Wabash Valley Tapscotts - 1899

I’m still working on the descendants of Sarah Ann Tapscott, who married William M. Sanders. One of their children was Edward F. Sanders, who was born 22 Nov 1861, near Glenns Valley in Marion County, Indiana.

Edward’s story is intriguing, with most of the intrigues arising as a result of his first marriage, involving people other than Edward, and centered around the year 1899. It is said that Edward lived his entire life in Marion County, Indiana, where he was born. He did live most of his life there, but he lived a few years in rural Marshall, when his father moved there about 1877 after his mother, Sarah, had died. It was in Clark County that on 27 Dec 1887 he married Emma Lucy Tingley, the sister of Edward’s sister-in-law Alfaretta.

Emma and Edward’s marriage was short-lived. Around 23 Dec 1896 in Marshall, Emma was granted a divorce after Edward failed to appear for a hearing. He may have been back in Marion County, Indiana, where he would live most of the rest of his life.

And now we get to the intrigues.

On 8 Nov 1899 in Clark County, Emma married J. W. Smith. J. W. was Jacob Warren Smith, a local homeopathic physician.  The doctor went by “J. W.” professionally, “Jacob W.” in his early life, and “J. Warren” in later years, making family history research difficult.

The year 1899 ended with Dr. Smith marrying Emma (Tingley) Sanders, but it began with being shot four times, later being tried in Kentucky for murder, and then being divorced from his first wife. What a year! The story was told by the Clark County Herald.

On 1 Jan 1887 in Clark County Jacob W. had married Rosanna (Ulery) Soward, the widow of Michael Soward. At the time J. W. was not a doctor, so Rosanna used the money she received from her late husband to send Smith through medical school. But Rosanna’s son Guy was not happy about his heritance being spent and he became increasingly angry at his stepdad. Then on New Year’s Eve, 31 Dec 1898 things came to a head. At his home in Martinsville, where he had his office at the time, Dr. Smith encountered Guy and the new year started with a bang. Five bangs in fact, as Guy emptied his revolver at his stepfather. Dr. Smith was hit four times, in the hand, the arm, and twice in the back, but the injuries turned out to be minor.

Clark County Herald, 10 Aug 1899,

Guy was arrested. The Herald reported “Young Soward has been rather on the wild order for several years. It is related that he was very fond of riding his horse at breakneck speed when just outside the city limits, firing his revolver as he rode, cowboy fashion.” Eventually, Rosanna would also be indicted for attempted murder. The family situation forbad domesticity and Dr. Smith moved from Martinsville to Marshall, living at the Marshall House hotel and setting up his office first above Ferry's drug store and then over Beamer's grocery. Rosanna, threatened with a charge of attempted murder, developed a plan to turn the tables—transform the victim into an accused.

When Smith was a boy of sixteen, he had killed a seventeen-year-old boy, Henry Craig, in Bath County, Kentucky. Though there are differing tales about how it occurred and what happened afterwards, it appears that, under indictment for murder, Smith left Kentucky, going to Ohio, Kansas, Missouri, and his original home in Seymour, Indiana, before ending up in Martinsville, where he met and married a well-to-do widow who paid for his education, Rosanna. Unfortunately, Dr. Smith told his wife about what happened in Kentucky, providing Rosanna a way to distract her accusers. In August 1899 Rosanna traveled to Kentucky and told her story. But officials there were not eager to spend money traveling to Illinois to bring Smith back for trial. So Rosanna actually paid for their travel, twice since two trips were needed owing to a problem with the original warrant. On 9 Sept 1899, a warrant for Smith’s arrest was delivered to the Marshall sheriff, and Smith was conveyed to the city jail in Owingsville, Kentucky, the seat of Bath County.

