Uncle Dickie

Rev. Richard Wright

Rev. Richard Wright, c1865
(courtesy of Patrick Joseph Shade)

We have spoken of Rev. Richard Wright, father of Isaiah Grant Wright, believed to have been the biological father of Grant Frederick Tapscott [posting of 5 Dec 2015]. It turns out that Richard, often referred to as "Uncle Dickie," was also the grandfather of Edna Earl Wright, wife of John Wesley Tapscott, a grandson of Henry the Traveler.

Thus, Uncle Dickie will remain a subject for discussion in this Tapscott Family blog. But more and more information about Rev. Wright is emerging, and he needs a space of of his own. A new series of postings on the "Wrights of the Wabash Valley" will soon appear in a separate blog.

Isaiah Grant Wright

State Street divides Bristol between

Tennessee and Virginia (Ancestry.com).

We have talked a lot about Grant Tapscott [13 Jan 2016, 20 Dec 2015, 4 Dec 2015], but what became of Isaiah Grant Wright, Grant Tapscott’s possible father? According to Isaiah’s son, Ernest, Isaiah left Clark County around the time of Grant Tapscott’s birth, ending up in Bristol, a city split between Virginia and Tennessee, where he first worked as a teamster and then foreman at Dixie Tannery, and in later years as a laborer, plasterer, and lather.

Dixie Tannery, Bristol, Tennessee (TNGenWeb Project).

Did Isaiah leave home to avoid conflicts over Grant Tapscott’s illegitimate birth? Perhaps. Did he pick Bristol because of relatives there? We don’t know. But in Bristol he presumably met and certainly married (on 14 Mar 1894) Minerva Jane Dickerson, daughter of Craig (possibly “Craig Robert Campbell”) and Margaret (Massey) Dickerson.

Grant and Minerva went on to have thirteen children, the first of which, Joseph Bachman, was born 14 Sep 1893, several months before the marriage. Isaiah may have again(?) been sowing wild oats. The family may have done poorly on Grant’s income. On 30 Dec 1924, after living all his married life in Bristol (except for a brief return to Clark County, Illinois, between approximately 1904 and 1907), Grant died at age 61 of pellagra, typically a vitamin deficiency disease of the poor. He was interred under a crude marker in East Hill Cemetery, Bristol. Minerva died in Bristol several years later, on 3 Dec 1941, and was also buried in East Hill.

Grant Frederick Tapscott

Our previous post (30 Nov 2015) told of Joseph and Mary Emma (Sanders) Tapscott, but the story was incomplete (as all stories must be). When Mary Emma married Joseph, she already had a son and therein lies a most interesting tale.

Grant Frederick Tapscott (collection of Patricia Phillips).

On 3 Oct 1884 in Clark County’s Anderson Twp, Mary Emma gave birth to a child, Grant Frederick, who took the last name “Tapscott” when his mother married Joseph Tapscott, three years later. No original birth record has been found for Grant Tapscott; however, in 1949, decades after his birth and years after the deaths of his claimed parents, he obtained a delayed record of birth, giving Joseph as his father. The birth date of 3 Oct 1884 on that record is a little suspicious considering that Joseph and Mary Emma were married 3 Oct 1887. Could it be that Grant did not know his actual birth date and picked 3 Oct because it was a familiar date? Perhaps, though 3 Oct 1887 date does agree with census data.

Who then was Grant Tapscott’s biological father? One of Grant’s children stated that her “Aunt Edith” [Edith Mae (Tapscott) Bruner] told her that her father's real father was a Wright. And a grandchild relates that "...my mom always told me that Grant Wright's father would not let him marry Mary Emma Sanders. I believe she said that the Wright family was more well to do than the Sanders family and Grant Wright also felt he was too young to marry.” Were this the only evidence for Grant Tapscott’s actual father, conclusions would be questionable. One document, however, the record of Grant Tapscott’s 1905 marriage to Lena Clouse, gives his father’s name as “Grant Wright.” Given this document and the family tales, it is likely that Grant Tapscott’s biological father was a person named “Grant Wright.”

Part of Grant Tapscott and Lena Clouse marriage record.

And who was Grant Wright? Only one person by that name is found in Clark County, Illinois, at the time in question—Isaiah Grant Wright (who went only by “Grant” in his youth), son of Richard and Joanna (also “Joan,” “Joann, “Johanna”) Wright. Richard, a prominent Methodist Protestant clergyman and part-time farmer, resided just southeast of the town of Auburn (Clark Center) and two or three miles northwest of the Anderson Twp farm of Mary Emma’s family. Born in 1863 or 1864, Grant Wright was just three or four years older than Mary Emma.

Was Isaiah Grant Wright the biological father of Grant Frederick Tapscott? Probably. The name is right, the location is right, and the ages are right. And the Wrights were probably financially better off than the Sanders, who had only a 40-acre farm for support. Richard had both a 40-acre farm and a cleric's income. And as first president of the South Illinois Methodist Protestant Conference, Rev. Wright certainly had status. Finally, recent autosomal DNA testing by a great grandchild of Grant Frederick Tapscott shows matches with at least six descendants of Richard Wright, father of Isaiah Grant Wright.

This tale is of particular interest to me, since I am descended from both Wrights and Tapscotts. Joseph Tapscott was a brother of my grandfather, John Wesley Tapscott. Isaiah Grant Wright was a brother of my great grandfather, James F. Wright. If our conclusion is correct about the parentage of Grant Tapscott, his male line descendants (and there are several living) could show an autosomal DNA match to me, but not a yDNA match. Is there anybody else out there interested? - Robert E. ("Bob") Tapscott