Re: Paris Gorman Wampler to Jasper Co Mo
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In reply to:
Paris Gorman Wampler to Jasper Co Mo
Dord 7/23/02
Lynn:
I hope that you receive this info as your post is very old and I have not checked this forum for several years.I am not sure that you have found the info that you are looking for, but I belong to the Monroe County, Indina mailing list.In 1999, there was a posting regarding the death of Mrs. Wampler in 1880 in a newspaper article that was transcribed to the mailing list.Mr. Alan W. Tate was kind enough to enlighted on what he knows on Paris Gorman Wampler.I have included that here.If you have anyother questions, please direct them to Mr. Tate.He can be reached at [email protected].
Hope this helps,
Angel Gebhart
Researching: Monroe Roots of Abrams, Baugh, Baxter, Cary, Cutright, Deckard,DeVar, Headley/Headlee, Hildenburg, Hinkle, Lentz, Lucas, Miller, Paul, Rob(e)y, Sea, Skidmore, Wilson
To: [email protected]
Following is a biography of Paris Wampler, a 19th century Monroe Co. boy from a well-known local family who moved west, where he found plenty of trouble.You'll see much of Paris' genealogical information comes from penitentiary records.The biography includes connections to many allied families of Monroe County.
I prepared the biography with the help of two of his descendants who live out west.Please give it look, if you have more information on our relative, let us know.
Paris Gorman Wampler was born in October, 1860 in Monroe County, Indiana, the ninth and last child of Adam Wampler and Sarah See Wampler.He was born a full eight years after their eighth child, his father was 49 and his mother was almost 44 when he was born on his parent’s farm in Salt Creek Township.Paris was 11 when his mother died.His father remarried within five months to Sarah Tate Woodward, who moved onto the family’s farm and took care of Adam’s younger children.
Adam Wampler died in 1876, when Paris was 15.Paris’ older siblings then began a 12-year legal battle with their stepmother, Sarah, over Adam’s estate.Paris was represented in the legal battle by his legal guardian, Joseph Handy, who had to petition the court on more than one occasion to obtain funds for the boy’s support.
Paris got into trouble with the law in 1878.In September of that year, five counts of carrying a concealed weapon were brought against Paris at the Monroe County Circuit Court.Paris was found guilty on three of the counts and charged a two-dollar fine on each.The other two counts were dismissed.
Paris married Barbary Jane Baugh, the daughter of his first cousin, Sarah Baxter Baugh, in Monroe County, Indiana on November 22, 1879.Paris was 19, his new wife, who was known as Jane, was 21.They settled in Salt Creek Township next to Jane’s uncle, James O. Baxter, and his wife Amanda Smith Baxter.In 1880 the census indicated Jane suffered from a “breast complaint”.She died a short time later.Paris moved to Illinois after his wife’s death.There he married Catherine Whitchurch in St. Clair County, Illinois on October 5, 1885.
Catherine was a local girl, the daughter of Francis and Clarinda Whitchurch of St. Clair County.Paris and Catherine lived in the town of Freeburg, 13 miles southeast of St. Louis, Missouri.Their first child, Garman Wampler, was born there in September, 1886. In about 1888 or 1889, Paris and Catherine moved to Missouri.The demand for lead and zinc in America had caused a mining boom in the western Ozarks and Paris moved to Webb City, Missouri, in Jasper County, where he was a laborer in a local zinc mine.Over the next fifteen years, he and Catherine purchased a house and had five more children.It is not known what happened to his marriage to Catherine Wampler, but in 1908 Paris remarried to Florence Daniel.Later that year he committed the first of several offenses that resulted in imprisonment in the Missouri State Penitentiary.Paris along with four other men were found guilty of forgery in Jasper County, Missouri.Three of the men were sentenced to five-year terms, the other two, including Paris, were sentenced to two years at the state penitentiary near Jefferson City, Missouri.Paris began his sentence on December 30, 1908.Prison records indicate he was 5’6”, 175 pounds, with gray hair and brown eyes.
Paris was sentenced to another term in the Missouri State Penitentiary beginning on November 18, 1910, this time to a two-year term for assault with intent to kill.Prison records indicate he was 5’6” tall, but had dropped to 161 pounds.The records also indicate Paris had a problem with alcohol.Paris and Florence divorced in 1911. On April 4, 1915, Paris’ 14-year-old daughter, Pansy, gave birth to an illegitimate son, Charles Wampler.Pansy and the baby entered the Jasper County, Missouri poor farm as homeless persons in May, 1915.The child’s father is purportedly Charles Daniel, who along with Paris, were convicted later that year for incest with a female under the age of 15.Paris was sent back to the Missouri State Penitentiary with a seven-year sentence.He served the term working in the prison shoe shop.
Little is known about Paris after the third prison term ended in the 1920s.He may have moved to Texas.One family member reported seeing Paris one day in the middle 1920s accompanied by Lute Wampler in Oklahoma, driving a prairie schooner covered wagon with a black horse named Prince tied to the back.
The children of Paris Gorman Wampler and Catherine Whitchurch:
1.Garman Wampler was born in September, 1886 in St. Clair County, Illinois.
2.Ethel N. Wampler was born in November, 1889 in Jasper Co., Missouri.She married Frank Rice of Webb City, Missouri on November 23, 1907 in Carthage, Missouri.
3.Leonard A. Wampler was born in November, 1891 in Missouri.He lived in Oklahoma in the 1920s.
4.Dewey E. Wampler was born in October, 1898 in Jasper Co., Missouri.In 1915 he was a witness against his father in his incest trial in Jasper Co., Missouri.In 1920, he and his brother Luther were living in the household of William Treadwell and his wife Irene in Ottawa Co., Oklahoma.At the time, Dewey was working in a zinc mine.
5.Pansy Wampler was born in December, 1900.She had an illegitimate son, Charles Wampler, in April, 1915.The child died during infancy.
6.Luther Wampler, called Lute, was born in 1904 in Arkansas.In 1920, he and his brother Dewey were living in the household of William Treadwell and his wife Irene in Ottawa Co., Oklahoma.At the time, Luther was working in a zinc mine.