Wabash Valley Tapscotts - The Spurlington Witch

A witch in the family?

The Legend of Nancy Bass

Stories of Nancy Bass have been passed down through families in Taylor County, Kentucky. According to local legend, Aunt Nancy stumbled upon Jesse James and his gang while they were burying gold and silver in the Spurlington Tunnel. However, upon seeing her, they allegedly killed her and buried her above the tunnel. Since then, Nancy has become a haunting figure associated with the tunnel.

The Spurlington Tunnel

The Spurlington Tunnel was built in the mid-1800s as part of a 31-mile rail line from Greensburg to Lebanon. It took seven years to construct, with the excavation primarily consisting of blue limestone and a ledge of black flint. The tunnel spans 1,900 feet and features a 100-foot shaft hole in the middle to release exhaust from passing trains. 

The Witch’s Curse

Nancy Bass (drawing by Wesley Durham, 1974).

Legend has it that Nancy Bass was not an ordinary woman. She was believed to be a witch. It is said that she could make tables levitate and would cast spells on people if they did not do as she wished. She was not a particularly dangerous witch. Nobody died. But, if she disliked a family their children would come down with mysterious illnesses, their crops would fail, their milk cows would go dry and all kinds of misfortunes would befall. And it is said that her spirit now haunts the Spurlington Tunnel. Anyone who enters the tunnel or searches for the buried treasure is said to fall under her curse. Locals have long speculated that the hidden treasure remains somewhere within the tunnel, waiting to be discovered.

Despite the lack of a grave marker, Nancy’s legend persists, and her spectral presence continues to cast a chilling shadow over the Spurlington Tunnel.

A Tapscott Connection

And who was Nancy? Well she’s my second cousin three times removed. Her great grandfather Josiah Bass Sr. was my 4th great grandfather. Josiah Bass’s granddaughter Susan Bass married Henry Tapscott of Kentucky and the two founded the Tapscotts of the Wabash Valley [see Henry's Children ]. Confused? So am I. Perhaps this will help.

The Wabash Valley Tapscotts already have three murderers in the family: my GG uncle Samuel, my first cousin once removed Omer, and my second cousin once removed Everett. Is there now a witch in the family? Perhaps.

Wabash Valley Tapscotts - The Spencer Case

In 1939 Marshall, Illinois, was the site of the “celebrated Spencer robbery case.”

The tale of the Spencer Case starts with the marriage of Georgia Josephine Spencer to William Woodrow Rease (also “Reece,” “Reese”) in Detroit, Michigan, around Jan 1936. Georgia had been born on 6 Jun 1912 in Clark County, Illinois, to Martha E. (Siverly) and Carroll Elmer Spencer. Since Martha (usually called “Mattie”) was a daughter of Nancy Tapscott, Georgia was a great granddaughter of Henry the Traveler, a fourth-generation Clark County “Tapscott,” and my second cousin once removed.

What Georgia was doing in Michigan, where she married, we don’t know, but William and Georgia ended up back in the Marshall area, where Georgia’s now-divorced mother, Mattie was living.

On 13 Jan 1939 Marshall’s tranquility was broken. For two or three nights before that date, Mattie Spencer thought she had seen prowlers around her home. Then on the night of the 12^th a brick was thrown through a window. Becoming alarmed, Mattie went to the home of her daughter and son-in-law the next evening along with several thousand dollars which she kept in her house. Mattie did not believe in banks and was known to take her savings with her when she traveled.

About 7:30 that evening (the 13^th) William Rease went to the back of his house to throw out a pan of water. He claimed that someone slugged him while he was outside and then went into the house and severely beat his wife, Georgia, and mother-in-law, Mattie. Taking Mattie Spencer’s purse, filled with money and resting in her lap, the robbers had fled. Georgia was two months pregnant and her four-year-old daughter was in the house.

Police cracked the case when they observed someone connected with the family was spending large amounts of money. That someone turned out to be William Rease. Knowing that his mother-in-law kept a large amount of unbanked cash, William, it was claimed, had gathered a group of conspirators and had planned the robbery. Following the theft, the gang had divided their proceeds in a Terre Haute nightclub and had then decamped. William was arrested in Madisonville, Kentucky. Nine more suspects (not all, it turned out, guilty) were arrested, at places as far away as Hot Springs, Arkansas.

Marshall, Illinois, courthouse, site of the
1939 Spencer Case trials

In March 1939 a Marshall grand jury brought indictments ranging from accessory to burglary to assault to robbery with a dangerous weapon against seven individuals. (Forrest Tapscott, Georgia’s second cousin, was one of the jurors.) Four men were eventually sentenced to a penitentiary term of 1 to 20 years. One of the four was William Rease, who had pleaded guilty. Two more suspects, who “had some connection with the robbing,” were given one year’s probation.