In a nutshell, Smith was tried, beat the charges, and returned to Marshall, where both Roseanna and Guy had now been indicted for his attempted murder. On 7 Nov 1899, Guy Soward was allowed to enter a plea of guilty to the charge of assault and to that of carrying concealed weapons. He was fined $50 on the first charge and $25 on the second. It was at Dr. Smith's request that this leniency was shown. At the same court Dr. Smith was granted a divorce from Roseanna. Less than twenty-four hours later, he married Emma (Tingley) Sanders, apparently the woman with whom he had “conducted himself improperly” according to charges related by the Herald.

Wabash Valley Tapscotts - Susan Frances Sanders

No. I haven’t died. It’s just that my new book, Henry’s Children, The Tapscotts of the Wabash Valley, is becoming considerably longer and more complex than anticipated.

Six children of Henry Tapscott the Traveler (the child of William the Preacher) and their descendants—William, John, James Wesley, Thomas, Nancy, and Jacob—have been covered. Bringing us to child seven, Sarah Ann Tapscott, wife of William M. Sanders, and that is a problem. For Sarah Ann and William had eight children, many of whom had several children. And generally there is too much information about Sarah and William’s descendants, not too little—too much to read, record, and digest. But there are still two unknowns, which Tapscott Family History readers might help me answer. And both involve Susan Frances Sanders, daughter of William and Sarah Ann.

Susan Frances is believed to have married Robert Jones in Marion County, Indiana, on 3 Sep 1873, but the sole evidence is a single marriage record with Susan F. Sanders as the bride and let’s face it, “Susan F. Sanders” is not an unusual name. And nothing is known of the origin or ending of Robert Jones.

And on 8 Feb 1877, just a little over three years after she may have married Robert Jones, Susan Frances Sanders is known to have married Joseph Shade in Clark County, Illinois. But Joseph’s first wife was Ada Swafford, about whom, like Robert Jones, we know absolutely nothing, other than that she married Joseph in Clark County on 1 Dec 1874.

Does anyone know anything reliable about Robert Jones of Marion County, Indiana, or Ada Swafford of Clark County, Illinois? Any chance we have a name wrong?

Wesley

Wesley Tapscott grave marker, Auburn Cemeter

Most family history books have a good mystery, what some call a “brick wall.” With my last book, Henry the Immigrant, Robert Francis Tapscott provided the mystery (see posts of 26 Jul 2014 and 15 Jan 2015). For the book now in writing, Henry the Traveler, The Tapscotts of the Wabash Valley, it is Wesley Tabscott, of unknown parentage (see blog of 16 Nov 2014).

I now have copies of Wesley’s 12-page probate file from the Clark County, Illinois, courthouse, his 63-page Civil War pension file from the National Archives and Records Administration, and his 4-page Illinois Soldiers and Sailors Home file from the Illinois State Archives. It is amazing that these 79 pages of documents provide no smoking gun. Let me summarize the findings from these and Wesley's very few other records.



Sailors and Soldiers Home Application provides Birth information.

Except on his grave marker, Wesley’s name was always spelled “Tabscott,” likely because he was totally illiterate. He claimed to have been born on 28 Sep 1829 in Green County, Kentucky, and is known to have died 21 Nov 1894 in Marshall, Illinois. Of course a birth date given by an illiterate person is questionable, In fact his age on a Civil War muster role indicates a birth year of 1840 rather than 1829.  Wesley appears in not a single census, at least with that name, despite the fact that according to his medical records, excluding time in the military and in the Soldier;s home he was living in or near Anderson Township in Clark County as early as 1856 (about the year that Henry and Susan (Bass) Tapscott arrived from Darwin Twp. in Clark County). He served two stints in the Civil War as a Union Army private with the 133^rd Indiana Infantry (17 May 1864 to 5 Sep 1864) and with the 149^th Indiana Infantry (2 Mar 1865 to 11 Jul 1865), enlisting both times at Terre Haute, Indiana. He took sick at the end of his last enlistment at Decatur Alabama, ending up in a hospital in Huntsville Alabama, where he was discharged from the Army. Extensive medical records show that he lived the rest of his life primarily in Clark County as a near invalid with an assortment of nasty physical conditions. He resided in the Illinois Soldiers and Sailors Home (an institution for disabled, ill, and elderly military personal in Quincy Illinois) 30 May 1894 to 30 Oct 1894. He then discharged himself and returned to Marshall, where he died less than a month later, apparently in poverty. At his death he had personal property consisting of household goods and horse and buggy with a total value of $100, but with debts of $211.65, much of it for care during his final days.

