Evans family

The Evans family of Franklin, Warren County, Ohio, USA

When we were transcribing the 1911 Census records for Totley, one of the more intriguing entries was for a family of Americans living at Hill Crest, Baslow Road - the last of the three large houses above the Fleur de Lys. We wanted to know who they were and what became of them. Whilst our research is in its infancy, we thought we would tell you about the progress we have made, partly in the hope that it may interest an American reader who has access to on-line Census, BMD and similar information and who might be able to add to our knowledge.

Hill Crest, Baslow Road, built in 1906; the Evans Family occupied 363 (on right)

The head of the household was Dr. Rice Kemper Evans, American Vice and Deputy Consul in Sheffield, who was born on 3 Feb 1879, the son of Dr. Firman Richard Evans and Sallie Fulton Taylor of Franklin, Ohio. Rice Evans's family had been physicians in Franklin continuously since 1827 when his great-grandfather, Dr. Otho Evans, moved his practice there from neighbouring Butler County. His great-great-grandfather, John Noble Cumming Schenck, was the brother of the founder of the town.

Rice Evans had graduated from the Miami Medical College, Cincinnati in 1902 and practised medicine until early 1909 when he entered the diplomatic service and, after declining the position of Vice Consul in Santiago, Cuba, he was appointed by President Taft to a commission in Sheffield on 26 April. Rice Evans had married Louise Dillon Cass (born 1878), daughter of Will Cass and Sarah Shiflett of Blanchester, Ohio on 20 Aug 1900.

They sailed from Philadelphia aboard the Friesland and disembarked at Liverpool on 25 May 1909 accompanied by their four children: Cornelia Sarah (born 5 Sep 1901), Richard Pierce known as Dick (born 29 Aug 1903), Bergen Baldwin (born 19 Sep 1904) and Alyse (born circa 1908). Another daughter, Joan (born 22 Nov 1905) had died in infancy in America in 1906. Cornelia was not present at Hill Crest on census night, 2 Apr 1911, and we are still trying to trace her.

The American Consulate was in part of the structure built in 1897 for William Fosters & Sons, gents outfitters; designed by Flockton, Gibbs & Flockton of Sheffield

The American Consulate had been established in Sheffield in 1863 and was to continue until 1940. When Rice Evans worked there, it was located in the Fosters Building on High Street, where McDonalds is now. Its main role was to facilitate trade between the two countries and Rice Evans filed a number of reports on the steel and cutlery industries. He also wrote a detailed account of the business transacted by Sheffield's seventeen cinematograph theatres noting that whilst American-made action films, particularly westerns, were very popular the standard of British-made films was very high and their subject matter was more geared to educate and enlighten their audiences. Rice Evans used his spare time to obtain a degree with a first in international law at Sheffield University. He and his family were delighted with England and they made many friends.

The family lived together in Totley until 1915 when Rice Evans’s salary was becoming insufficient to support his large family, daughter Blancet having been born in 1912. With the outbreak of World War I, he decided to send the children back to America to live with their great aunt Cornelia Schenck in Franklin. The passenger register of the Haverford shows that the children, aged between 2 and 13, sailed from Liverpool on 27 Jan 1915 bound for Philadelphia. From there they made their way to the house of their grandparents, completing the entire journey unaccompanied by adults. Their mother never saw them again; she died of tuberculosis at home in Totley on 15 Apr 1917 aged 38. Her remains were cremated and her ashes were sent home to Ohio.

(right to left) an infant Dr. Rice K. Evans, father Dr. Firman R. Evans, grandfather Dr. Richard P. Evans, great-grandfather Dr. Otho Evans

After the war Rice Evans made a ten week visit home to see his family, departing from Liverpool on 7 Mar 1919 aboard the Minnedosa, landing at St. John, New Brunswick. He arrived back in Liverpool on 18 May 1919 having sailed from Montreal on the Metagama and six days later he married, by licence, Dorothy Maud Davis.

Dorothy had been born in Birmingham, Warwickshire, in 1890 the fourth child of William Henry Davis, a wine and spirit merchant from Bury, Lancashire and his Canadian wife Emma Maud Doughty. Dorothy had been trained as a nurse and had worked in children's hospitals. The Butler County Democrat reported that Rice Evans had met his bride while working in the hospital service during the war. Perhaps they met at Totley Bents. Wounded soldiers from the front line in France were brought to a field hospital on the recreation ground adjoining The Cricket Inn. Rice Evans was a frequent visitor and was greatly appreciated for his expertise.

The Democrat was mistaken, however, in reporting that the wedding took place in Sheffield when actually it was at All Saints Parish Church, Trefonen, Shropshire about three miles from the Welsh border. Sensing a story here, we have tried to find out what the connection was between the couple and this small village. By sending for the marriage certificate and with help from the Gateacre Society, we think we have found it.

