Wabash Valley Tapscotts - Frank and Harry Tapscott

 A recent blog concluded that Sam and Susie Tapscott had four children, three girls (Viola, Julia, and Stella) and a boy (Austin). But then ended with

 We May Be Wrong!

 What brings on this declaration?

On Mon 30 Dec 1946 a news article on a court case in Decatur, Illinois, was published in The Decatur Daily Review newspaper. Lola Flint of Paris  and Stella McLain of Terre Haute (.Samuel and Susie’s daughters Viola and Stella) had asked the court to declare their brothers, Frank and Harry, former Decatur residents who had been missing for more than fifty years, legally dead. Who in the world are, or were, Frank and Harry? And what sort of estate would they have inherited? They have not been identified in any document other than the Decatur newspaper. That they had not been seen for more than fifty years implies a birth year prior to 1896. One possibility is that one of them was Austin, who may have had a middle name Harry or Frank (or vice versa). Another possibility is that they were illegitimate children of Samuel, or even of Susie. Or, or course, they could have just been two additional children born to Susie and Sam in the 1880s or 1890s.

 What do you think?

 

Wabash Valley Tapscotts - A Photo

The last blog showed a photo of Samuel with his son and three daughters sent me by cousin Cheryl. The photograph is a little blurred with age making it difficult to estimate children’s ages, and thus the photo date. I decided to try to “improve” the photo by, in turn, enhancing, sharpening, colorizing it. The first and last were done using features available on the My Heritage website. I sharpened it using Microsoft editing. And then I combined all of these variations.

From the photo “improved” with everything, my wife and I think that the boy, presumably Austin, was aged 9 or 10 and the youngest girl, Stella, at the far right, 12 or 13. This means that the photo was taken around 1890 or 1891. The photo also shows that the seated girl has a somewhat rounded face, in contrast to the taller girl standing behind her. Other photos show Viola to have a rounded face, indicating that the seated girl is Viola. And Viola would be expected to be seated owing to the injury to leg caused by Samuel. What do you think?

Original

Enhanced

Sharpened

Colorized

Everything

Wabash Valley Tapscotts - Sam and Susie’s Kids

The preceding blog stated that unknowns surround Susie Bell (Tingley) Tapscott Sturdevant, but more mysteries may surround her children.

First, we don’t know with certainty how many children Susie and Samuel had. The 1880 census shows three, “Lully,” “Maria,” and “Susan,” All born in the 1870s. But no Samuel Tapscott family unit appears in a census after that date.

 “Lully’ it turns out was Viola Jane, “Lully” apparently being a nickname (or a mistake by the census enumerator). She was also known as “Lola.” We are quite familiar with Viola’s life. She was born 23 Aug 1875 (apparently out of wedlock), married 1 May 1898, and died 19 Apr 1973.

“Maria” was Julia Maria, who was born in 1876 or 1877 and was probably the “infant child, as yet unborn” that resulted in Susie’s marriage to Samuel on 8 Jul 1876. Julia committed suicide in 1898 by jumping in front of a train. All about that in my book.

The third child in the census is Susan, age 1 (born between 2 Jun 1878 and 1 Jun 1879). An 1879 issue of the Clark County Herald announced “BORN. TAPSCOTT-In Marshall, May 31, to Samuel and Susie Tapscott-a daughter” and a birth record at the Clark County Courthouse records the birth of a girl named only “Tapscott” to Samuel and Susan Tingley Tapscott. We have always assumed those records were for Susan who appears in the 1880 census. And they are. But then we have a problem. According to her death certificate, Estella Tapscott, who went almost solely by “Stella,” was born to Sam and Susie on 23 May 1879, a date that appears on Stella’s grave marker and fits the age on her  marriage record. But we cannot have two children born eight days apart. Moreover if Stella had been born 23 May 1879 she should appear in the 1880 census with her family. Even if her date of birth was May 1880, as appears in the 1900 census, she should still show up in the 1880 census, which has an official date of Jun 1. And, as we will see, the birth record for her brother Austin states that he is child number 4, not number 5 which would be the case if he had both a sister Susan and a sister Stella. The evidence allows one to conclude that Stella does appear in the 1880 census, but as “Susan.” It is likely that the daughter we know as “Stella’ was really “Susan Estella” or “Estella Susan” and was really born 31 May 1878 as given in the more reliable birth record, not 23 May 1879, a date probably promulgated by human error. (Birth dates on death certificates and grave markers are often questionable.)