On 2 May 1939, citing her husband's felony as grounds, Georgia was granted a divorce from William Rease. Georgia went on to own and operate the East Marshall Motel (a collection of green-roofed and white-walled cabins that opened in 1950) for more than forty-years. She died two months shy of age 93 on 28 Mar 2005 near Marshall. What became of William is the subject of a future post.

Wabash Valley Tapscotts - The Two Nancys of Kentucky

Hi, Tapscott history aficionados -

Despite a dearth of Tapscott family blogs, I have not abandoned family history research. I’ve just been working day and night writing The Tapscotts of the Wabash Valley, a book covering Henry and Susan (Bass) Tapscott and their descendants. Unfortunately there are many, many descendants. Planned for inclusion are detailed biographies on four generations - 210 descendants and 191 spouses - with names and some limited data provided for a fifth generation (another 253 descendants). Several months' work have allowed the lines of Henry and Susan’s four oldest children (William, John, James, and Thomas) to be “biographized,” but there are eight more lines to go. Nancy Tapscott, Henry and Susan’s fifth child and oldest daughter, has now been reached.

A large number of family trees on the internet confuse the Wabash Valley Nancy with her cousin Nancy of Casey County, Kentucky. This is understandable since the two Nancy Tapscotts were both born in Kentucky and have similar birth, marriage, and death dates. But their histories are quite different.

Photo by Ritch Fuhrer

Photo by Ritch Fuhrer

The Wabash Valley Nancy was born in Green County, Kentucky, around 1835, to Henry and Susan (Bass) Tapscott, married farmer William Siverly on 29 Feb 1856 in Clark County, Illinois, and, after giving birth to twelve children, died sometime between 1880 and 1900, probably in Clark County. Her crude grave marker in Clark County’s Shad Cemetery (also known as Siverly or Shotts Cemetery) gives her name, but no dates. Though badly deteriorated, her husband’s marker in that cemetery is more informative.

Photo from Find A Grave

The other Nancy was born in Casey County, Kentucky on 22 Dec 1836 to William Stewart and Rhoda Jane (Coppage). There she married blacksmith George W. Coffman on 23 Dec 1852 and, after raising five children, died on 8 Nov 1914 in Lincoln County, Kentucky. George and Nancy’s gravestone in Middleburg Cemetery, Casey County, is almost illegible, but her name is clear.

Some trees erroneously show the Nancy born in Green County as marrying George Coffman, others show the Nancy of Casey County marrying William Siverly, and several show a single Nancy marrying both George and William. Moreover, several trees claim that Nancy traveled to Clark County and then back to Kentucky to die. I doubt that this blog will result in corrections, but hope springs eternal. Contact me for reliable, contemporary sources for the brief biographies shown above, or for more detailed histories.

But I must get back to writing about Nancy of the Wabash valley, whose line is comprised of 71 people (descendants and spouses) scheduled for biographies. Perhaps I should consider multiple volumes.

My Old Kentucky Home

On 25 Sep 1825 in Green County, Henry Tapscott, the Traveler, married Susan Bass. We know little reliable about Susan, who, unlike Henry, was literate. She is said to have been the daughter of Josiah Bass Jr. and Ann Moody. Josiah and Ann were married 27 Mar 1799 in Green County, Kentucky, and were there in 1806, around the time of Susan’s birth (probably between 1806 and 1808). But reliable sources showing that these were Susan's parents are lacking..

In 1830 Henry, his wife, Susan, and sons William and John, were living in Barren County, southwest of Green County. The household contained two additional boys, aged 5 to 10 and 10 to 15, too old to be any of Henry’s children and far too young to be any of his still unwed brothers, at least those of whom we have knowledge. The household of Henry’s father, William, who was also living in Barren County at that time, likewise contained unexplained children. Henry may have had siblings about whom we know nothing today, possibly because of childhood deaths. Or perhaps they were offspring of Henry’s second cousin once removed, Raleigh Tapscott, grandson of Henry’s great great uncle James and also a resident of Barren County in 1830. Raleigh (Rawley, Rolley, Rolly, Rolla) Tapscott had a prodigious family and may have been very willing to farm out some of his children.

By 1835 Henry and Susan (and William Sr.) were back in Green County, where Henry is shown landless in tax records for 1835, 1836, and 1837.

Henry’s father was also landless. When William the Preacher died around March 1837 he possessed only a black mare, a cow and calf, and some harnessing equipment, an estate bringing a paltry $63.13. Unlike today’s television evangelists with their crystal cathedrals, nineteenth-century preachers almost never gained wealth and seldom achieved fame. Saving souls from perdition was reward enough.

As a teenager and young adult, Henry lived in Green and Barren counties, Kentucky (U.S. Census Bureau).

