Still Finding Frank

 

Do you like solving mysteries? My previous blog presented a doozy: the fate of Frank Lowry. Family members pass down a tale that Frank (actual given name, “Franz Sigel”) was murdered, possibly by the husband of “Ethel Tingley,” a former flame, a girlfriend that committed suicide in a Terre Haute hospital using the broken glass from a vase given her by Frank when he visited her around 1917. The problem is that there are no records, nothing about the death of an Ethel Tingley in Terre Haute around that time. Nor can a connection be found between an Ethel Tingley and Frank. But perhaps we have now found what we have been looking for.

Despite his roles as a teacher, politician, and socializer, Frank was somewhat disreputable. He had, after all, abandoned his first wife. One relative states 

"In family lore, he was known as 'Uncle Frank the train robber.' That particular rumor has been pretty much debunked - however he wasn's a great guy."

A number of trees posted on Ancestry.com claim that Frank was married not twice, but three times, a third wife being an “Allie Tingley.” Unfortunately, as is usually the case, not a single reliable source is cited for this claim, and, when contacted, those in charge of the trees could not remember the story’s source. But might the claim arise from gossip or family tales based on some fact? Might there have been a connection, not necessarily a marriage, between Frank and an Allie Tingley? And the name “Tingley” is intriguing. Could “Ethel Tingley” have been “Allie Tingley”? But then who was Allie Tingley?

In Clark Co, Illinois, there lived in the late 1800s an Alfaretta Tingley, usually called “Allie.” Her story is told on pp. 219-220 of Henry’s Children, The Tapscotts of the Wabash Valley. Allie had connections with Wrights, Lowrys, and Tapscotts. And, in 1880 both she and Frank Lowry, teenagers, were living in Martinsville Twp. They had to have known each other.

Allie did not marry Frank. She married Thomas Wesley Sanders in 1885, and, when Thomas died, she married William Eddy McDaniel in 1904. The McDaniels moved to Muncie, Indiana, and there, on 5 Jul 1917 the following was published in the Muncie Evening Press:

Mrs. Alfaretta McDaniels, age 50 years, residing at 516 B Street, Neely addition, Riverside, died in the Home hospital at 7:45 o'clock Thursday morning as a result of wounds inflicted Monday afternoon when she slashed her through the artery in her left wrist with a piece of glass. Coroner Downing held an inquest this afternoon and will return a verdict of suicide.

 

Mrs. McDaniels recently became violently insane and it was necessary to place her in the county jail for safekeeping while awaiting her commitment to the Easthaven hospital for the insane at Richmond, and it was there last week that she slashed her throat and wrist with a piece of broken glass taken from her cell window. She bled profusely notwithstanding she was hurried to the hospital and the loss of blood, and her already diseased condition resulted in her sinking slowly until death came. Mrs. McDaniels resisted efforts to help her and, if she were capable of any reasoning, probably was anxious to die.

Wow! We have a Tingley, who undoubtedly knew Frank Lowry, who died in an Indiana hospital by suicide using broken glass, in 1917. Does that story ring some bells? Can some of our readers help further unravel Frank’s finale?

Finding Frank

Seven years ago or so I posted the following article about the Lowrys on the Tapscott Family History site, but it really should have been posted here. The Wabash Valley Lowrys are more closely related to the Wabash Valley Wrights than to the Tapscotts. The Lowry and Wright families connected when Elizabeth J. Lowry, daughter of Jackson and Eliza Ann (Sweet) Lowry married James F. Wright, son of Rev "Dickie" and Joanna Ruth (Paschal) Wright on 28 Aug 1872 in Clark Co, Illinois. I hope that the Wrights are better detectives than the Tapscotts, who so far have been unable to solve the mystery at the end of this tale. The mystery concern's Elizabeth (Lowry) Wright's youngest sibling, Frank.

Jackson and Eliza Ann (Sweet) Lowry with Franz (Frank) c1868
(photo courtesy of Linda Grinnell).

