Wabash Valley Tapscotts - The Two Nancys of Kentucky

Hi, Tapscott history aficionados -

Despite a dearth of Tapscott family blogs, I have not abandoned family history research. I’ve just been working day and night writing The Tapscotts of the Wabash Valley, a book covering Henry and Susan (Bass) Tapscott and their descendants. Unfortunately there are many, many descendants. Planned for inclusion are detailed biographies on four generations - 210 descendants and 191 spouses - with names and some limited data provided for a fifth generation (another 253 descendants). Several months' work have allowed the lines of Henry and Susan’s four oldest children (William, John, James, and Thomas) to be “biographized,” but there are eight more lines to go. Nancy Tapscott, Henry and Susan’s fifth child and oldest daughter, has now been reached.

A large number of family trees on the internet confuse the Wabash Valley Nancy with her cousin Nancy of Casey County, Kentucky. This is understandable since the two Nancy Tapscotts were both born in Kentucky and have similar birth, marriage, and death dates. But their histories are quite different.

Photo by Ritch Fuhrer

Photo by Ritch Fuhrer

The Wabash Valley Nancy was born in Green County, Kentucky, around 1835, to Henry and Susan (Bass) Tapscott, married farmer William Siverly on 29 Feb 1856 in Clark County, Illinois, and, after giving birth to twelve children, died sometime between 1880 and 1900, probably in Clark County. Her crude grave marker in Clark County’s Shad Cemetery (also known as Siverly or Shotts Cemetery) gives her name, but no dates. Though badly deteriorated, her husband’s marker in that cemetery is more informative.

Photo from Find A Grave

The other Nancy was born in Casey County, Kentucky on 22 Dec 1836 to William Stewart and Rhoda Jane (Coppage). There she married blacksmith George W. Coffman on 23 Dec 1852 and, after raising five children, died on 8 Nov 1914 in Lincoln County, Kentucky. George and Nancy’s gravestone in Middleburg Cemetery, Casey County, is almost illegible, but her name is clear.

Some trees erroneously show the Nancy born in Green County as marrying George Coffman, others show the Nancy of Casey County marrying William Siverly, and several show a single Nancy marrying both George and William. Moreover, several trees claim that Nancy traveled to Clark County and then back to Kentucky to die. I doubt that this blog will result in corrections, but hope springs eternal. Contact me for reliable, contemporary sources for the brief biographies shown above, or for more detailed histories.

But I must get back to writing about Nancy of the Wabash valley, whose line is comprised of 71 people (descendants and spouses) scheduled for biographies. Perhaps I should consider multiple volumes.

John and William

Our last post said that we would take a look at Richard and Cyntha Tapscott’s children—William W., Kasiah, John W., and George W. Let's start with William and John.

Born between 1845 and 1846 in Kentucky, presumably in Casey County, John is by far the easiest to write about. He only appears once, with his parents in the 1850 census, and is never seen again. End of story.

The story of William, who as far as we know, never married, is a little longer. In 1860 he was living with his mother and her new husband, Christian Weatherman, in Marion County, Kentucky, under the name “William Weatherman.” Of course the name assignment may have just been an assumption by the census enumerator.

Morgan's Raiders

William may have been living in Marion when, on 5 Jul 1863, Morgan’s Raiders, a band of Confederates led by General John Hunt Morgan, passed through the county seat of Lebanon during a 1000-mile incursion into the North. Twenty buildings were burned and well over three hundred Union soldiers were captured (but then paroled). There is no indication that William took part in the War, but if he had, it would have almost certainly been in the Union Army. The relatively few descendants of William the Preacher who enlisted were all Unionists. None are known to have owned slaves (unlike the Preacher's ancestors).

By 1870, William was back in Casey, the next county over, living alone under his birth name (actually, as “Tabscott”), farming land not his own, and sharing the county with two other William Tapscotts — William Rice and William Wesley, son and grandson of William Stewart and Rhoda (Coppage) Tapscott. (Ten years earlier, we could have added William Stewart to the list of William Tapscotts of Casey County, but William Stewart Tapscott had died in March of 1860, killed by a falling tree.) Then William W. Tapscott disappears, presumably dying between 1870 and 1880, when he is missing from the census.

The stories of Richard’s other two children are considerably more interesting, and considerably more strenuous to research. Our next posting will look at Richard Tapscott’s only known daughter, Kasiah.