Finally, there is Austin T. Tapscott, found in only a single record, a reliable birth record at the Clark Co, Illinois courthouse. The record gives the date of birth as 23 Sep 1881 and states that he is fourth child born to “Sarah Tabscot nee Tingley” and “Samuel Tapscot.” No other record of Austin has been found and it is likely that he died young.

An 1884 article in a Terre Haute newspaper states that during a dispute between Samuel and his wife, she had absconded with two children leaving Sam with two others. Four total. And a photograph, from cousin Cheryl, taken around 1890 or 1891 (my estimation) shows Samuel with four children, three girls and a boy. It all seems to fit together. Samuel and Susie Bell had four children: Viola Jane, Julia Maria, Estella Susan (“Stella”), and Austin T. But, as you will soon see,

We May Be Wrong!

Samuel, Julia, Viola, Austin, Stella, c1890-1891, thanks to Cheryl Naegel.

Wabash Valley Tapscotts - The Mysteries of Susie

I hate to give up when it comes to tracing Susie Bell Tingley and her children  (see blog 22 Jan 2018). But I may have to. Susan (“Susie”) Bell (likely “Corabelle” or “Corabell”) married the last-born of Henry and Susan (Bass) Tapscott’s children—the scoundrel Samuel. Once I finish with Samuel Tapscott and his descendants, the book “Henry’s Children, the Tapscotts of the Wabash Valley” will be complete. (Except for a month or two of editing and indexing.) But, I’m afraid I may have to write Samuel and Susie’s section with some rather large gaps. Let’s start with Susie.

Susie Bell (thanks to Cheryl Naegel)

The biggest problem with Susan (Tingley) Tapscott is that she disappears for over thirty years. Except for a postcard that my distant cousin Cheryl Naegel (a cornucopia of information) sent me, no document is found with her name between 1894, when “Bell Fingley” (transcription error) gave permission for her daughter Estella Tapscott to marry, and Susie's death on 3 Dec 1930 at her daughter’s home in Burnett, Vigo Co, Indiana. She cannot be found in the 1900, 1910, 1920, or 1930 censuses, or anywhere else for that matter.

We do know, from the postcard and death certificate, that she married someone by the name of “Sturdevant” (presumably following Samuel’s death on 15 Jun 1903). But, unfortunately, we don’t know her spouse’s first name. All attempts to find the correct Susan (or Susie) Sturdevant in other records have failed.

We also know, from the postcard, that she was living in Decatur, Illinois in 1927. What is interesting is that in 1920, living in Danville, was a Susan Sturdevant born in 1855 (our Susie’s birth year) married to an Andrew Sturdevant. Wrong Susan as it turns out.

 HELP

Can anybody tell me anything about Susie's missing years?

The next blog will look at Susie’s children, some even more mysterious than their mother.

Wabash Valley Tapscotts - Susie Bell Tingley

Three past posts (6/25/2015, 9/13/2015, 9/14/2015) have discussed that infamous Clark County, Illinois, scallywag, Samuel Tapscott. We know of Samuel's demise, on 15 Jun 1903, of “concussion of brain” under mysterious circumstances. But what happened to his wife, Susan? We still don’t know everything, but we know more than we once did.

Susan Tingley was born in Indiana to John Hacket and Hannah (Wallen) Tingley. The family of ten (or more) children settled and farmed in Anderson Twp, Clark County, giving Susan and Samuel Tapscott ample opportunity to meet.

Susan’s middle initial is given as “C” in her 1876 marriage record and as “M” in a less reliable newspaper article. Since she was often called “Bell” or “Belle” or even “Susie Bell,” it is not at all unlikely that her middle name was “Corabelle.”

In 1879 a “Susan Tapscott” purchased land in Auburn Twp from James W. Tapscott (Samuel’s brother) for $600 and then in 1882 sold the same land back to him for $150. This was almost certainly Susan, wife of Samuel, though where she got $600 for the initial purchase and why she sold the identical land back at a loss is unknown. In 1880 Susan (Tingley) Tapscott, along with her siblings, inherited land from her father’s estate, land that today is part of Lincoln Trails State Park.

Susan had a hard life, at least once she met Samuel. Samuel was not only a threat to others, he was cruel to his family. According to family members, one daughter, Viola Jane, was crippled by Samuel, who swung her by her leg to the floor when he became angry while putting on her shoes. The leg had to be amputated and Viola lived out her life with an artificial leg.

