  He is actually my second cousin once removed and the first personal contact I have had from the Shotts line. I realize that this has nothing to do directly with my book, Henry the Immigrant, but I may use this contact when I write my planned book on the Clark County Tapscotts.