Richard and Cyntha

Born around 1810 or 1811, in Virginia according to him, but possibly in North Carolina, where the family was living at the time, Richard Tapscott was the youngest of William the Preacher and Winifred’s five children. He was barely a toddler when he traveled with his father (and mother?) around 1812 to Green County, Kentucky, living there (for the most part) until after 1837, when he appears in the tax list with 100 acres of land. He may have been out of the county around 1830, when his father and brother Henry appear in the census for Barren County. If so, he had returned by 1831.

Richard had a hard upbringing. William was an impecunious preacher man, who had little to give his children in the way of property or education. All of his sons were illiterate. When the Preacher died around Mar 1837, his estate brought only $63.13 to be divided among five (or six? See “Wesley,” 7 Jun 2015) children.

Richard Tapscott farmed along Brush Creek in Casey County (2013).

Following William’s death, Richard and two of his brothers, George Rice and William Stewart, moved to nearby Casey County. There, Richard farmed 100 acres along Brush Creek, giving him an opportunity to use the only thing he is known to have received from his father — a clevis and chain (harnessing equipment) that he had purchased at the Preacher’s estate sale for 63 cents. And there on 13 Feb 1840 he married Cyntha A. Followell (born 1817 – 1820). By 1853, Richard owned land in both Casey County (65 acres) and adjacent Marion County (65 acres), and by 1855, “Dick” Tapscott had 115 acres in just Marion County. But the following year’s Marion County tax list gives only “Cynthia” Tapscott as the property’s owner. Richard had died, leaving behind four young children, William W., Kasiah, John W., and George W. The oldest, William, was still a teenager; he youngest, George, was probably under six.

In Casey County on 4 Oct 1859 widowed Cyntha married a somewhat younger Christian Weatherman. Born in North Carolina to Cornelius Weatherman and Catharine Runager around 1825, give or take a couple of years, Christian had moved to Kentucky in the 1850s.

Apparently the marriage was short-lived, as were Cyntha and Christian. Neither appears in any document after the 1860 census. Their fate is unknown. No burial site is known, no death record has been found. It does not help that on 5 Jul 1863 Morgan's Raiders burned the Marion County clerk's office destroying its contents.

Our next post takes a look at some of the children.

The Preacher’s Family

We know what happened to Henry, the oldest of William’s children. He traveled to Clark County, founding the Wabash Valley Tapscotts, and is the subject of an upcoming book (I hope). But what of his siblings - Winifred, William, George, and Richard?

Winifred, whose life has been difficult to unravel, deserves a posting of her own, and she has it (23 Aug 2014).

With no land, little inheritance, and only memories of an impecunious, motherless life to hold them in Green county, William’s three youngest sons, William Stewart, George Rice, and Richard, moved to nearby Casey County, living along Martins and Brush creeks.

George, who married Rachel Coffman, last appears at age 74 in the 1880 census for Casey County, where he lived out his life. Some of his descendants went to Illinois, but not near Clark County. A number are interred in the Tapscott Cemetery near Martin’s Creek.

William, who also remained in Casey County, Kentucky, married Rhoda Jane Coppage, and died young, killed by a falling tree at age 50. A number of his descendants also ended up in Illinois, but there are still a large number in Kentucky.

Richard married Cyntha Followell and moved to Marion County, Kentucky. It is said that he died there in 1855, but no reliable evidence has been presented. Cyntha remarried on 4 Oct 1859. Little is known of Richard’s descendants, primarily because little family history research has been done for that line.

The Traveler, Childhood

Lately we have been spending a lot of time on relatively recent Wabash Valley Tapscotts, but we may have failed to lay a good foundation for these recent folks – for Carl, and Golden Arthur, Nellie Mae and Wesley, and dear old Samuel. Off and on I will do so.

Our story of the Wabash Valley Tapscotts really starts with Henry Tapscott the Traveler, son of William the Preacher. His Virginia birth, North Carolina childhood, Kentucky maturation, Indiana residence, and Illinois adulthood provide us with a designation to distinguish him from a multitude of other Henry Tapscotts (eighteen by the latest count, not including many others with the middle name “Henry”), descendants of the Traveler’s great, great grandfather “Henry the Immigrant,” the subject of many postings).

William the Preacher's Green County home lay alongside
Robinson Creek (now in Taylor County) (2013).