Another daughter, probably Maria, died in 1898, when she threw herself in front of a train in Terre Haute. According to family tradition, she was pregnant and unmarried, but certainly her unhappy childhood contributed.

An 1884 Terre Haute newspaper article tells of Samuel’s viciousness:

MARSHALL, Ills, July 13. The wife of Samuel Tabscott, a brutal character living in Anderson township, came to town the latter part of the week with two of her children whom she said she had stolen away from her husband. He is in the habit of beating his wife and children with anything that comes to hand. The woman showed the strips made on the back of one of the children, a little girl. They looked like they had been made with a heavy strap. The woman said that the other two children were with their father but that she meant to get them also away from him as he maltreated them shamefully. He was arrested for the crime of wife beating several years ago. He is a rather dangerous character, and all the neighbors are afraid of him, hence will not do anything to prevent his brutality.

For a long time we did not know what happened to Susan. In 1895 Susan gave permission for her daughter Estelle (”Stella”) to marry in Edgar County, but on his 1903 death certificate, Samuel is listed as a widower. Though this seemed to indicate that Susan died between those two years, death certificates are untrustworthy. One would not be surprised to have found that Susan disappeared not owing to death, but because she changed her name and residence to escape a terrible life. And, indeed we were to find that Susan lived many years more, the subject of a future blog.

Clark County Tingleys

In response to a couple of people who have contacted me recently about Tapscott connections to Tingleys, I have written the following.

A large number of Tingleys have inhabited Clark County and many still do. There are 113 known to be interred in the county, among which are 17 in Mt. Pleasant Cemetery and 41 in Marshall Cemetery. The 1940 census lists 73 Clark County people with the surname “Tingley” (only 19 Tapscotts). And my genealogy database includes 156 Tingleys, almost all from Clark County and all of whom are related or, at least, connected to me. But I know of only two instances, worldwide, of a person with the surname "Tapscott" marrying a person named "Tingley," both of which occurred in Clark County. (There is a third case if one allows the use of the last name “Tingley” for Nettie Sarah Walls/Tingley/Sweitzer, who married Carl Herman Tapscott, blog of 18 Aug 2015). Most Tingleys in my database are connected to me by marriages to relatives who do not bear the surname “Tapscott,” though they may be Tapscott descendants, and to in-laws or in-laws of in-laws.

In the most recent instance of a Tapscott marrying a Tingley, my aunt Nellie Pearl Tapscott married Walter Albert Tingley on 23 Feb 1919 in Marshall, Illinois, and had two children, my cousins. Walter was the son of James William and Christina Aldora (Taylor) Tingley and the great grandson of Samuel Tingley Sr., one of the first Tingleys in Clark County. I remember visiting my Tingley aunt, uncle, and cousins on their farm near Sidell in Vermilion County, Illinois, a little less than an hour’s drive or so north of Marshall. In every way the farm and the family was American picturesque.

The other, much earlier, Tapscott/Tingley marriage was by no means picturesque. Five years after his trial for murdering a man (blog 25 Jun 2015), my great great uncle Samuel Tapscott was forced to marry Susan Tingley, who was pregnant with his child. From the 12 Jul 1876 Clark County Herald:

Susan M. Tingley appeared before Squire Martin, one day last week, and swore to the fact of Samuel Tapscott being the father of her infant child, as yet unborn. The squire issued a warrant for Samuel to appear before him, and show cause why things were thusly. It was put into the hands of Constable Frank Jenney, who found the soon-to-be-daddy, at Ben Ohm's and brought him in. The young lady confronted him, and he thought better to marry her than to go into trial. A license was procured. Beuse [sic] performed the ceremony, and pair left happy.

The third Clark County Courthouse in
Marshall (1837-1889) was the site for both

 marriage and arraignments for Samuel.

Whether or not they really "left happy," the couple went on to have several children. Marriage did not reform Samuel who went from murder to horse stealing, robbery, malicious mischief, and assault (blog 13 Sep 2015). His final incarceration in the Chester, Illinois, penitentiary may have proved too much for Susan, for she is not found in the 1900 census or any later documents. Did she adopt a new identity? take a new husband? go into hiding? At the time this was first written, we did not know. But we were to find out.

All geneological 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's Saga, Continued

On 25 Jun 2015, I blogged the story of my great great uncle Samuel Tapscott’s first, and as far as we know most serious, misadventure - his murder of Alexander Thompson in 1871. But his crimes did not stop there.