Frank Lowry, of Clark County, Illinois, was a man-about-town. In 1889 he was elected to the office of “L.S.N.G.” for the local lodge of the International Order of Odd Fellows. (According to an internet acronym finder “L.S.N.G.” stands for “Lone Star Nudist Group,” unlikely for 19^th century Clark County. A further search shows the office to be “Left Supporter of the Noble Grand,” whose job it is to monitor IOOF members for regalia and correct signs.) In 1892 Frank served as a councilman for the town of Marshall and ran for Clark County Circuit Clerk (as a Democrat). Frank was known to travel to Terre Haute with a group of friends for the theatre. And he had a reputable job teaching at Green Moss School in Dolson Township.

Born around 1863, the last of Jackson and Eliza Ann (Sweet) Lowry’s seven children was apparently named “Franz Sigel.” His complete name is found in only one primary record, where it is misspelled “Frantz Sigel.” Linda Rogers Grinnell, a distant cousin, pointed out something that I had missed. "Franz Sigel" was the name of a German-born Union officer, who fought in the Civil War. That Jackson Lowry was a Union soldier may have led to his naming a son after the officer.  Nevertheless, a German name was out of place for a person of British descent, particularly among the anglophiles who lived north and east of Marshall, and Franz Lowry usually went by “Frank.”

On 6 Jan 1889 in Clark County, Frank wedded Mary Claypool. The marriage produced four children, Ira, Mabel, Arthur, and Earl, but by 1895, things were rocky. The 27 Mar 1895 issue of the Clark County Herald published the following:

The Martinsville Planet charges that Frank S. Lowry has deserted his wife and children and skipped for parts unknown. We are indeed sorry to hear of this, as Mrs. Lowry is a good woman and has been a true wife to her unworthy husband.

The marriage ended in divorce in Marshall in March 1898. On 12 Jun 1898 Mary married Frederick S. Clatfelter and on 31 Dec 1898 Frank married Lola McIlwain. The dissolution separated the four kids. The two girls, Ira and Mabel, went to live with their grandma Eliza Lowry and her “old maid” daughter Rachel in Marshall. The oldest boy, Earl, born in 1890, moved in with his grandparents Elisha and Sarah Ann Claypool. The youngest, Arthur, stayed with his mother, her new husband, and a stepsister Annie, a child of Fred Clatfelter’s first marriage, which had ended after only four years with the death of his wife Eliza Jane Highfill. Mary Claypool and Fred Clatfelter went on to have six children of their own, all boys, who lived out their lives in Marshall.

Kansas, Illinois (2015).

Around the time that his first marriage was breaking up, Frank Lowry went to live in Kansas, Illinois, a small village in Edgar County. And that is where Frank may have met his wife-to-be, for he and Lola were married in Edgar County, on New Year’s Eve 1898. The newlyweds then lit out for what many thought to be the promised land, Oklahoma.

The 1889 opening of the “Unassigned Lands” to non-Indians drew people from all over the United States, and the inhabitants of Clark County, Illinois, were no exception. Not only did Frank Lowry and his wife travel to the Oklahoma Territory, but so did several of his Tingley neighbors, four sons of Frank’s cousin Malissa Sweet and her husband Levi Tingley — Levi Jr., Lewis, Charles, and Jacob. Eventually, even Levi Sr. and Malissa went to Oklahoma, though they lived in separate counties following a parting of the ways. (After a time, Malissa returned to Martinsville in Clark County.) And then Ira Lowry, a son from Frank’s first marriage, ventured there. In fact, so many Clark County people ended up in Oklahoma that the Marshall Herald took to publishing letters from expatriates describing Oklahoma’s weather, crops, businesses, and the activities of the emigrants.

"The Oklahoma Land Rush, April 22, 1889" by John Steuart

 Curry, Department of Interior Building, Washington, D.C.

Frank and Lola moved first to Kingfisher in the Oklahoma Territory, a town that was started by the 22 Apr 1889 “land run” (often called “land-rush”) that opened up Oklahoma City. But in 1909 Frank went to visit his first cousin (once removed) Jacob Tingley, who was living in the town of Anadarko in Caddo County, Oklahoma. Perhaps as a result of that visit, later that year Frank obtained a job of teacher in Anadarko and the Lowrys ended up living in Gracemont Township, Caddo County.