The Traveler, Childhood

Lately we have been spending a lot of time on relatively recent Wabash Valley Tapscotts, but we may have failed to lay a good foundation for these recent folks – for Carl, and Golden Arthur, Nellie Mae and Wesley, and dear old Samuel. Off and on I will do so.

Our story of the Wabash Valley Tapscotts really starts with Henry Tapscott the Traveler, son of William the Preacher. His Virginia birth, North Carolina childhood, Kentucky maturation, Indiana residence, and Illinois adulthood provide us with a designation to distinguish him from a multitude of other Henry Tapscotts (eighteen by the latest count, not including many others with the middle name “Henry”), descendants of the Traveler’s great, great grandfather “Henry the Immigrant,” the subject of many postings).

William the Preacher's Green County home lay alongside
Robinson Creek (now in Taylor County) (2013).

The Traveler was born in 1797 or 1798 to William Tapscott and, possibly, Winifred Cobb. We say “possibly” because William’s wife died relatively young and no proof has been found for her name, a situation discussed in great detail in my book Henry the Immigrant (see post of 13 Aug 2013). At the time of Henry’s birth, his parents were living in Caswell County, North Carolina; however, three U.S. censuses give his birthplace as Virginia. That Caswell County lies near the Virginia border and that Henry’s parents had come from Virginia make that state a plausible birthplace. Henry’s mother could have returned there for his birth.

Henry, the oldest, had three brothers, George Rice, William Stewart, and Richard, and a sister, Winifred, all born in North Carolina or Virginia. After the birth of Richard, William Sr. pulled up stakes and headed with his offspring for Kentucky, arriving by 1812, probably as a widower. There William worked as a preacher, supplementing his scant income with hardscrabble farming.

William the Preacher settled along meandering Robinson Creek in Green County. (Today that site lies in Taylor County). There his five children, including our Henry, had what was probably a motherless upbringing by an impecunious, itinerant cleric, in an uncultured backcountry, which provided little opportunity or need for schooling. The Preacher could read and write, or at least sign his name. His sons could not.

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.

A Very Sweet Family

Nathaniel's marker (photo
 by Shirley I. Shawver Nees).

In 1834 Henry and Susan (Bass) Tapscott left Kentucky and headed for Illinois with their kids, and with more born on the way. A few years earlier another couple had done the same. But Nathaniel and Elizabeth (Maddox) Sweet of Fleming County, Kentucky, detoured through Ohio, rather than Indiana, arriving in Vermilion County, Illinois, in 1836. In the 1840s the Sweets pulled up stakes again and traveled to Clark County, where at first they scattered - Auburn, Cumberland (later Casey), and Melrose townships. Later many congregated in Martinsville Township, just a few miles west of Henry and Susan Tapscott’s newly established farm. Descendants claim that the Sweets broke the virgin prairie soil with a primitive plow and six yoke of oxen, not unlikely though they probably would have had to borrow some cattle from neighbors. But true or not, they started a collection of Sweet farms in the Martinsville area. And they had sufficient descendants to populate that community, for like Henry and Susan Tapscott, Nathaniel and Elizabeth had twelve offspring.

Nathaniel died 3 Jun 1874 at the age of “73y. 8m. 27d.” according to his cemetery marker; Elizabeth passed away on 15 Sep 1878, aged “76y. 2m. 19d.”. Nathaniel and Elizabeth are interred in Mt. Pleasant Cemetery in Martinsville township, today the resting place of over seventy Sweets and innumerable other descendants lacking the Sweet name (as well as four Tapscotts).

The last several weeks have been spent doing a final unraveling of the Sweet family, which married into the Tapscotts and has thus earned a chapter in The Tapscotts of the Wabash Valley, possibly a very large chapter since it was a very large family. And, of course, we shall hear about some of these Sweets in the days and weeks to come.

P.S.: Nathaniel and Elizabeth Sweet are my great great great grandparents, but through my grandmother Edna Earl Wright, not through my grandfather John Wesley Tapscott

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.

The Tome

Henry the Traveler, The Tapscotts of the Wabash Valley is becoming a weighty tome. It will be difficult to keep it under 500 pages, the limit for hard-binding and for reading without the aid of a book stand (or a forklift). Work has stopped (for a while) on the Sweitzers, descendants of  Henry and Susan (Bass) Tapscott's daughter Elizabeth and has been started (actually restarted) on the Siverlys, descendants of Elizabeth's sister Nancy. Future work remains on the Lockards and the Sanders, descendants of two more of Henry's daughters, Frances Ann and Sarah Ann. A fifth daughter, Lydia A., who married William S. Cardell, appears to have left no offspring, so there are no Cardells to wade through (unliked the Sweitzers, Siberlys, Lockards, and Sanders), thank goodness..