Not a single word appears in any record about Wesley’s parents; however, many documents give the following Clark County Tapscotts and their relatives as Wesley's witnesses and contacts, but without mentioning their connection with him --- William Riley Tapscott, William Sanders (widower of Sarah Ann Tapscott), William Sanders's daughter Susan Shade, and William Sander’s son-in-law Joseph Shade. Joseph Shade was named Wesley’s executor. That Wesley was born in Green County Kentucky shows that he was almost certainly a descendent of the Tapscotts of Virginia, but there are four possibilities.

1. He was an unknown child of Henry the Traveler, coming with Henry and Susan during their trip from Kentucky to Clark County, but not appearing in the 1850 census, which has been thought to list all of Henry’s children. If born in 1929, Wesley would have been around age 21 at the time and could have easily been away from home when the census was taken. But all of Henry’s children were literate, why would Wesley have been illiterate? Moreover, Henry and his wife, Susan, had a child, John, born 9 Mar 1829, a date conflicting with Wesley’s birth date of 28 Sep 1829. Of course birthdates are often incorrect.

2. He was actually James W. (“Wesley”?) Tapscott, a child of Henry the Traveler, born around 1830 or 1831 and dying sometime after 1870. We have very little information about James who appears in 1850 and 1870 censuses for Clark County. James, like Wesley, never married (as far as we know). But the two censuses do not indicate that James was illiterate. And if Wesley were James, why would be appear as “Wesley Tabscott” in everything militarily connected, but nowhere else? Moreover, Wesley is known to have been alive when the estate Henry the Traveler's son John was being settled in 1872, but, unlike most (but not all) of John's siblings, was not mentioned as an heir.

3. He could have been a child of William the Preacher, born late in William’s life. That might explain Wesley’s illiteracy. None of William the Preacher’s sons were literate. (Note, however, that Wesley was very young at the time of William's death and the Preacher's apparent lack of belief in education for his children should have had little effect on Wesley.) He might have been a son of William’s wife, (believed to be) Winifred Cobb. Winifred, were she still living, would have been around age 50 give or take a few years at the time of Wesley’s birth, unlikely but not impossible. Wesley could, in fact, have been the cause of the demise of Winifred, who was dead by 1830. And he could be a product of another relationship. It is interesting that William the Preacher’s household in the 1830 census contains one child, whom we cannot identify, aged under 5 (Wesley?), and also a woman aged 20 to 30 (a new consort?). The census also shows other unidentifiable household members. Wesley would have been only seven years old when William the Preacher died and could have accompanied his older brother Henry the Traveler to Clark County.

4. And Wesley could have been a descendant of Raleigh and Judith (Stanton) Tapscott, who were living in Barren County Kentucky, essentially next door to Green County) at the time of Wesley’s birth. Raleigh, William the Preacher’s 2^nd cousin, had a massive number of known Kentucky-born grandkids and undoubtedly many others never unidentified.

Right now I am leaning toward possibility 3. In another week I will be in Illinois researching Tapscotts, one of them Wesley. Perhaps land records will help. I might note that Pamela Loos-Noji at Kinwork Connections, Email: kin1889@me.com, www.kinworkconnections.com, did an outstanding and very reasonably priced job of getting Wesley’s pension files. She has worked for me in the past and is always thorough, efficient, and highly knowledgeable. I recommend her highly for genealogical research. If anyone would like digital copies of the contents of Wesley’s Pension, Illinois Soldiers and Sailors Home, and Probate files, I’ll be glad to email them to you.

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.

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?