The Mystery of Emma Jane Evans of the Mid 1800s Regarding Her Maiden Name

Is Emma Jane an Evans or is Her Surname Piper?

While working on Ancestry.com recently I found a family tree that listed Emma Jane as Emma Jane Piper. Where did Piper come from? I wrote the owner of that information, but no response. So what do I do with this controversy. I have her as Emma Jane Evans and truly believe she was an Evans, particularly because my mother's middle name is her namesake. Emma Jane Evans is mom's great grandmother. Emma's husband and my mom's great granddad is William Bennett. There is no question that William and Emma Jane married and lived in Guilford in the 1880 Census. 

How I proved she is an Evans:

To start with I went to familysearch.org which is free and to ancestry.com where I have a membership.

On familysearch.org I searched for Emma Jane Evans and found her marriage. According to the Maine Marriage Records, Emma Jane Evans married William Bennett on October 3, 1862. They married in Guilford, Maine which is in Piscataquis County. There are a lot of my family's ancestors in Guilford. This is a good fit.

It makes sense to select a federal census from either website for Guilford, Maine. I selected the 1900 census. In this census William Bennett and wife Emma Bennett are 69 and 52 years of age respectively and are living with their daughter Clara Nickerson's family. Clara is one of their daughters and she did marry a Nickerson so this is a good fit also.

The Piper genealogist had her Emma Jane being born in June 1847 and dying in 1898 on October 14, in Gilead Maine. Since this is the 1900 census, the mysterious Emma Jane "Piper" Bennett is already deceased. Piper is the wrong surname. Emma Jane Evans Bennett was born in the same month and year, but she is still alive in 1900.

The census shows me that Emma Jane and William have been married 37 years, or since about 1863. I know from the marriage records that they married on October 3, 1862; so this fact is verified additionally.

Next I looked at the census page for Guilford in Piscataquis County Maine and found my family surnames of Bennett, Evans, and Titcomb as close neighbors. This is outstanding information.

Living on North Guilford Road is the Nickerson family, the home where Emma Jane and William are living. The head of the household is their son-in-law Alexander Nickerson, his wife Clara, the three Nickerson children, and my mother's grandparents. This all fits well.

Next door to this Nickerson home is an Evans residence. Stewart and Annie P. Evans with their two children live here along with Stewart's brother James. An Evans family living next door to another couple of Evans is not likely a coincidence, so this is again a very good fit.

The next house is the Titcomb home of John P. and Emmie Titcomb. Titcombs are ancestors of my family, so we have another good family fit.

I did pick up a fact in the 1900 census that I did not know. Emma Jane Evans Bennett was in "nursing."

I am no longer concerned about Emma Jane "Piper". I think my proof for the surname Evans is very solid. I could gather a lot more through other censuses but don't see a need for this research at this point. William Bennett and Emma Jane Evans Bennett are my mother's great grandparents.

Research is good. Use the information you gather to build a timeline for your family members and the facts unveil themselves nicely.

Ruth Ridgeway Cator Fowler Ultimately Dies as a result of Bootlegger Auto Crash in DC

Ruth and two of her Cator children

On July 7, 1929, at the age of 33, Ruth Fowler died of pneumonia following an auto accident approximately two weeks earlier.  Ruth's sister "Aunt Elvie" (Mrs. Elva J. Ridgeway Trammell) relayed the story to the family and Mary Alice Cator told it to me many years later:

In 1929 my husband's grandmother, Ruth Alice Ridgeway (Cator) Fowler lived with her husband George and her three daughters by her first husband, my husband's grandfather Charles Conrad Cator, Jr. 

The Fowlers resided at 204 F Street NW in Apartment 2.  He worked in "autos."  Georgetown University has a law center campus here now.

George Fowler and Ruth had been driving around one of the street circles in Washington DC when revenuers, chasing bootleggers, slammed into their car.  Ruth struck her head very hard. She was taken to Providence Hospital but refused to stay there.  Ruth was brought home on a stretcher to their apartment on F Street.

The accident took a lot out of her. One of Ruth's friends cared for her at home for two weeks even though that friend was suffering from a cold.  While recovering, Ruth contracted the cold or the flu. Her system failed to be able to handle the overwhelming accident and illness simultaneously and she worsened.  Ruth was taken back to Old Providence Hospital in Washington DC where she died.

Grandmother Ruth had no children by her then husband, George Fowler, but Grandmother Ruth and Granddaddy Charlie Cator Jr.'s children were still underage.  Bernice (in the flowered dress) was born in 1915, was only 14; Evelyn was 12; and Mary Alice Cator was just 11.  It is said that the three girls spent a short time in a local orphanage before being moved to live with their father, Charlie Cator, in Washington DC.  This meant that Charlie Jr and his 2nd wife Florence were now parenting 6 daughters including Jerri (Florence's daughter), and both Dorothy and Cora Cator, children of Florence and Charlie Jr.  All were living at 910 G Street, SE in DC.

About Prohibition and Washington DC

During Prohibition, people, states and political sides referred to themselves as "wet" or "dry." During this American experiment in trying to be freed from alcohol, the efforts were quickly unraveled. 

In the book, Prohibition in Washington, D.C.: How Dry We Weren't it was stated that bootleggers routinely, week after week, brought 22,000 gallons of whiskey, moonshine and the like to DC's 3000 speakeasies.  The bootleggers traveled about town with their clandestine goods, the revenuers raced after and tried to detain and arrest the bootleggers and confiscate their illegal goods.  Prohibition began to fade in 1933. 

It is interesting to note that drinking was not illegal. Enforcement was aimed at banning or barring the making, selling and shipping of alcohol for consumption.*

* http://blog.constitutioncenter.org/2012/12/five-interesting-facts-about-prohibition%E2%80%99s-end-in-1933/