The Traveler was born in 1797 or 1798 to William Tapscott and, possibly, Winifred Cobb. We say “possibly” because William’s wife died relatively young and no proof has been found for her name, a situation discussed in great detail in my book Henry the Immigrant (see post of 13 Aug 2013). At the time of Henry’s birth, his parents were living in Caswell County, North Carolina; however, three U.S. censuses give his birthplace as Virginia. That Caswell County lies near the Virginia border and that Henry’s parents had come from Virginia make that state a plausible birthplace. Henry’s mother could have returned there for his birth.

Henry, the oldest, had three brothers, George Rice, William Stewart, and Richard, and a sister, Winifred, all born in North Carolina or Virginia. After the birth of Richard, William Sr. pulled up stakes and headed with his offspring for Kentucky, arriving by 1812, probably as a widower. There William worked as a preacher, supplementing his scant income with hardscrabble farming.

William the Preacher settled along meandering Robinson Creek in Green County. (Today that site lies in Taylor County). There his five children, including our Henry, had what was probably a motherless upbringing by an impecunious, itinerant cleric, in an uncultured backcountry, which provided little opportunity or need for schooling. The Preacher could read and write, or at least sign his name. His sons could not.

Winifred Tapscott, daughter of William the Preacher

William Tapscott, "the Preacher," who ended up in Green and Taylor counties in Kentucky, is claimed to have had four sons (Henry, my GG grandfather and the subject of my next book, George Rice, William Stewart, and Richard) and a daughter Winifred. Although the Preacher was reticent about his family, there is relatively good evidence for the four boys, but there is nothing concrete about Winifred. However, I think I have now found strong evidence for her and where she ended up at. The following (still a draft) is part of the second edition of my book, Henry the Immigrant. (Yes, I am still proofing it). I hope the footnotes come through OK.

On 10 March 1817 a “Winney Tabscott” (likely Winifred Tapscott) married Joseph Mann in Green County.[644] Since William’s family was the only source of Tapscotts in Green County at the time, Winney was probably William’s daughter. Joseph Mann appears in Green County census records for 1810 through 1840,[645],[646],[647],[648] records that show one or more children who could not have resulted from Winney’s marriage. Thus, Joseph probably had an earlier marriage and, indeed, in Green County on 21 December 1799, a Joseph Mann married a “Betsy Hill.”[649]

In 1848, when Taylor County broke away from Green County, it carried a lot of Manns (Men?) with it. The 1850 census shows fifty-one people with the Mann surname in the newly formed county, and nary a one left behind in Green County, which did, however, have six “Man”s. But in 1850 the Manns of Taylor County included no Joseph and no Winney (or Winifred). Were this the end, our tale would suffer from a severe case of “subjunctivitis”; a disorder of wishes, maybes, possibilities, chances—an infection due to William Tapscott’s familial taciturnity.

But this is not the end, for in the 1850 census for Morgan County, Illinois, one finds a Joseph Mann, born in Kentucky, with five children (Sarah, Martha, Fanny, Louisa, and Catharine), also born in Kentucky, the eldest in 1816 or 1817 and the youngest in 1844 or 1845.[650] And the wife’s name is, you guessed it, “Winney,” who was born in Virginia around 1799 or 1800. Shouldn’t our Winney have been born in North Carolina? Not necessarily. There is an indication, a suggestion, that William’s wife traveled to Virginia for the birth of at least one of her children, and Caswell county lay less than 25 miles from the Virginia state line. And, of course, Winney may not have known her birthplace.

Why Morgan County, Illinois? One possibility is that in 1850 there were twenty-two people with the surname “Coppage” living in Illinois, all in the adjacent counties of Morgan and Brown, and most had been born in Kentucky. Joseph Mann’s first marriage produced Margaret Mann, who married Uriah Coppage,[651],[652] brother of Rhoda Jane, who married William the Preacher’s son William Stewart Tapscott.[653],[654] The Manns, Tapscotts, and Coppages were close. The Coppages of Morgan and Brown counties in Illinois were likely connected with those of Green and Taylor counties in Kentucky, though we will leave that for others to determine. When Joseph and Winifred Mann pulled up stakes to seek their fortune, Morgan County may have been targeted because of tales heard from Coppage relatives.

The 1860 census shows Winney and Joseph Mann living in DeKalb County, Missouri, with an Asa Mann, presumably widowed, and Asa’s four children (Elizabeth, John, Dema, and Alexander).[655] In 1850 Asa had been living with his wife Lucinda in Kentucky, in Marion County, next door to Taylor County.[656] It is not unlikely that Asa was a child of Winney and Joseph, probably, as indicated by his age, their first child. And this is the final part of our tale. After 1860, we see no more of Joseph or Winney.

