Emma Pearl Sweet

An earlier posting—Thursday, November 12, 2015—mentions the 8 Jul 1922 death of Wabash Valley Tapscott Emma Pearl (Sweet) Waymire, owing to the collision of an automobile with Emma’s horse-drawn buggy.

Emma Pearl Sweet was one of Richard Morgan Sweet and Cora Isabelle Tapscott’s fourteen childen (posting, Monday, November 21, 2016). Born 12 Oct 1892, Emma married Benjamin Harrison (“Ben”) Waymire, a Chrisman, Illinois, farmer on 5 Mar 1912. At this point someone is going to point out that the Illinois Deaths and Stillbirths index states that Emma was born 12 Oct 1890 and that Ben Waymire’s obituary states that he and Emma were married in 1916. Indeed they do, and they are both wrong.

Photo courtesy of Robert L. Maxwell.

Emma led a short and sometimes tragic life. Before she died at age 29 in that violent automobile/buggy accident, Emma had seen the loss of two of her three children. Her first-born (28 Nov 1913) child, Harold Benjamin Waymire, died at age 2. Her other son, John Morgan Waymire, died 26 Feb 1922, after living only three days and dying the same year his mother met her tragic end.

A marker in Mount Pleasant Cemetery, Martinsville Township, is inscribed with the names of Emma, her husband Ben Waymire, and children Harold and John. Despite the marker, however, Benjamin is not buried with Emma. He is interred with his second wife, Mary (Combs) in the Marshall, Illinois, City Cemetery. The others on the Waymire marker—Emma, Harold, and John—do, however, rest in Mount Pleasant.

Emma and Ben’s third child, Sarah Helen, lived much longer than her siblings. Born 8 Dec 1919, and raised after her mother's death by her grandparents, Sarah reached age 78, passing away 23 Feb 1998. But she almost didn’t make it. She had been in the buggy with her mother when it was struck by the automobile.

Wright Family Gathering

In 2002 a c1922 photo of a collection of individuals including some Tapscotts was loaned to me for scanning by my cousin Dolores (Tingley) Berbaum (daughter of Nellie (Tapscott) Tingley). On Monday, August 29, 2016, I posted the photo, which I labeled “Tapscott Family Gathering,” and attempted to identify some of those present. The posting was only partially correct. The date was indeed 1922 and some Tapscotts are present, but it was brought to my attention by Gail Ann (Reed) Schenck that the gathering was probably initiated by or for Nicholas Reed and his wife Mary Malinda (also “Melinda”) Wright (daughter of Rev Richard Wright, see post of 17 Aug 2017), likely at their home in Auburn Twp, Clark County. Since it now appears that all were Wright descendants or their spouses, I have chosen to label the photo "Wright Family Gathering" Gail believes the purpose may have been to celebrate Mary Malinda and Nick Reed's wedding anniversary.

Since Mary Malinda was the aunt of Edna Earl Wright, who married John Wesley Tapscott, Tapscotts are found in the photo. And since Mary Malinda’s first husband (who died very young, aged 31) was Eli Sylvester Shade, Shades also attended. And, of course, Reeds, who may have hosted the gathering, are there since Mary Melinda's second marriage was with Nicholas Reed. Gail (great granddaughter of Nicholas and Mary Malinda), Patrick (“Pat”) Shade (great grandson of Eli Sylvester and Mary Malinda), and I (grandson of John Wesley and Edna) have identified individuals in the photo about whom we have some certainty and the results are shown below. The earlier, inaccurate, and incomplete posting has been removed.

Wright family gathering, autumn 1922. Where possible, numbers are placed on the person designated. Otherwise, the number is placed immediately above that person. 1. Glenn Daniel Tapscott, 2. Lillie Alice Tapscott, 3. Alta Leona (Tapscott) Hiddle, 4. Edmund Hiddle Jr., 5. Edna Earl (Wright) Tapscott, 6. John Wesley Tapscott, 7. Nicholas Reed, 8. Mary Malinda (Wright) Reed, 9. Lee Arthur Reed, 10. Irene (Leggett) Reed, 11. Clark Nicholas (“Nick”) Reed, 12. Jean Arthur Reed, 13. Agnes Maurine Reed, 14. William Hartford  (“Cap”) Shade, 15. Mariah Mae (Hurst) Shade, 16. Edna’s mother Elizabeth J. (Lowry) Wright, 17. Clifford Lloyd Tapscott, 18. Elizabeth Shade, 19. Burns (“Pat”) Shade, 20. Robert Dean Shade, 21. Sylvester Shade, 22. Anna Mae (Reed) Veach, 23. Ernest Eugene Shade.

