1820 Lincoln County, Tennessee CensusThey were living next to Hiram Webb and also next to James Evans. We still aren't sure about the relationship of Thomas and James. They may have been brothers or maybe James was Thomas' father. They moved at some point in the next decade down to what is today Lamar County, Alabama, around the Pine Springs community. In 1825, Thomas bought 80 acres of land on the Bartahatchee River bottom right north of where Alabama State Highway 17 crosses it today. They were living there in the 1830 census. There are a number of problems with this census, but the number of children we expect matches up with the number that they have. It is certainly the right family, but the ages are almost all about two years off what we might expect given dates of birth provided by them all as adults much later:
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Thomas Evans
1 male 18-26 (a younger brother?)
1 male 26-45 (Thomas, 29)
1 female 16-26 (Mary, ca 23)
Employed in agriculture
1830 Marion (modern Lamar) County, Alabama CensusIn 1835, Tom bought 40 more acres of land just to the east of modern State Highway 17 today in the middle of what is known as Pine Springs. It had better farmland and wasn't such a swampy area.
Thomas Evans
2 Males under 5 (Will Tom, 4; John ca. 0?)
1 Male 5-10 (Charles, 7)
1 Male 40-50 (Thomas, 39)
1 Female 5-10 (Louisa J. ca. 2?)
2 Females 10-15 (Betty ca. 8?; Mary A. ca. 5?)
1 Female 20-30 (Mary, 30)
Unknown Evans (md. ?)
From the 1830 and 1840 census, it looks as though one
male child of Thomas and Mary was living with them before 1850, but we do
not know if he died before he reached an adult age or if he moved away. I
think it's likely that he died young.
Elizabeth C. "Betsy" Evans (md. William A. Young, then Barzilla F. Weatherford)
Betsy (or Betty) was born in 1822, probably in Alabama.
She married William Young in 1836 and had quite a few children, some
of whom moved to Texas but some stayed behind in Northwest Alabama. He
was about six years older than she was, and he died on January 18, 1864,
and she was left with a house full of young children. She was living
with her daughter for a while, but at some point after 1880, she married
Barzilla F. Weatherford, his third marriage. He was born in 1806 and
was 16 years older than her. She died at some point before September
of 1895, probably in Lamar County. She had no known children by Mr.
Weatherford.
Charles Evans (md. ?)
It looks like the Charles Evans on the 1840 census in
Marion County could be one of Thomas' oldest children, but I've never seen
anything to absolutely confirm this. The census entry is confusing
though, showing two people at 10-15, and one under 10.
Mary A. Evans (md. James Green Young)
Mary was born in August of 1825 in Alabama. She
and James Green had at least thirteen children. She was listed on the
1900 census in Lamar County with one servant, but I have not been able to
find anything else about what happened to her children when they were grown.
Louisa Jane Evans (md. James M. Ray)
Louisa Jane was born about 1826 and she and James must
have married in about 1845. She had six known children, one of whom
died young and one looks like he died in the Civil War. She passed
away on October 29, 1877 (maybe 1874?) and was buried in Wesley Chapel Cemetery,
Lamar County, Alabama. James might have remarried after she died (if
that was in 1874), but he died soon after, in 1875.
William Thomas Evans (md. Narcissa Jane Winstead)
Tom was very well known in the Sulligent area. He
was born on January 26, 1826, and married Narcissa Jane about 1847. They
never had any children though. When he passed away on September 28,
1895, and was buried in the Evans Cemetery, their niece Eliza Ann Evans Blaylock
moved in with them for a number of years. Narcissa Jane lived until
April 14, 1922, when she passed away at age 95.
John C. G. Evans (md. Mary A. Lee)
John was born about 1831 in the Pine Springs area. Sometime
shortly after 1850, he married Mary A. Lee and had a number of children.
He was still living in 1880 in Lamar County, but I have never seen
his tombstone or found out what happened to any of his eight or so children.
Richard Green Evans (md. Nancy Ann Noe)
We know more about Richard Green than any of Thomas and
Mary's children. He was born on January 10, 1835 in Pine Springs. He
and Nancy married in 1857 and had ten children, eight of which lived to an
adult age. Two of their kids moved out west, but the rest stayed in
the area. He passed away in 1908 at the age of 72. She died in
1923 at the age of 84. They are both buried in the Evans Cemetery.