Is our story of Winney correct? Probably, at least most of it. But we are still awaiting that smoking gun, that absolute proof.

---

[644].       Jordan Dodd, Kentucky Marriages, 1851-1900, Joseph Mahan and Winifred Tapscott (“Winney Tabscott”), Ancestry.com, Database On-line, Provo, Utah, 1997.

[645].       1810 U.S. census, Kentucky, Green Co, Greensburg, Joseph Mann household, p. 258 (stamped), line 19.

[646].       1820 U.S. census, Kentucky, Green Co, Joseph Mann household, p. 99 (stamped, lower left), line 5.

[647].       1830 U.S. census, Kentucky, Green Co, Joseph Mann (“Man”) household, [page unmarked], line 26.

[648].       1840 U.S. census, Kentucky, Green Co, Joseph Mann household, pp. 35-36, line 19.

[649].       Jordan Dodd, Kentucky Marriages, 1851-1900, Joseph Mann and Elizabeth (“Betsy”) Hill, Ancestry.com, Database On-line, Provo, Utah, 1997.

[650].       1850 U.S. census, Illinois, Morgan Co, Joseph Mann household, p. 207 (stamped, front), dwelling 477, family 503, 20 Aug 1850.

[651].       John E. Manahan and A. Maxim Coppage, The Coppage-Coppedge Family 1542 - 1955, Commonwealth Press, Radford, Virginia, August 1955, p. 74.

[652].       William H. Perrin, J. H. Battle, and G. C. Kniffin, Kentucky: A History of the State, 4th Ed., 1887.

[653].       William Rice Tapscott, 3 Jan 1924, Chesterfield, Macoupin, Illinois, Illinois Deaths and Stillbirths Index, 1916-1947 (Ancestry.com).

[654].       Death Certificate, Nancy Coffman, Kentucky State Board of Health, Bureau of Vital Statistics, File No. 19242.

[655].       1860 U.S. census, Missouri, Dekalb Co, Washington Twp, Asa Mann household, p. 88, dwelling 591, family 591, 25 Jul 1860.

[656].       1850 U.S. census, Kentucky, Marion Co, Distr 2, Asa Mann household, p. 422 (stamped, front), dwelling 385, family 385, 10 Sep 1850.

Trip

Traveling through Kentucky and North Carolina researching Tapscotts. Spent two days at the Kentucky Dept for Libraries and Archives. Great place and I may have to go back for a week. They have every record from every county on microfilm, but almost nothing on the internet. Spent two days in Daviess county KY, where William Tapscott, son of Capt. Henry, lived. Mary Frances and I are now in Glasgow KY, our location for the next three full days for exploring Barren, Green, and Casey counties (and a little of Allen). My GGG grandfather, William the Preacher, spent his later life in Green. Henry, his son, my GG grandfather, spent his childhood in Green and married there, then moved to Barren for a few years around 1830, before going on to Indiana and then Illinois. Three of William's sons (William Stewart, George Rice, and Richard) moved to Casey County from Green. Richard later went to Marion County KY. I'll let you know what I find on this trip when I have a chance to digest it and look at my notes.

DNA match

Tracing the descendants of Henry of Caswell has led to a problem. There are primary and good secondary sources showing that William Tapscott, who fought in the Revolutionary War and who went to Kentucky was a son of Henry of Caswell. However, no good sources show who William's children are. It is assumed that Tapscotts who settled near William (Henry, William Stewart, George Rice, Richard, and Winifred) were his children, but there are no good sources naming these people. (From then on, things once more get easier.) Today, I obtained some good, though not great, evidence that at the very least Henry Tapscott (of Kentucky) and William Stewart Tapscott were brothers. An Ancestry.com DNA shows that a GGG Granddaughter of William Stewart Tapscott and I, a GG Grandson of Henry of Kentucky, have a 95 percent chance of being 4th to 6th cousins. Her genealogy and mine shows a relationship of 4th cousins, once removed. Now if I could only get past William, to Henry of Caswell for a dna match I would have evidence of William's children, not just that two Tapscotts believed to be his children are probably brothers. I have sent an email to William Stewart Tapscott's descendant with the DNA match.