The bride and groom gave their residence as 'The Old Malthouse, Trefonen' and the witnesses were Dorothy's brothers Leonard and William and also Viva Chapple-Gill. We have been able to trace Leonard Davis in the 1911 Census living with his wife and son in south Liverpool and employed as a chauffeur. The Chapple-Gill family, Liverpool cotton merchants, were living at nearby Gateacre when - as family legend has it - their youngest daughter Viva ran off with the chauffeur to live happily ever after in mid-Wales. The chauffeur's name was not remembered but it was thought that he had a wife. Too much of a coincidence, surely? But why the Welsh Borders? The Gill Family had many connections with Montgomeryshire: family members having been High Sherriff of the county at various times. Whilst Viva remained in the area for the rest of her life, Leonard returned to Liverpool to be reunited with his family.

All Saints Parish Church, Trefonen (from a photo by John Haynes)

Kelly's Trade directory for Sheffield & Rotherham had the Evanses living at Hill Crest, Totley in 1925, but Dorothy Evans gave her address as c/o U.S. Consulate, Sheffield, when she sailed alone from Southampton to New York on 31 May 1928 aboard the President Roosevelt. We don't know the details of her husband's departure for home but the Florida Passenger Lists 1898-1963 evidently show his arrival at Key West on 30 Apr 1928.

What we do know is that before he left England, Rice Evans made his mark as a rock climber important enough to be acclaimed in Colin Wells’s book Who’s Who in British Climbing published as recently as 2008. Rice Evans was described as powerfully built with an enormous reach and he was noted for his pleasantness, competence and strength rather than for exceptional skill. He was said to be the undisputed monarch of Stanage Edge, Derbyshire in the 1920s. The Surgeon’s Saunter Area, a high buttress, was named after him by Fred Piggott who is credited with a first ascent of the climb Doctor’s Chimney in 1929. Rice Evans's most enduring contribution to climbing was to invent the expression 'layback' to describe the posture of a climber pulling out on an edge of a crack or flake, with his feet on the opposite wall. The term has since acquired a permanent and international status. A climbing friend said that Rice Evans had an insatiable appetite for the gritstone edge but when the time was approaching to return home to America he became so morose that he would not even talk about climbing any more.

At the time the census was taken on 1 Apr 1930, Rice and Dorothy Evans were living in Dayton, Ohio and they were still living there on 1 Apr 1940 when their occupations were described as personnel directors working in the electrical motors manufacturing industry. Dorothy Evans passed away in 1951 and Rice Evans died in Dayton on 30 Nov 1957. They are buried in the family grave at Woodhill Cemetery, Franklin.

Evans Family grave, Woodhill Cemetery, Franklin, Ohio

Cornelia Evans studied at Lasell Seminary for Young Women and Wellesley College, both in Massachusetts, and at Columbia University, New York City. She became a writer of articles, essays, short novels such as the prize-winning The Cloud of Witnesses and the dramatization Journey into the Fog: the Story of Vitus Bering and the Bering Sea. In 1930, she married Harry Wright Goodhue and the couple lived in Greenwich Village, New York. Her husband was born in 1905 at Cambridge, Massachusetts, the eldest son of Harry Eldredge (1873-1918) and Mary Louise Wright Goodhue.

Wright, as he was known to distinguish him from his father, became a brilliant stained glass artist who designed and fabricated windows for more than thirty churches and exhibited his work at the Boston Society for Arts and Crafts. Wright Goodhue committed suicide in 1931 at age 26.

Cornelia then had a liaison with folksinger-songwriter Sam Eskin, the son of Morris and Rachel Eskin, who was born on 5 Jul 1898 in Washington, D.C. Their son Otho Evans Eskin was born in New York City in 1935. Otho and Cornelia were living at 64 Horatio Street, New York City when the census was taken on 1 Apr 1940. Cornelia's occupation was recorded as a researcher in the glass manufacturing industry. During the War years she worked with the Red Cross in the writing and editing of pamphlets and brochures and by the 1950s she had become a writing consultant to the Department of Health, Education and Welfare in Washington D.C.

Otho's half-brother Stanley Eskin later described Cornelia as "an unpretty woman but most interesting with a razor-sharp mind and a gift for words". Cornelia lived with Sam for only a brief period and kept their son at a distance from him. Neverless she maintained a cordial relationship with him for the rest of his life which was ended by a sudden heart attack on 7 Sep 1974.

Cornelia returned to Totley around this time to visit the place of her childhood and to reminisce about her family with locals like Dan Reynolds who lived in her old house. Cornelia Cass Evans Goodhue died in 1986.