Frank’s job as teacher continued. In 1913 he was making $90 a month, a good wage for the time, particularly when supplemented by his other job, running a farm. And in 1914 he garnered the position of postmaster for the Gracemont post office. He needed the income. By then he and Lola had seven offspring—Edna, Ethel, Jean, Paul, Pauline, Helen, and Eliza.

Reliable sources are found for our story thus far. Up to this point we can state, as we have in other postings, “All genealogical data reported are from primary and/or reputable secondary sources, or reliable transcriptions thereof, and never from unsourced online trees. Contact the author to request sources, which have been omitted here to improve readability.” This does not, however, apply to what follows, which comes only from family members and descendants. Is the remainder true? Possibly, at least part of it.

Around 1917, Frank traveled from Anadarko to Martinsville to visit his mother, Eliza Ann Lowry, a subject of past postings. Frank never returned. His family was devastated, and eventually scattered. In 1970, one of Frank’s children, now deceased, told a tale about Frank's demise to a cousin, who related it to another cousin. Here are the notes from those conversations:

Franz Siegel Lowry was reportedly murdered near Terre Haute, IN while on a train on his way home from visiting his mother. This is the story. He stopped in Terre Haute to visit an old flame. He found her in the hospital and sent her a vase of flowers. She broke the vase and committed suicide by cutting her throat with it. We never heard from my father again. After getting a letter saying he was on his way home, mailed on the train and postmarked in Kansas City. But in 1974 my cousin received a telephone call from a man who said he helped bury my father by the railroad track. They were sure the husband of Ethel Tingley had killed him and they never reported it. He said he did not want to die with it on his mind. At this time we lived in Gracemont, OK where my father was Postmaster.

Was the "Ethel Tingley" one of the Clark County Tingleys? Was she related to the Tingleys who traveled to Oklahoma? We don’t know. In fact, we can find no Ethel Tingley connected to Frank or his family. Moreover, a diligent search has uncovered no record of the Terre Haute hospital suicide or of Frank’s disappearance. Perhaps one of you readers can help. If you know anything about this matter please comment or contact the author.

But as you will see in the next post, we now have more to add to the story.

The Martin County Swayzes

A couple of years ago several of us (all great great grandchildren) researching Rev. Richard Wright and his descendants found that our GG grandfather had been married twice, the first time to Malinda Ann Swayze, a member of the Obediah Swayze family of Vermillion County, Indiana.

About a year ago Frank Helton, one of the Wright researchers, spotted a photo said to show the Martin Co. Indiana home of a John Swayze with some members of his family, including a daughter Dovie, dated “About 1889.” Of course we wondered if the Martin Co. Swayzes and the Vermillion Co. Swayzes were related. Another fellow Wright researcher, Pat Shade, who is always good with details has now written us:

“The date on the pic is wrong as Dovie wasn't born until 1894. So, this pic is probably c: 1900 but hard to tell how young the girls might be. Father, John Swayze, appears to have died in Martin Co, IN in 1897. If existing ancestry trees are accurate, it looks like John Swayze goes back thru a John Drake, Richard, Andrew, etc to Sussex Co., NJ. So, I suspect there is a distant match between this line and the Obediah Swayze line that went to Vermillion Co, IN.”

Now if only we could uncover Rev. Richard’s parentage. But we have found a male Wright descendant of Rev. Richard Wright from his first marriage whose DNA tests may finally provide the evidence we need.

Richard Wright - the Early Days

The approximate route for Richard’s 200-mile Canton Circuit.

The town of Virginia in Cass County, where he and his second
wife were living (with her parents) in 1850, is also shown.

Rev. Richard Wright’s parents remain unidentified. Frustrating is that the problem does have a solution. A yDNA test by an all-male-line descendant of Richard would almost certainly provide matches allowing identification of Richard’s Maryland relatives. Alas, a qualified male Wright has yet to step forward. (My line to Richard is not all male.)

According to the 1889 Methodist Recorder:

“Rev. Richard Wright was born, March 17th, in Baltimore, Maryland and died July, 1889, near Clark Center, Clark County, Illinois. While yet a boy, he was apprenticed to the hatter's trade and, after learning this trade, he continued to work at the business. He came to Illinois with a stock of goods in 1835 and commenced business in Alton.”