Connection between people identified in the photo (in red). Many family members have been omitted.

The photo may have been widely distributed when it was made. Copies have been found in possession of members of the Reed, Shade, and Tapscott families. In 1978, Nellie (Tapscott) Tingley, a daughter of John Wesley and Edna (Wright) Tingley (and my aunt), sent a letter to Sylvester Shade, who appears in the photo. The letter, made available by Pat Shade, mentions the photo:

I also have one of the pictures of the reunion at Uncle Nick Reed's. I wasn't there, but Mother and Father, my oldest sister Alta and her husband Edmund Hiddle, Lillie Kuhn, who was a Tapscott then, Glenn and Lloyd were there in the picture.

Thanks to Gail for bringing the connection to the Reeds to my attention and to both Pat and Gail for helping research this photo. Thanks to Pat's uncles Sylvester Shade, who made a list of everyone present with their photo location, and Edgar ("Ed") Shade, we now have identifications for most or all of the people in the photo. Since they are, indeed, all descendants of Rev. Richard Wright or spouses of those descendants, the photo with everyone identified is being put on a new blog site, the Wrights of the Wabash Valley (http://wabashvalleywrights.blogspot.com/), post of Wednesday May 10, 2017.

The Potters of Clark County

On 15 Mar 1917 in Marshall, Walter Ernest Scott (son of Alexander Scott and Martha Ellen Robinson) and Ruby Lavona Mallory (daughter of William Luther Mallory and Emma Tapscott, a Wabash Valley Tapscott) were wed and therein lies an interesting story.

Martha Robinson was not the first wife of Walter’s father, Alexander. A little before 1850, Alexander Scott had arrived in Clark County from Ohio, a very young child, with his parents Jacob and Hettie (Brown) Scott. The family settled first in York Twp and then in Melrose Twp, near where Ohio Chapel Methodist Protestant Church would someday stand. Melrose became the Scott family homeland and Ohio Chapel, the Scott burial ground. The Scotts were among the families donating money and effort to the construction of the church, which was dedicated in 1892.

Sometime around 1868 (their first child was born in 1869), Alexander Scott married Sarah J. Condon, daughter of Henry Condon and Eliza Dixon. The Condons were unusual in that nearly all Clark County records and newspaper articles give their name and that of their descendants as “Cowden,” but many more records outside that county give the name “Condon.” The problem arose because county residents insisted on substituting “Cowden,” a well-known Clark County name, for “Condon,” which was almost unknown in the county.

Between 1866, when they were married in Muskingum County, Ohio, and 1870, when they were living in Anderson Twp, a new couple appeared in Clark County—Uriah Wilbur and Hester M. Stockdale and their son, William, along with Uriah’s parents, Enoch and Mary.

The Wilburs were members of an early family of Ohio potters, the beginnings of the renown 20-century Zanesville art potteries. Abundant clay, firewood, and a navigable tributary of the Ohio River made the Zanesville area perfect for pottery. The Wilbur potters were located in Putnam, Ohio, now part of Zanesville and one of the state’s oldest settlements. Pottery became known as “Putnam Currency,” and in 1827 Uriah’s grandfather, Thomas, developed a pottery with a capacity of 50,000 gallons. Those Wilburs who migrated to Clark County continued as potters, but the area had neither the resources or the market of Muskingum County.

On 19 Feb 1874 the first of several legal announcements appeared in the Marshall Weekly Messenger stating that a notice of “non-residence” of Sarah J. Scott had been filed by Alexander Scott and that unless Sarah showed up in court “on the second Monday of April 1874” to answer complaints a divorce decree would be filed. Sarah had run off – with potter Uriah Wilbur!

On 6 Jun 1874, presumably after the divorce was granted, Sarah and Uriah were married in Boone County, Iowa, where Sarah’s mother and father, Henry and Eliza Condon had moved a few years earlier. Sarah left her two children, Ella and Edward, behind with their father, Alexander. But Sarah soon had a new child, Henry Wilbur, whose birth in 1873 or 1874 may have resulted in Sarah’s demise. On 15 Jun 1876, Uriah was married a third time, in Pettis County, Missouri. to Estella A. Grant. Henry appears with his father, Uriah, and step mother “Stella,” in the 1880 census for Boonville, Missouri.

