An Uncertain Life, Part 1

I am still working on the Clark County, Illinois, Tapscotts, having just finished the life of Henry and Susan (Bass) Tapscott’s oldest child, William. We know a lot about William, his wife Mary Angeline Wallace, and his 960 known descendants (with 674 known spouses). We cannot say the same about his brother John.

The life of Henry and Susan’s second son, John Tapscott, is largely uncertain. We know almost nothing about his wife, who appears from nowhere and then disappears. He had no children, who could have served as a source of information. Extant Clark County Newspapers are almost nonexistent for the latter half of 1870, when John is believed to have died. Death records were not mandated in Illinois until 1877. And his grave marker is so worn that transcriptions are suspect.

John’s badly eroded marker (2014).

Census data indicate that John was born between 1827 and 1829 in, as expected, Kentucky, presumably, Green County. Since John’s Auburn Cemetery grave marker gives his age and date of death, one should be able to calculate a birth date. But two transcriptions of the badly eroded stone, one by your author, give death dates that cannot be correct, 23 May 1850 and 28 Aug 1850. Since probate records show that letters of administration were issued to John’s brother William on 2 Sep 1870, and since John appears in the 1870 Anderson Twp census, the year is certainly 1870 rather than 1850 and August is the more likely month. Accordingly, John’s death date is hesitantly taken as 28 Aug 1870. His age at death is also uncertain. Two grave marker transcriptions give slightly different ages — 41y 2m 14d and 41y 2m 12d, but the major problem is that the number of years, though agreeing in the two transcriptions, is suspect. The latter age allows calculation of a birth date of 16 Jun 1829, in reasonable accordance with ranges calculated from census data, but still questionable.

John took up farming with much of his eventual 160 acres of Anderson Twp land originally belonging to his father. On 15 Apr 1858 in Clark County he married Elizabeth E. Canady, whose middle initial is found only in John’s probate records.

Elizabeth is even more obscure. Born between 1829 and 1832 in Ohio, her parentage is unknown. A number of Canady families lived in 19-century Clark County, but none appear to fit the bill. In 1850 an Elizabeth “Canaday” born in Ohio was living in Darwin Twp. Right location and date to meet John Tapscott and right birthplace, but with a clearly written age of 6 on the census, she cannot be our Elizabeth, unless, of course, the census enumerator made an error. Unfortunately the Canadays disappear from Clark County.

As we have already seen, John died 28 Aug 1870 (or so) at the very young age of 41 (or so) and was interred in Auburn Cemetery. But neither the story nor the mysteries end there, as we will see in a future post.

Dolores Hope (Tingley) Berbaum

Four generations of Wabash Valley Tapscotts
Edna Earl (Wright )Tapscott, Nellie (Tapscott) Tingley,
Jerry Berbaum, Dolores Hope (Tingley) Berbaum, July 1943.

Dolores Hope (Tingley) Berbaum, who passed away 22 Nov 2016 in Urbana, Illinois (obituary), was my cousin and the source of much Tapscott information for my still unfinished book “The Wabash Valley Tapscotts.” She gave me her copy of The Merry Cricket, which describes the lives of the relatives and neighbors of the Tapscotts who inhabited Martinsville, Auburn, and Anderson townships in Clark County, Illinois, at the turn of the last century (blog of 29 Sep 2015) and provided for copying several photos of Tapscotts and their relatives (e.g., blog of 9 Aug 2016). Dolores and her son Jerry also allowed the recording of an extensive oral history of the Clark County Tapscotts. And she authored a detailed “John Wesley Tapscott Family” tree for June Tapscott Leathers, who passed it on to me. Besides, Dolores was a friend who will be greatly missed.

Dolores was the daughter of Nellie Pearl Tapscott and Walter Albert Tingley, the granddaughter of John Wesley Tapscott and Edna Earl Wright, the great granddaughter of William Tapscott and Mary Angeline Wallace, and the great great granddaughter of Henry (“The Traveler’) Tapscott and Susan Bass who founded the Wabash Valley Tapscotts.

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.

Sons of William and Mary (Wallace) Tapscott. L to R James
William, John, Millard, Joseph. (Courtesy of Sharon Poteet)

Millard F. Tapscott, “Tinker,” the youngest of the sons of William and Mary Angeline (Wallace) Tapscott, of Clark County, Illinois, appears in a most interesting story of probate and litigation.

Born 4 May 1867 in Clark County (two years after the end of the Civil War), Millard spent most of his life as a bachelor farmer. After living for many years with his parents, William and Mary, he was suddenly on his own when his mother died in 1904 and his father moved in with Millard’s sister Emma and her husband William Mallory. Millard stayed on the family farm, apparently inheriting the land, at least eventually, though no probate proceedings are found, and living in his parents’ partially log-constructed house.

Millard was forty-seven years old when he finally married, on 19 Sep 1914 in Vigo County, Indiana, but it was a marriage that was far less than successful. His wife, Samantha, was the daughter of Thomas McNary, an Auburn blacksmith, and Reba (Cox) McNary. And she was the widow of William Henry Johnson, whom she had married 27 Oct 1889, and who had died 3 Feb 1913 of pneumonia after fathering four children, two of whom died young.

Millard and Samantha did not hit it off well. It has been claimed that the two had divorced, but no records show that an official divorce took place. However, around 1920, the couple separated and Samantha “released her rights to the property by contract in writing.” The contract came back to haunt her when Millard died on 17 Nov 1926 at the home of his niece, Alma Thompson, daughter of his sister Emma (Tapscott) Mallory.

Samantha petitioned the court stating that “as the surviving widow of Millard F. Tapscott, she is entitled to her Widow's Award in said Estate.” She stated that “on or about the 11” day of October A.D. 1920 she and the said Millard F. Tapscott signed an agreement, the purport of which agreement your Petitioner did not at that time understand, and that at that time Petitioner did not know her rights pertaining to the property of Millard F. Tapscott, and did not know what a widow's award meant, and did not understand the agreement and should not be held bound by said agreement because of the fraud which said agreement perpetrated against your Petitioner because of petitioners misunderstanding and lack of knowledge as to her rights.” Samantha claimed that “for many months prior to Millard's death, he and her had “resumed the marriage relation, and were living as man and wife, having repudiated aforsaid [sic] contract, and resumed the status of husband and wife.”

Find a Grave.

A child of Samantha from her first marriage, Violet Johnson, filed a claim for $500 against the estate “For care, washing for, ironing , sewing, getting up wood, cooking, keeping house and attention for three years at different intervals” and for $1000 for “Services as per contract.” Just what the “Services” were is not stated. The claim appears particularly unusual since Violet was unmarried and as Millard's stepchild, she was (more or less) a family member. One might expect that she would help out around the house, where she was presumably living, for no charge. Millard's brother and sisters, the estate heirs, got together and settled with both Samantha and her daughter for all their claims for $1000.

R. E. Tapscott, 6 Oct 2014.

Following her death, Samantha was buried with her first husband in Auburn Cemetery. The stone reads “Samantha His Wife.” Millard, who left no descendants, rests alone.

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?

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.