The Siverly family is exceedingly large. Nancy Tapscott and William Siverly, had eight children who lived to adulthood. Six of the eight, married and left children. Right now, with incomplete research, 215 descendants with 125 spouses have been identified for Nancy and William. Among the family names introduced in the Siverly line are Gummere, Moore, Spencer, Montgomery. If I stick to my goals of provided detailed information on only the first four generations for Henry and Susan (Bass) Tapscott with the fifth generation merely named, the number of Siverly descendants included will be just a little over 100 with 70 or so spouses. But then there are the families of the spouses ...

At age 76, I sometimes question my wisdom in taking on such a ponderous task One can only hope that this tome does not turn out to be a tomb.

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.

Henry Tapscott in Indiana

I just got through posting the following on Ancestry.com, but I may reach other people through this blog.

Following the death of his father, William the Preacher, in March 1837, Henry Tapscott head north from Green County, Kentucky, traveling through Indiana and ending up in Clark County Illinois in 1840. During this three-year trip, Henry and his wife, Susan Bass, had two children, Sarah Ann Tapscott and Frances Ann Tapscott, both born in Indiana. (Before making the trip Henry and Susan had six other children born in Kentucky and after the trip, four additional born in Clark County Illinois.) In a few weeks I will be making the same trip to research a book on Henry and his descendants, but I face a serious problem. So far I have been unable to determine what Indiana counties Henry passed through or in which Indiana counties his children Sarah and Frances were born. It is sometimes claimed that they were born in Allen County Indiana, but not only is there no reliable evidence for this, Allen County does not lie on any reasonable route between Green County Kentucky and Clark County Illinois. Does anybody out there have any evidence of where Henry was in Indiana?

Books

As I announced in my last blog, Henry the Immigrant, The First Tapscotts of Virginia, 2^nd edition is finished and I fully expect to have it printed before Christmas. I will keep you posted. It will be hardbound, lots of pictures, close to 500 pages with 121 in color. The book contains a list of the first six generations originating from Ann Edney covering both Tapscotts and Georges with spouses (a little over 1200 people total), an index, and 2512 endnotes. Unfortunately, I suspect the production cost will be substantial, about $45 per book. I am printing enough to distribute free to my close relatives and as gifts for a few people who helped a lot. There will be sufficient to sell at cost to those wanting copies.

I am now working on a book about the descendants of Henry Tapscott, son of William the Preacher. Henry, who claimed to have been born in Virginia, lived in North Carolina, then Kentucky, then Indiana, and finally ended up in Clark County Illinois. Henry Tapscott of Kentucky and his wife, Susan Bass, had a large number of descendants (I am one of them), most of the early ones living in the Wabash Valley—Marshall, Illinois, Terre Haute, Indiana, etc. Right now I count 565 direct descendants and 321 known spouses, but the number will greatly increase. I am tentatively titling the book The Tapscotts of the Wabash Valley.

Because the book about the Wabash Valley Tapscotts will come down to the present time, many descendants are living (a problem I did not face with Henry the Immigrant, but did face with a book I wrote on my wife’s family, Bier und Brot, the Wehners of Southeast Missouri). Because some people are concerned about confidentiality, I usually mention living people giving only their names but omitting birth dates, marriage dates, locations, occupations, etc. However, I make an exception for people who specifically approve inclusion of their specifics. If you are a descendant of Henry the Traveler and would like the “detailed” story of your family to be included, please give me information on your history, particularly your recent history, which is often difficult to uncover. I want to warn you, however, that I may reduce the amount of material submitted to keep the book to a reasonable size, and I will edit and rewrite as needed. Also, if you have photographs, etc. please let me know. My profile on this site contains a way to contact me.

DNA match

Tracing the descendants of Henry of Caswell has led to a problem. There are primary and good secondary sources showing that William Tapscott, who fought in the Revolutionary War and who went to Kentucky was a son of Henry of Caswell. However, no good sources show who William's children are. It is assumed that Tapscotts who settled near William (Henry, William Stewart, George Rice, Richard, and Winifred) were his children, but there are no good sources naming these people. (From then on, things once more get easier.) Today, I obtained some good, though not great, evidence that at the very least Henry Tapscott (of Kentucky) and William Stewart Tapscott were brothers. An Ancestry.com DNA shows that a GGG Granddaughter of William Stewart Tapscott and I, a GG Grandson of Henry of Kentucky, have a 95 percent chance of being 4th to 6th cousins. Her genealogy and mine shows a relationship of 4th cousins, once removed. Now if I could only get past William, to Henry of Caswell for a dna match I would have evidence of William's children, not just that two Tapscotts believed to be his children are probably brothers. I have sent an email to William Stewart Tapscott's descendant with the DNA match.