(left to right) Otho, Morris, Stanley and Sam Eskin

Dick Evans returned to Sheffield soon after the war ended. Aged 15 he sailed alone from Philadelphia aboard the Northland, docking in Liverpool on 12 Jun 1919. Dick gave his intended address as Totley, Sheffield and his occupation as student.

Dick married Phyllis Helen Swift, the daughter of George Edward Cooper Swift and Caroline Annie Taylor of 619 Abbeydale Road in Sheffield on 5 May 1925. Two days later the couple left Liverpool aboard the Oriana for Havana, Cuba. The passenger register shows the couple's last address as 46 Sandford Grove Road, Sheffield and Dick's occupation as a steelworker.

On 31 Aug 1928 Dick and Phyllis Evans arrived back in Sheffield for a short visit having sailed from Havana to Liverpool aboard the Orbita. The passenger register shows the same Sheffield address as before but Dick's occupation in Cuba had been a fruit farmer. They returned to Havana on the same ship which departed Liverpool on 1 Nov 1928.

The family appeared in the 1930 census in Atlanta, Georgia and the following year they were living in St Louis, Missouri where their son Pierce Firman Taylor Evans was born on 26 Oct. They were still living in St Louis in 1935 when Phyllis and Pierce made a brief visit to England sailing from New York to Liverpool aboard the Laconia. Phyllis gave the current addess of her parents, 10 Edgefield Road, Sheffield.

A daughter, Margaret, was born in Illinois on 27 Apr 1939 and the family of four appeared in the 1940 census for Hasbrough Heights, New Jersey where Dick was employed as a salesman in the steel industry. Phyllis Evans made a further visit to Sheffield in the summer of 1956, arriving on the United States in Southampton on 11 Jul and returning on the same ship on 23 Aug. She was accompanied by her 17 years old daughter Margaret and gave her address as 31 Dover Road, Sheffield. The passenger register on the return voyage recorded Phyllis's occupation as a teacher and Margaret's as a student.

In his Memoirs, Dan Reynolds remembers young Dick Evans as a "real daredevil". Following Cornelia's visit to Totley in 1973, Dan and Dick corresponded for a number of years. In an interview given to the (Sheffield) Morning Telegraph on 15 Nov 1976 Dan said that Dick's letters were full of old Totley memories and photographs of old village properties long since pulled down.

Dick Evans died on 29 Apr 1980 in Hackensack, New Jersey.

Bergen Evans with students in 1952

Bergen Evans also crossed the Atlantic again, the first time as an 18 year old working his way as a pantry hand on board the Schoharie in the summer of 1923. After schooling in Totley ("a village school that would have appalled Dickens"), Abbeydale and Franklin, he had entered Miami University in Oxford, Ohio at age 15. He graduated in 1924, then earned an M.A. from Harvard in 1925 and went back to Miami University to teach English from 1925 to 1928. Bergen returned to England as a Rhodes Scholar from 1929 to 1931 receiving a B. Litt. from Oxford University in 1930. A Ph.D. in English Philology from Harvard followed in 1932 which made him the 5th generation Dr. Evans but the first not to practice medicine.

In September 1932 Bergen Evans began a teaching career at Northwestern University, Evanston, Illinois and remained there until his retirement in 1974 being promoted to Professor in 1944. His courses were very popular and attracted more students than any other offered by the University. As one former student recalled "His class was an intellectual nirvana. He could make the mustiest, crustiest, dustiest literature as vibrant as hell."

Bergen Evans the tv panel show host

He simultaneously followed a second career as an author, radio and television panel-show host and he also prepared questions and validated answers for the television series $64,000 Question. His scholarly books include A Dictionary of Contemporary American Usage which he co-wrote with his sister Cornelia. The work took seven years to come to publication in 1957. Collaboration between the two siblings was nothing new; it had begun in Totley when the pair had teamed up to write plays and verses for their family's approval.

Cornelia and Bergen Evans, 1957

Bergen Evans also wrote a Dictionary of Quotations (1968) and a Dictionary of Mythology, Mainly Classical (1970). Known for his dry wit and outspoken style, he was a much sought-after speaker and was himself much quoted.

Bergen Evans was a proponent of sceptism: he assumed that everyone was a liar until proven otherwise and he delighted in debunking widely held misconceptions. His best known works were in this field, The Natural History of Nonsense, in 1946 and The Spoor of Spooks and Other Nonsense, in 1954. He had many interesting offers from both academic and commercial organisations including one from Life magazine which offered him a full-time post to edit Winston Churchill’s memoirs.

