Black Sheep
Rounding up the Black Sheep: A full-time job
By Mya Vanderpool Gormley © 2018
My family appears to have more than its share of characters and black sheep. Or perhaps I’m just proficient at finding them because I’m incurably nosey. At any rate, I discovered a website where names of the inmates who served in Leavenworth Federal Penitentiary from 1895-1957 is available while searching for information about family’s our horse thief. Doesn’t every family one of those? I found him, but that’s another story.
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| Federal Prison at Leavenworth, Kansas |
While exploring the surname index at
leavenworth-penitentiary (https://www.archives.gov/kansas-city/finding-aids/leavenworth-penitentiary/) I found another relative. Following the instructions at the website, I requested a copy of the case file from the National Archives at Kansas City (paid a small fee) and when the file arrived, it also included a mugshot.
That’s how I learned about John William Vanderpool, who was called Will. He was born 31 August 1880 in Missouri. He received a sentence of one year and one day in the U.S. Penitentiary in Leavenworth, Kansas. His crime was “false pretense” (for mortgaging property that was not his own). He served from 20 October 1903 until he was paroled 4 May 1904 and released 14 August 1904 (for “good time”).
The penitentiary physician’s examination revealed these details about him. Age 23, race: white; nationality: American; occupation: farmer; temperament: phleg. [that sent me to the dictionary — evidently it was short for phlegmatic, meaning “not easily agitated, sluggish”]. He was 5’6”, weighed 163 pounds had dark chestnut hair and beard; eyes: orange, az. blue [sic] (but I’m not sure how to interpret this description); fair complexion, teeth (full, good); and his build was listed as “medium stout.” One arm was crooked at elbow, having been broken and he had a few moles and a couple of scars.
He was received at Leavenworth, Kansas from Vinita, Indian Territory. He could read and write; smoked, drank moderately. His parents were living and he left home when he was 19. He was married; his father was born in Iowa. At the time of his arrest he lived in Barren Fork, in eastern Adair County, Cherokee Nation, Indian Territory; about five miles south of Westville. His wife’s name was Ethel and she lived at Barren Fork. In the early 1900s, this was a station on the Kansas City Southern Railway near Tahlequah.
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| Adair County, Cherokee Nation, IT |
Since the crime evidently was committed in Cherokee Nation, Indian Territory but he was a U.S. citizen that explains why he wound up in the federal penitentiary at Leavenworth, Kansas. A congressional act of March 1, 1895 had designated the Indian Territory divisions as districts and the First Judicial Division at Muskogee became the Northern Judicial District. It was authorized to hold sessions at Vinita, Tahlequah, and Miami.
Additional research reveals his first wife’s name was Ethel Phebus, and they had married 5 February 1900 in Jasper County, Missouri. Apparently they did not have any children. Ethel married secondly James S. Gunning in Jasper County, Missouri on 9 March 1909. Will Vanderpool married secondly Luella “Lulu” Devold (1892-1968) 0n 21 March 1909 in Jasper County, Missouri. They had five children. He died in 1936 in Ottawa County, Oklahoma.
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| John "Will" Vanderpool |
From genealogical records in our Vanderpool one-name study database I ascertained that he was the son of John Quincy Vanderpool (1845-1916) and Mary M. Combs (b. ca 1853); his paternal grandparents were John C. Vanderpool (1818-1859) and Mary “Polly” Sanders (1823-c1857); and the paternal great-grandparents were: Wynant Vanderpool (1782-1838) and Margaret Carver (1782-1855).
One of the joys of genealogy is finding unexpected genealogical information while looking for someone or something else. The challenge is being brave enough to dig in records that might reveal those black sheep.
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