On Wednesday, 7 Nov 1877, the following article appeared in the Edwardsville Intelligencer.

Samuel Tapscott some ten days ago knocked down and robbed a man named Munday at Marshall. On the evening of the 28th, Tapscott was found by Sheriff Flood and City Marshall Nolan in the woods near that place, but attempted to escape by running. The officers immediately fired upon him, two shots taking effect, one in the head and another in the shoulder. At last accounts he was dying.

Four days earlier, the Terre Haute Saturday Evening Mail had gone so far as to state that Samuel had been "fatally shot" by Flood. A longer article appeared in the 31 Oct 1877 edition of the Clark County Herald:

On Sunday last [28 Oct], Sheriff Flood, Flem Neal, and John Mundy attempted to arrest Sam. Tapscott, near Auburn, for robbing the latter named person on the streets, a few weeks ago, but Sam, not liking the looks of things, broke and ran. The officers after called on him to halt, commended firing on him, two balls taking effect before he was brought down. One shot took effect near the left ear, and the other struck him while in a stooping attitude entering just before the shoulder blade, and lodging above the right nipple. All three of the parties in pursuit fired at him, and all having the same king of revolver it is not known which one inflicted the wounds. Tapscott is now lying at his own house, the chances being that he will never leave it alive. Whether or not the officers were justifiable in using such measures to capture their prisoner, we do not at this time pretend to say, but the facts will undoubtedly develop in a few days. The amount he was charged with stealing was $0.25. Later.-We learn from parties who were present that the officers were perfectly justified in taking the steps they did. Tapscott, had made threats against Sheriff Flood, sweating that he would never be taken, &c. He was halted a half dozen times before a shot was fired, and, even after he was hit the first time in the side of his head and knocked down, he jumped to his feet and again started, and was again halted several times, but he took to the brush, and the course the officers adopted was the only one to secure him. Tapscott is reported to be a very dangerous man. He was arrested in Terre Haute some time ago for killing a man, named Thompson, with a spade, and was once arrested for horse stealing in this county. The night he robbed Mundy, he knocked him down and rifled his pockets. Tapscott was still living at noon yesterday.

John Mundy was the brother-in-law of James Byron Tapscott, Samuel's nephew.

Samuel was confined at Southern Illinois Penitentiary,
now Menard Correction Center), Chester, Illinois (2010).

Samuel survived and in Apr 1878 was tried and acquitted. He lived another quarter century, providing him time to rack up new violations. In an 1881 court in Marshall he was charged with malicious mischief (quashed), assault (guilty plea for a $10 fine plus costs), and an unstated charge that included one Jacob Hill, costing the two defendants a total of $41.65 plus costs. From 28 Mar 1898 to 4 Sep 1900 he was incarcerated for burglary at the Southern Illinois Penitentiary in Randolph County, Illinois.

Registry of prisoners incarcerated at Southern Illinois Penitentiary, Vol. 1, p. 165 ( State of Illinois Digital Archives).

Samuel died under mysterious circumstances. On 15 Jun 1903, he was found near death in a barn belonging to the husband of his niece Lydia (Siverly) Moore. He died shortly afterwards of "concussion of brain" and was buried the next day in an unmarked grave in Auburn Cemetery. The following story was contained in the Herald:

Sam Tapscott died at the home of Aden Moore in Clark Center Sunday evening. He had been to Marshall on Saturday and went to Mr. Moore's that night. The next day just after dinner he started to go to see his daughter Mrs. [unclear], but only got as far as the barn, where he fell and was not discovered till several hours later. He found he was able to arise but could not talk. He died that evening at 7 o'clock.

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.

Notorious

Less than reputable people lend spice to histories. A while back we heard about the dissolute Samuel Tapscott, son of Henry of Kentucky and a chief protagonist in The Tapscotts of the Wabash Valley. Here is the story of Samuel’s grandnephew Omer Frank Tapscott, who is also appearing in the book.

77-year-old Omer walks up the Coles County
courthouse steps for a preliminary hearing on
a murder charge (Decatur Herald, Decatur,
Illinois, Fri 24 Apr 1959, p. 4.)

Omer, son of James Byron and Sabra Ellen (Mundy) Tapscott and great grandson of Henry of Kentucky, worked for many years as a brakeman for the Illinois Central Railroad and for a while as a pipeline laborer in Marshall, Illinois. But only briefly married (another story) and living with his parents most of his life, financial security eluded him. In 1939, at the age of 56 and the sole support of his widowed mother, he worked only ten weeks and earned but $200.

