Wabash Valley Tapscotts - Nancy Ellen Easterday Clouse

While researching Wlliam Siverly, husband of Nancy Tapscott, a Wabash Valley Tapscott, I encountered his nephew John B. Siverly. And with John, came a mystery.

We know a lot about John B., though we have no documented proof that his middle name was “Benjamin,” as claimed by some. John B. Siverly was born 14 Oct 1860 in Anderson Twp, Clark County, to Jacob and Elizabeth (Fuller) Siverly. On 16 Jun 1889, John and Lucinda H. McKenzie were married. But the married rapidly disintegrated, lasting only long enough to produce a son, Robert Franklin Siverly, born 25 Mar 1890. Lucinda (“Cindy”), who never remarried and went back to the name “McKenzie,” died on 5 Dec 1919. Robert died just months later, on 17 Jun 1920 at age 30, leaving a wife and four children. But enough about Lucinda and Robert, who play, at best, minor roles in our mystery.

On 29 Oct 1895 in Clark County, John B., now presumably divorced from Lucinda, married Nancy Ellen Clouse. The couple had four sons—George Franklin, Clarence Douglas, Ernest, and Harold Leslie. Then on 9 Jul 1909, after less than fifteen years of marriage and three days after giving birth to Herman, Nancy died. The two older boys stayed with John; the two younger boys were farmed out to Siverly relatives.

And who was the now expired Nancy Ellen (Clouse) Siverly? Though she appears to have been born in Mar 1880, she is not found in the 1880 census, which has an official date of 1 Jun. But her birth date may be a little off or she may have been omitted because she was just weeks old, perhaps with a questionable survivability. Unfortunately, for all practical purposes, there are no 1890 census records. Thus, we first see Nancy in a census in 1900, only after she had married John Siverly.

At first it seems likely that Nancy was a daughter of Moses and Pina Ann (Plunkett) Clouse. Pina’s obituary states that she had nine children, five girls and four boys. But we find only eight children named in censuses, and only four girls. A daughter is missing. And the number of living children claimed by Pina decreased by one between the 1900 and 1910 census, before and after the death of Nancy Ellen Siverly. Thus, everything fits together.

Or does it? When Nancy’s son Clarence applied for a marriage license in 1926, he gave the “Full Christian and maiden name” of his mother as “Nancy Easterday.” And when son Ernest married, also in 1926, he gave his mother’s name as “Nancy Easterday.” And when Harold died in 2000, his obituary stated that he was born in Clark County to “John L. and Nancy Easterday Siverly.” Could Nancy have actually been an Easterday with “Clouse” her name from a previous marriage? The answer is almost certainly no. Her death record show that "Clouse" was her maiden name. Moreover, born in 1880, Nancy was only fifteen years old when she married John. There was insufficient time for an earlier marriage.

So, who was Nancy Ellen Easterday Clouse?

The Moses Clouse Family

The 5 Dec 2015 post talks of Grant Frederick Tapscott, who was probably a Tapscott in name only.

On 28 Jan 1905, Grant married Lena C. Clouse at Grace Church in Marshall. Lena was a child of Moses Clouse Sr. and his third wife Pina Ann Plunkett. It was a penurious upbringing in a penurious family. Moses and Pina Ann were “dirt poor,” and their children at times, unschooled.

Born in Coshocton County, Ohio, 16 Nov 1837, Moses married Susan Siverly on 15 Jan 1857 in Clark County, Illinois. The couple had seven children—Emanuel, Mary, Jacob, William, Frederick, Margaret Ann, and Moses Jr. And then sometime around 1873, Susan died, probably from the strain of bearing seven children in sixteen or so years.

Moses married a second time, to Ann (also “Anna”) Dulaney in Clark County on 1 Oct 1875. It is not unlikely that Ann’s maiden name was “Pittzenbarger” and “Dulaney,” her married name. In the 1870 census, before her marriage to Moses, she was living with a 66-year-old woman, Mary Pittzenbargr” (her mother?), and two children, James and Emma Dulaney (her children?).

The second marriage was short-lived. By 1880, Moses was living with companion number three, Pina (sometimes “Piny” or “Piney”) Ann Plunkett., We say “companion” because no official record of a marriage has been found and the years married provided in censuses give calculated marriage dates of 1881 – 1882 and 1894 – 1895. We know little of Pina’s origins. Official records show Indiana to be her birthplace and David Plunkett to be her father, but she appears in no record prior to her marriage to Moses. Census data correspond to birth years of 1841-1842 and 1850. Her cemetery marker gives 1855; her obituary, 4 May 1855; and her death certificate, 4 May 1846. Censuses show Pina to be illiterate, which probably accounts for the scattered dates for both her birth and marriage.

Moses and Pina Ann had nine children of which the names of eight are known—John, Cynthia, George, Charles, Belle (also “Bell”), Lena, Roy, and Bertha. Some say that the ninth, a girl, was named "Lizzie"; however, this is probably due to confusion with Lizzie the wife of Charles Clouse, who appears with Moses and Pina in the 1910 census.

Most of the time Moses worked as a farm laborer in and around Marshall, Illinois, though, for a while, the family lived in Sullivan County, Indiana. A farmhand's income was insufficient for a total of sixteen children (not all present at the same time, of course) plus, occasionally, some Dulaney descendants of his second wife. Times were desperate. In 1913 Pina, claiming blindness, asked for a pension from the Clark County Board of Supervisors. The request was rejected. In 1918 the Board did, however, pay $5 to H. Prust (Harry Prust, the local undertaker) for “taking Moses Clouse & wife to poor farm.” There, the couple lived, and died, Moses on 15 Apr 1924 and Pina on 2 Feb 1927.

Moses, Pina, and first wife, Susan, are buried in Shotts (also known as Siverly and Shad) Cemetery, just off Fox Road in Anderson Township. The rustic cemetery markers may have been erected at public expense.