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.