Since, as a boy, Richard was apprenticed as a hatter, others in his family might also be hatters. The 1850 federal census shows a William E. Wright living in Baltimore, where Richard was reportedly born, and working as a hatter. But William’s date of birth, c1808, indicates that he could be Richard’s brother, but not his father. William’s father remains unidentified. William died 18 Feb 1863. I, Richard's GG Grandson, show autosomal DNA matches with several descendants of Baltimore-born Wrights, but thus far, they have led to no breakthroughs.

Much about Richard’s early days in the Midwest are puzzling.  From the Diary of Rev. P. J. Strong:

“In the fall of 1837, Richard Wright, a young man lately from Maryland, was sent by the Conference into this region to form what was to be Canton circuit. His work embraced the following points, viz: Turners, Centreville, now called Cuba, Abingdon, Bradfords, six miles east of Knoxville, Prince’s Grove, in Peoria County, and a point on West Bureau, five miles west of Princeton, and all intermediate points, involving a travel of about two hundred miles once in three or four weeks.”

From Rev. Strong’s description, Richard Wright’s Canton Circuit route can be approximated. (One problem is that the towns of Turners and Prince’s Grove cannot be identified.)

On the map below, red dots mark the Illinois counties included in the Canton circuit that Richard Wright began riding around 1837 or 1838. Red circles mark Vermillion County, Indiana, where he married Malinda Ann Swayze in 1840, Cass County, Illinois, where he married Joanna Ruth Paschal in 1844, and Clark County, where he and Joanna spent most of their married lives.

Red dots mark the Illinois counties included in the Canton circuit that Richard Wright began riding around 1837 or 1838. Red circles mark Vermillion County, Indiana, where he married Malinda Ann Swayze in 1840, Cass County, Illinois, where he married Joanna Ruth Paschal in 1844, and Clark County, where he and Joanna spent most of their married lives.

The question is, how did Richard meet Malinda Ann, who was living in Vermillion County, Indiana, when he was a circuit rider in northwestern Illinois. And where were Malinda and Richard living when Richard Wesley their only child who lived to adulthood, was born? Might they have been living in Cass County, near the area Richard worked as an itinerant minister? Reliable records show Richard Wesley as being born in Illinois.

Grant Frederick Tapscott, Genetic Genealogy

The story of Grant Frederick Tapscott was introduced on the Tapscott Family History site. Being of interest both to Wabash Valley Tapscotts and to Wabash Valley Wrights (I happen to fit in both families), the tale continues here.

Isaiah Grant Wright
(collection of Frank Helton

In a nutshell, Mary Emma Sanders of Clark County, Illinois, appears to have had a son, Grant Frederick, born out of wedlock and fathered by a Grant Wright. When Mary Emma married Joseph R. Tapscott, an offspring of Henry the Traveler, Grant Frederick took the surname “Tapscott.” We know of only one Grant Wright in Clark County, Isaiah Grant Wright, son of Richard and Joanna Ruth (Paschal) Wright. But we need proof that the two Grant Wrights are one. yDNA might provide proof (or near-proof), but so far no patrilineal descendants (all male line) of Grant Frederick Tapscott and Richard Wright have stepped forward to take yDNA tests. So we are stuck with autosomal DNA testing.

Rev. Richard Wright, c1865

(courtesy of Patrick Shade).

We now have autosomal test results from a descendant, “X,” of Grant Frederick Tapscott. As expected, X shows matches with descendants of Richard and Joanna (Paschal) Wright by lines not involving Grant Frederick. But X also shows matches with descendants of Sarah Ann Tapscott and Joseph Tapscott, even though Grant Frederick Tapscott is believed to not be a Tapscott genetic descendant. This is puzzling until we realize that there are non-Tapscott routes available for matches. That is one of the problems with autosomal DNA. Matches may come from many lines. The unexpected Tapscott matches are owed to Sanders connections, not Tapscott.

If we are correct in our premise, Grant Frederick Tapscott was descended from Mary Emma Sanders as well as Isaiah Grant Wright. Sarah Ann Tapscott, James Byron Tapscott, Thomas Tapscott, and Joseph R. Tapscott all married descendants of Francis and Mary H. (Mackey) Sanders (see “The Sanders Connection”). Thus, a descendant of Grant Frederick Tapscott, would be genetically related to descendants of these four Wabash Valley Tapscotts.