Like Sarah, Uriah had also abandoned offspring. His son William is found with his mother, Hester, his stepfather, William Jones, and his half-sister, Artie, in the 1880 census for Plymouth Twp in Richland County, Ohio. Hester had married the widowed William around 1876, a couple of years after her husband and Alexander Scott’s wife had “eloped.”

Confused? So am I. Perhaps this chart will help. Or perhaps it will only increase the haze.

Cemetery Data

Yesterday when researching the descendants of the Wabash Valley Tapscotts, I found listings for the same two people in two different cemeteries in both Find-A-Grave and the Illinois Genealogy Trails website for the county involved. In all likelihood there is an error.

I am not going to give the name of the county since people maintaining county genealogy websites are volunteers and their time is limited. But like most, though, not all cemetery listings maintained by county genealogical volunteers, the sources of the data were not provided. Thus, there was no way to determine reliability or where the error might be. There was no indication of whether the data source was death records, burial records, obituaries, marker transcriptions, anecdotes, newspaper articles, family trees, guesswork or (most likely) some combination of all of these. To genealogical society personnel, please, PLEASE, PLEASE provide sources for published cemetery data.

At this point I would like to congratulate the Clark County Genealogy Library in Marshall Illinois. They have a collection of cemetery listings for the county in booklets and these listings are, as far as I can tell, 100 percent verbatim transcriptions of cemetery markers. They may not be correct, but at least we know the source and can evaluate the reliability accordingly. If only others publishing cemetery listings would do the same.

As far as Find-A-Grave (FAG) is concerned, the site is a valuable tool. I use it all the time. But the posted data are, to be blunt, untrustworthy. When I first started doing family history research I assumed that the data posted by FAG on the internet came from cemetery marker inscriptions—Wrong, WRONG, WRONG! I often find serious errors, massive blunders posted on FAG. In some cases the data are at complete odds with the actual marker. It appears that anyone can submit “Virtual Cemetery” or “Memorial” data to FAG without providing reliable sources. FAG data are useful only if a photo of the grave marker is provided so that one can transcribe it themselves. Presumably, the photo is attached to the correct cemetery, though in one case I found it was not. I also tend to use attached obituaries if (and only if) the complete newspaper source is given. I never, NEVER, NEVER use FAG data except from photographed markers or well-referenced obituaries, and even then with a "grain of salt."

Enough of the polemics. And now back to researching the Tapscotts.

Tales of the South Pacific — The Bambridge Family

Tahitian cemetery markers. The stone at the back is for John
Bambridge. The marker is for Mary Ann, her daughter Florey,
and her mother Popua. Photo by Allegra Marshall (2016).

Mary Ann Tapscott, “Mere,” the only known child of John Tapscott and Popoua Taurami, was born 16 Dec 1867 on, it is claimed, Maiana, an atoll in the Gilbert Islands. She died in Pirae, Tahiti, French Polynesia on 28 Nov 1918. Mary Ann and her mother, Popoua, have identical death dates, likely due to the influenza epidemic. (Thanks to Allegra Marshall for suggesting this.) The two died the same month that the disease was introduced to Tahiti by the arrival of ailing passengers on the ship Navuna (Monique Layton, The New Arcadia: Tahiti's Cursed Myth). The pandemic is claimed to have killed one-seventh of Tahiti’s inhabitants.

On 5 Feb 1885 Mary Ann married John Maehaa Bambridge (20 Jun 1859-30 Aug 1898), one of 17 children of missionary Thomas Bambridge (1801-1879) and Tahitian wife, Maraea O'Connor (1817-1881). John’s first wife, Hamoura Roau, had died the year before leaving 4 children.

Mary Ann Tapscott and her children shortly after the death
 of her husband.  Bill, the future actor, is seated at the very
front. (FamilySearch).