Bergen Evans and Harley-Davidson, 1952

On 5 Aug 1939, Bergen Evans married Jean Whinery, the daughter of Charles Crawford Whinery, the American editor of the 11th edition of Encyclopaedia Britannica. They had two sons: Derek, born in 1943 and Scott, born in 1945. In their later years they lived on a small farm in Northfield, Illinois where Bergen liked to ride his Harley-Davidson motorcycle.

Bergen Evans died on 4 Feb 1978. He left 83 boxes of material to the Northwestern University Archives containing educational papers, research files, television and radio program files, speeches and correspondence including 13 letters from his friend Groucho Marx who appeared on his television show. Jean Evans died on 9 Jun 2011 aged 99.

Bergen and Jean Evans with their two sons in 1952

Alyse Evans went to school in Franklin and then entered Miami University in Oxford, Ohio in 1925. She made a short visit to England in 1932 arriving from New York on 15 Jul at Southampton on the Majestic and returning from Liverpool on 20 Aug aboard the Baltic. Her occupation was a teacher and her intended address in England was University College, Oxford, the same address as that given by her brother Bergen who had arrived back in England shortly before her on the Ile de France.

Alyse married Leslie John Fahey sometime between 26 Dec 1932, when his first wife Marguerite died, and July 1936 when she visited England with her husband. They lived in Cleveland. Leslie had been a salesman but by this trip he was a manager; Alyse was now a housewife. The couple made a further trip across the Atlantic in 1951 passing through England on their way to the continent. Their return voyage on 15 Jun from Southampton to New York was aboard Cunard's Queen Elizabeth. Leslie Fahey died on 14 Jun 1983 aged 86 and Alyse on 7 Jun 1987 aged 79, both in Cleveland.

Not much reliable information has come to light about Rice and Louise Evans's youngest daughter who was born at Hill Crest in Totley on 1 Sep 1912. The spelling of her forename seems to have caused problems all her life. We have obtained a copy of her birth certificate and, for sure, her father registered the name as Blancet, but it was spelled Blachette on the passenger list when, in 1915, she left Liverpool and Blanchette when she arrived in Philadelphia.

From the family gravestone we can see that Blancett died in 1934, having married a Mr. Raznick. Her obituary appeared on page 63 of the Franklin Chronicle dated 23 Aug 1934 but so far we have been unable to obtain a copy of it. We have managed to trace a marriage in Littleton, Arapahoe County, Colorado to E. E. Raznick (born c. 1902) and Blanchett Evans on 6 Mar 1930.

There is a family tree associated with this article which gives many of the sources of our information.

It is found at: http://trees.ancestry.co.uk/tree/53337809/family

Copies of the following books are available to borrow for members of Totley History Group:

A Dictionary of Contemporary American Usage by Bergen Evans and Cornelia Evans. Published by Random House, New York. 1957. Seventh Printing
Dictionary of Quotations Collected and Arranged and with Comments by Bergen Evans. Published by Avenel Books, New York. 1978 Printing.
The Natural History of Nonsense by Bergen Evans. Published by Michael Joseph Ltd, London. Second Impression, November 1947.
The Spoor of Spooks and Other Nonsense by Bergen Evans. Published by Alfred A. Knopf, New York. First Edition. 1954
Who's Who In British Climbing by Colin Wells. Published by The Climbing Company Ltd, Buxton, Derbyshire. First Edition. 2008
Rock Climbs in the Peak. Volume 1. The Sheffield-Stanage Area. Edited by Eric Byne. Published by Cade & Co (Publications) Ltd. 1963. Contains a photo of Rice Evans leading the Crab Crawl, Stanage Edge, by P.A. Barnes and mention in the bibliography of Rice's own contributions to rock climbing literature.
Peak Rock. the history, the routes, the climbers. by Phil Kelly, Graham Hoey, Giles Barker et. al. Published by Vertebrate Publishing. 2014 Reprinting. Contains a reproduction of Rice Evans's passport photo and photos on Doctor's Chimney and Manhatten Chimney, Stanage Edge.

Update

In May 2016 we were surprised and delighted to receive correspondence from members of the family of Dr. Rice K. Evans, the American Vice and Deputy Consul in Sheffield, who lived in Totley from 1909 to 1928. Our article on the Evans Family was one of the earliest to appear on our website in the spring of 2013. Brian Duckworth, from West Roxbury, Massachusetts, wrote to say how much he enjoyed reading the article. Brian married Rice's great granddaughter Katherine Evans Eskin. Katherine's sister, Cornelia (Neal), who lives in Munich, had come across the article and mentioned it to other members of the family. Brian's email was followed shortly afterwards by one from the sisters' father, Otho Evans Eskin. Otho has sent us extracts from his memoirs and given us permission to publish them together with several family photographs.