Skaggs Mystery in Arkansas

A Scaggs family has an enduring mystery involving their ancestors.  Three Scaggs brothers were born in Hempstead County, Arkansas between 1860 and 1870.  The parents apparently died in 1870 because the three boys, Elias, Henry Clay and  Ambrose Brice were adopted.  Their descendants would like to know who were the parents of these three boys.

The Mystery of Richard Wade Skaggs

Back in 2014 there was a request on the Ancestry message boards for information about a Richard Wade Skaggs from Western Kentucky.  He supposedly was born in Louisiana and grew up in Kentucky and appears to have ties to a Richard Wade and Mary Ann Skaggs who are found in Louisiana shortly after it was turned over to the United States.  What's really interesting for Skaggs researchers are the lawsuits filed in 1836 against a bunch of Skaggs including this Mary Ann Skaggs and her husband Richard Wade.  The details are below the fold.

Famous Skaggs: "Brother Skaggs" the Gambler

A few years ago I wrote a post about two Skaggs brothers from Western Kentucky who made a living gambling along with other pursuits.  One of the brothers, E. H., was evidently quite famous and wealthy from Faro gambling.  From the book Sucker’s Progress: An Informal History of Gambling in America by Herbert Asbury:

His name was Elijah Skaggs, but he was better known as "Brother Skaggs, the preaching Faro dealer" because of his costume, which never varied throughout his professional life regardless of climate or weather - frock coat and trousers of black broadcloth, black silk vest, white shirt with high-standing collar, white cravat of the choker type wound several times around his scrawny neck, black stove-pipe hat and black patent-leather gaiters.

Famous Skaggs: The Real-Life Maverick Brothers

Remember the Maverick brothers from 1960s TV?  Bret and Bart Maverick were brothers in the Old West who were constantly getting into and out of trouble, usually involving money, women or both.  Well, there were two Skaggs brothers, E.M. and E.H., that were a lot like these guys in the same time period.