John and Mary Ann and had nine children, one of whom, the last born, Florey Nui Bambridge (10 Oct 1898 – 10 Dec 1902), is buried with her parents. Another child, “Bill” Bambridge, born 18 Aug 1892 in Papeete, Tahiti, as William Moari'imaiterai Bambridge, was an actor and assistant director, with roles in the Oscar winning movies “Tabu: a Story of the South Seas” (1931) and “Mutiny on the Bounty (1935). A grandson, Ben Bambridge, had a role in the 1956 movie “The Tahitian,” and was a principal, though questionable, source for the tale of the “pirate” John Tapscott. A major painting by the French post impressionist Paul Gauguin portrayed Mary Ann’s sister-in-law Suzanne Teriimarama Bambridge.

Suzanne Bambridge by Paul Gauquin, 1891
(Wikimedia Commons).

In 2003 the extensive and well-known Bambridge family was the subject of a photographic exhibit, “De Londres a Tahiti - la Famille Bambridge et Allies,” in Papeete, the Tahitian capital of French Polynesia. The display combined photography with genealogy and history to describe the descendants of Thomas and Maraea with their European, Polynesian and Chinese bloodlines.

Descendants of John Maehaa Bambridge and wives
Mary Ann Tapscott and Hamoura Roau, at the Pirae,
Tahiti City Hall (Overblog, “Tahiti Passion,” 2006).

Tales of the South Pacific — The Pirate Tapscott

Marker for John Tapscott (Photo
courtesy of Allegra Marshall, 2016)

One of the Tapscott graves on Tahiti is that of John (said by some to have had the middle name “Novele”), who died 4 Apr 1902 at age 62 (born c1840). John reportedly married Popoua Taurami, a native of Maiana, an atoll in the Gilbert Islands. A marker for Popoua, who died 28 Nov 1918 at age 81 (born c1837), stands in the same family cemetery in which John rests.

John Tapscott’s origins are unknown, though he was likely British. European contact with Gilbert Islanders began as early as the 1500s with visits from whalers, slave traders, and merchants. In the late 1850s American missionaries came to the islands, followed by missionaries from London. The Gilberts became a British protectorate in 1892, and until 1979 were part of the United Kingdom.

Marker for Popoua Taurami (Photo
courtesy of Allegra Marshall, 2016).

Perhaps John arrived as a missionary. But some descendants believe that he was anything but. It is claimed he kidnapped Popoua, with even further misadventures.

In his book Return to Paradise (Random House, 1951) the American author James A. Michener stated that Tapscott was an “English pirate, ... a hell-raising renegade who abducted a wife from the cannibal islands.” It was the Fijis, rather than the Gilberts, that were once given the designation “cannibal islands,” but Michener, who usually wrote fiction based on history, often changed details in the stories he encountered. And where did he get the story? According to Sam Zebba in his book Aspects of My Life (iUniverse, 2013), Ben Bambridge, a resident of Tahiti and John Tapscott’s great grandson, told Michener about his ancestor being a kidnapper and a pirate.

Was John Tapscott a pirate? Probably not. He appears in no contemporary newspaper articles, which did report other Pacific pirates of the period. But who knows?

Tales of the South Pacific — Where There be Tapscotts

In October 2016, I received an email from Allegra Marshall, a resident of Australia, who has led a most exciting life. Though she did not tell me, I found that Allegra’s ventures include establishing a refuge for monkeys in the Panamanian jungle, climbing volcanoes, serving as a guide on Easter Island, researching both history in the Pacific (in particular, Tahiti) and the Australian author George Lewis (Louis) Becke (1855-1913).

Tahiti Shores, Where Tapscotts Strolled (Wikipedia).

It was while researching Becke, that Allegra ran into the Tapscotts. She found a private family cemetery, in Papeete, on the French Polynesian island of Tahiti containing graves for Mme. John Bambridge, née Mary Ann Tapscott (16 Dec 1867 – 28 Nov 1918) and John Tapscott, died 4 April 1902, aged 62, and she kindly sent me photographs.

Tapscotts in the South Pacific archipelagos! I could not have been more surprised. Tapscotts are found in Australia, but on the Pacific islands? Where surf pounds white sand beaches; graceful palms overhang azure lagoons; sails billow on copra schooners? But the Tapscott name does indeed appear there, connected with the French post-impressionist artist Eugène Henri Paul Gauguin, with the American author James Albert Michener, and with tales of kidnapping and piracy!

So thanks to Allegra, who also took time to review and correct what I have written, I am once again sidetracked from what I though was my present principal interest — the Tapscotts of the Wabash Valley — to pursue, for a bit, the Tapscotts of the South Pacific, the subject of the next two blogs.