Red Borders show people descended from Francis and Mary H.  (Macke)
Sanders. Blue indicates a non-paternal event (NPE). Many, many, many
siblings, sons, and daughters have been omitted.

Three additional descendants of Grant Federick Tapscott show matches with me (apparently through my Wright connection), but with no Tapscotts not descended from Richard Wright. DNA testing done to date is consistent with Grant Frederick Tapscott being a descendant of Richard and Joanna (Paschal) Wright but not of Henry and Susan (Bass) Tapscott.

Tear Down This Wall

So far the earliest Wright identified in the Wrights of the Wabash Valley is Rev. Richard, b 24 Mar 1816, d 13 Jul 1889, my gg grandfather. But behind Richard stands a Brick Wall. His predecessors are totally unknown. DNA has proven valuable in finding that Richard was married twice (see blog of Monday, May 15, 2017, “A New Branch on the Tree”). Perhaps it can be used to help find Richard's ancestry.

What we really need is a yDNA test for one of Richard Wright's descendants by an all-male line, a descendant bearing the Wright name. But so far no Wright has stepped up to the plate. And with the absence of yDNA testing, we are forced to rely on autosomal DNA (atDNA) or mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) test results, less than ideal for tracing surnames.

I have joined the FamilyTreeDNA (FTDNA) Wright Surname Project, with participants testing for yDNA, atDNA, and mtDNA, hoping that information at that site will shed some light on Richard Wright’s ancestry. And I am looking, on FTDNA and Ancestry, for my atDNA matches with descendants or Wrights who lived in Maryland. And I have a third cousin doing the same. But "Wright" is a common name, with many matches, and family trees posted with DNA tests are not always trustworthy.

You can help. If you are a male descendant of Rev. Richard Wright and bear the Wright name, please consider taking a yDNA test. And do contact me. In the words of a past U.S. president, “tear down this wall!”

Lydia

And now we come to Obediah Swayze’s wife Lydia. In his book Genealogy of the Swasey Family, Benjamin Franklin Swasey gives Obediah’s wife the name “Forecloe.” He did not, however, provide her given name and “Forecloe” is a totally unknown surname. But in the Chester, New Jersey, Congregational Cemetery, Samuel Swayze’s resting place, one finds a number of people with the name “Fairclo.” Lydia’s name, it turns out, was actually “Fairclo,” a rare but known name, with derivatives “Faircloe” and “Fairclough.” Two books, Genealogy of the Lum Family by Edward H. Lum (1927) and Early Germans of New Jersey by Theodore Frelinghuysen (1895), presents information connecting the Swayze and Fairclo families. And cemetery markers provide additional history. Coupling these books, markers, and just a little research allows us to uncover Lydia’s story. Here it is with a large number of people and details omitted. We are, after all, researching Wrights, not Fairclos or Swayzes.

Elizabeth Fairclo marker.

Buried in Chester Congregational Cemetery, Chester, New Jersey, where Samuel and Penelope Swayze rest, is Thomas Fairclo and his wife Elizabeth, whose birthname may have been “Houshall” or something similar. Their stones nicely provide death dates, ages, and relationships:

Thomas Fairclo marker.

Among their children was Isaiah Fairclo, who appears to have had three wives and twenty-one children. Isaiah’s first wife was Mehitable Swayze, a daughter of Caleb Swayze and a granddaughter of Samuel Swayze. And Mehitable and Isaiah had a daughter, Lydia Fairclo, who became the wife of Obediah Swayze. Lydia and Obediah were second cousins!

Isaiah Fairclo marker, Sycamore, Illinois.

Where Obediah and Lydia met and married is uncertain. It could have been in Canada since Caleb, Mehitable’s father was a loyalist and like his nephew, Israel Swayze II, headed there during or just after the Revolutionary War. It is possible that Lydia and Obediah were there at the same time with family members.

Next time, we will finally get to the identification of the Swayze family members buried in Helt’s Prairie Cemetery (21 Oct 2017 posting).