Wabash Valley Tapscotts - Another Brick Wall Demolished

 On 23 Aug 2020 I blogged about “The Mysteries of Susie,” stating that I was about to give up on Susan ("Susie") Bell/Belle Tingley’s missing thirty plus years and the identity of her later husband “Sturdevant.” No more! The mystery has been solved.

Susie spent most of those missing years, between 1900 and her death in 1930, in Decatur, Illinois. This was always suspected but the name changes that came with marriage made confirmation difficult. I use the plural “name changes” since Susie married three times. The first was, of course, to that scalawag Samuel. Then, when Samuel died in 1903, Susie married Henry Dieckhoff about the same year. Or perhaps I should say she had a relationship with Henry since I can find no marriage record. (Of course, marriage records are often difficult to locate.) Susie and Henry appear together in the Decatur, Illinois, 1910 census, which reports that the couple had been married seven years.

Henry and Susie's Fairlawn marker, but
 she's not buried here. (Find A Grave)

 Henry Dieckhoff was born 2 Nov 1859 (or 2 Nov 1860) in Illinois to German immigrants. He grew up in DeWitt Co, Illinois, but moved to Decatur in Macon Co, Illinois, around 1881 and was followed by his parents, Herman and Mary/Maria (Peters) Dieckhoff around 1888. In Decatur Henry worked as a carpenter and cabinet maker. When he married Susie he was a 44-year-old bachelor with no known prior attachments. The marriage ended with Henry’s suicide on 2 Jan 1918. Henry hanged himself on his back porch, despondent, it was claimed, due to long-term cancer. His grave marker in Fairlawn Cemetery, Decatur, gives the spelling of his name as “Deickhoff,” but that was a name given him by some in his later years. The German spelling “Dieckhoff” was used during most of Henry’s life. The cemetery marker is also inscribed with Susie Belle’s name and her date of birth (knocking off four years, but keeping the day and month, 4 Jul, the same as given elsewhere). But the marker’s date of death for Susie is blank. When Henry died it was expected that Susie would one day be buried with him, but that was not to be.

The twice-widowed Susie continued living in Decatur, supporting herself by working as a seamstress. Then on 6 Sep 1923, the Decatur Herald reported that “Susie Deickhoss” married A. J. Sturdevant in Decatur the previous day. Her name is shown as “Susie Dieckhoff” in a list of marriage licenses in the same newspaper.

“A. J. Sturdevant” was Andrew J. Sturdevant, born 15 Apr 1854, 15 Apr 1858, or Apr 1855 in either Indiana or Illinois. We know almost nothing about Andrew’s early life before he arrived in Decatur around 1896, other than he had married Susan M. Simmons in Johnson Co, Illinois on 25 Feb 1876. (Two Susans. That certainly muddles things.) The couple had seven children, but four died young. Then, on 2 Dec 1921 Andrew’s first wife, Susan, died in Decatur.

Andrew’s second marriage, to Susie, was very short owing to Andrew’s death 14 Apr 1928 at his East Waggoner Street home in Decatur. Actually, it was Susie’s home, the one in which she and Henry Dieckhoff had lived. Andrew had moved in with Susie when they were married. He was buried in Fairlawn Cemetery, Decatur, where his first wife was interred.

Susie was laid to rest where none of her three husbands lie—in Burnett Cemetery, Burnett, Vigo Co, Indiana.  But there, at least, she is with her daughter Estella and five grandchildren.

 And that’s the rest of the story. Well, sort of.

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 - 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.