Either his failure brought him to a wayward life or his wayward life led to failure, but in either case he suffered from numerous brushes with the law. In June, 1915, he was arrested in Decatur, Illinois, for selling bootleg whiskey in nearby Arthur, Illinois. The arresting official was none other than Arthur’s Mayor. Omer was fined $100 (a huge sum in those days) and sentenced to 40 days in the county jail. In January, 1919, Omer was one of fourteen arrested in a gambling raid in Champaign, Illinois. Once again a mayor, Mayor Tucker of Champaign, was directly involved in the arrests.

Menard Penitentiary (now Menard Correction Center),

Chester, Illinois, Omer’s temporary residence (2010).

Omer's biggest scrape with the law occurred in Charleston, Illinois. There, Cooley’s Pool Hall at 505 Monroe Avenue, run by Purne A. Cooley, was a center for Coles County gambling and a magnet for Omer. In 20 April 1959, while playing poker in the back room of Cooley's, Omer became involved in a violent argument with one Buford Hill. Some say that Omer went home and returned with a pistol. Wherever it came from, Omer pulled the pistol from his coat pocket and shot Hill, who died the following day, just shy of age 51. In part because of Omer's age of 77, a Coles County jury failed to reach a verdict and the charge was reduced to manslaughter. Omer pleaded guilty to involuntary manslaughter and requested probation. His lawyer claimed that his client was acting only in self-defense and shot Hill because he feared for his life. The lawyer went on to say that “Any sentence, even if it be only one year, is a death sentence because age and poor health have numbered Tapscott's days.” The judge refused probation. On 14 Nov 1959 Omer was sentenced to four to ten years at Menard Penitentiary. He took his sentence well, stating “I’ll have over $3,000 saved up from my pension checks when I get released.”

Omer failed to learn from his lesson. Several years later, in 1965, at 4:30 pm on a Thursday, 9 December, Illinois State Police simultaneously raided three Coles County establishments suspected to front gambling activities—Knight's Buffet, White Owl Truck Stop, and Cooley's Pool Room. Thirty-four people were arrested. One was Omer, at age 83 still a frequenter of Cooley’s.

Omer passed away less than two years later on 6 April 1967. Today, only a parking lot is found where Cooley's Pool Room once stood. Omer rests alongside his mother in the city cemetery in Marshall, Illinois. Buford lies in Roselawn Cemetery in Charleston.

The death of Jacob Tapscott

In a previous blog I mentioned that I had been corresponding with Ben Ames, a descendant of Jacob Tapscott, my great great uncle, and Ben's great great grandfather.

"Jake" Tapscott lived for a while in or near Hutsonville, Crawford County Illinois, immediately south of Clark County. Another member of the community was Judge Steers, John W. Steers a wealthy farmer and an important man in the community. In 1868, the house of Judge Steers was robbed and evidence pointed to a disreputable group of relatives and hangers-on headed by Old Jim Lane. The "gang" was arrested but several posted bond and were released. The local community called on a group of regulators, some say a "posse," others "vigilantes," to rid the county of these suspected miscreants. On 8 Aug 1868 the "posse" walked into Jim Lane's house, where a gunfight ensued. Jacob Tapscott, a "posse" member, was hit by a bullet (some say fired by Old Jim Lane) and died instantly. He was only 32 (or so). His widow, Mary Lockard moved to nearby Terre Haute to find work to support her four children.

Young Jim Lane was also killed in the gunfight and his father, seriously wounded. The posse panicked realizing that they had no warrant and left with Jake Tapscott's body. For some time afterward Old Jim Lane, who recovered from his wounds, sought justice to avenge his son's death from what he considered to be mob action, but to no avail. Lawyers, worried about their standing in Crawford County, refused to take the case. A couple of years later, a lone horseman rode into Annapolis, a small settlement near the scene of the gunfight, dismounted, and walked among the few buildings. After a short time, Old Jim Lane (for that is who it was) remounted and rode away, never to be seen again. Although the Lane family had likely committed the robbery of Judge Steers, the action taken by the enforcers was unjustified and for Jacob Tapscott, it was disastrous.

Illinois was surprisingly rough back then. Jacob Tapscott had a brother Samuel, a scalawag and an accused murderer. But more on him later.