Ada and William Mankey

It was probably in the fall of 1885 that 18 year-old Ada Bevers met William Mankey.  Ada had immigrated from England only about 10 months prior.  William, having immigrated from England in 18751 and having worked (as of 1880) in a mine in Deer Park Township, La Salle County, Illinois,2 by 1882 had obtained a tract of land in Clark County, Dakota Territory.3  In October 1885 Ada’s father, Alfred C. Bevers, was assigned to be the supply pastor of the Henry Methodist Episcopal (M. E.) Church in southwestern Codington County, Dakota Territory.4  The charge may have included a congregation located in Garden City as well, which was about 12 miles to the northwest of Henry, over the county line in Clark County.  It is known that in 1888, William and his mother were members of the Garden City congregation and William was also a steward of the Henry Charge.5  

Ada’s family lived in Henry for two years, then her father was assigned to Wolsey M. E. Church and the following year he was assigned to Bradley M. E. Church.  Around this time period, Alfred submitted a claim for a homestead in Phipps Township, in western Codington County, about 10 miles northeast of Garden City.  When Alfred and his wife Mary celebrated their 25th wedding anniversary in September 1889 at their small home on the homestead, it is believed that William attended the gathering.  (See a photograph of the group attending the celebration in Ada, Gertie and Maude). 

Ada and William would eventually marry on October 28, 1891.6  During the next decade, they lived on their farm in Clark County and they would have three children born to them.  Their first child, Florence Gertrude, was born on October 16, 1892.7  Her namesakes were Ada’s sisters, Florence who had died as an infant and Gertrude who was still living with Ada’s parents.  On April 13, 1894, Ada gave birth to William Arthur,8 named after his father of course and one of Ada’s deceased brothers Arthur.  On June 7, 1897, George Floyd was born, named after Ada’s eldest brother George, who was living in Philadelphia.9 By 1898, Ada’s parents and sisters Gertrude and Maude had moved to De Smet, the county seat of Kingsbury County, about 50 miles to the south of William and Ada’s farm.

William and Ada Mankey

When the 1900 United States census was taken, 32-year-old Ada and 42-year-old William had been married for eight years.10  They were living on the farm that they owned in Eden Township, Clark County.  William was a farmer and a naturalized citizen, having lived in the United States for 25 years.  The census recorded that Ada had immigrated in 1884 and had been in the United States for 16 years.  She was not a naturalized citizen (although she had submitted her intention to become a citizen in 1889.)11  Seven year-old Florence had attended five months of school that year.  W. Arthur was six years-old and G. Floyd was two years old.  On the section to the east of William and Ada’s farm, William’s mother Mary lived with his brother Tobias, his sister Margaret Minor and Margaret’s three children.12  William’s father Thomas had passed away in 1899 and is buried in Garden City Cemetery.13

The quarter section in Eden Township that William and Ada owned can be found on a 1900 map of Clark County; the farm is about a mile north of Garden City and labeled with Ada’s name.14  Adjacent to Ada and William’s farm, the map shows the quarter section owned by Mary Mankey, and to the east of her farm, William’s brother Thomas Mankey held a quarter section.  Not far away in Maydell Township to the north were the farms of William’s brothers Tobias and James Mankey.

Cropped from a map of Clark County, South Dakota, dated ca. 1900.

William and Ada added another daughter to their family, Hazel Maude, on September 14, 1904.15  She was named after Ada’s youngest sister Maude.  When the South Dakota census was taken in 1905, the Mankey family was still living at the same location in Eden Township.  Four years later, William’s mother passed away in 1909 and was buried with his father in Garden City Cemetery.16

In late winter 1909, Ada made a trip to De Smet to visit her parents for several days.  Possibly she traveled by train.  The Chicago, Milwaukee and Saint Paul Railway had an extension which had stations at Garden City and Lake Preston, a town ten miles to the east of De Smet.  A year and a half after this visit, Ada’s mother, who had been afflicted with diabetes for nearly four years, passed away in July 1910.17  Shortly afterwards, Ada’s father spent a month at Ada’s home and her sister Gertrude joined them after visiting some friends.

Reported in Kingsbury County Independent, March 5, 1909
Reported in Kingsbury County Independent, August 26, 1910

When the 1910 United States census was taken, Ada and William were still living on a farm in Eden Township.18  Florence (age 17), W. Arthur (age 16) and G. Floyd (age 12) had all attended school that year.  Hazel at five years-old had not attended school.  While in high school, W. Arthur made a glider from plans published in the magazine Popular Mechanics.19

Both the 1900 and the 1910 censuses asked women how many children they had and how many of them were alive.  Ada had given birth to four children and all of them were alive.  This was unlike her mother, who had born 11 children, six of which passed away in their first or second year of life.  In England early childhood mortality (deaths of children between the age one and five) had begun to decline about 1870, but infant mortality (deaths of children before the age of one) didn’t decline until around the turn of the twentieth century.20  Ada’s mother was living in England and bearing children when infant mortality was high.  Ada’s children were born during a period of steady decline in child mortality in the United States.21

In 1915 when the South Dakota state census was taken, Florence and Hazel were at home with Ada and William.22  W. Arthur was attending his second year of college at Dakota Wesleyan University (DWU) in Mitchell, South Dakota.23  He was studying Engineering and Math.24  The census records identify the family’s religion as “M. E.” (Methodist Episcopal).  It is not known where G. Floyd was at the time of this census, but according to the 1930 United States census he was a veteran of “the World War,”25 which would be World War 1.  He was a seaman in the United States Navy from May to December 1918.26 

The first of William and Ada’s children to marry was W. Arthur.  He married Birdella A. Carhart in April 1916 in Mitchell,27 where they had met while he was attending DWU.  The officiating clergyman was Birdella’s father, A. E. Carhart, who was a minister in the M. E. Church.  A year and a half after their marriage, W. Arthur and Birdella had their first child, born in December 1917, giving William and Ada their first grandchild.  By then, W. Arthur and Birdella were living in Washington, D. C.28  They would give Ada and William their second and third grandchildren in July 1921 and January 1924. 

By the time the United States census was taken in January 1920, William and Ada had purchased and lived on a dairy farm outside of Remington, Fauquier County, Virginia, about 60 miles southwest of Washington, D. C.29  William was 61 years-old, a naturalized citizen and a dairy farmer.  Ada was 52 years-old and she was also naturalized.  Their 27 year-old daughter Florence and 15 year-old daughter Hazel were living with them, and Hazel was attending school.  W. Arthur, Birdella and their child were in a rented place in Washington, D. C.30  W. Arthur was a draftsman, working for the Navy Department.  G. Floyd was possibly lodging in Washington, D. C. and working as an automobile salesman.31  A year after the census was taken, back in DeSmet, South Dakota, Ada’s father passed away in September 1921.32 

In the early 1920s, W. Arthur would move to southern California and embark on a career in aviation engineering.  During the next several decades he would play a role in the advancement of the aviation field and in its regulation.  One of his first accomplishments was modifying an airplane wing which with one further modification became the wing of Colonel Charles Lindbergh’s plane, the Spirit of Saint Louis.33  In 1927, the Spirit of Saint Louis was the first plane to be successfully flown across the Atlantic Ocean.

At noon on November 21, 1923, a wedding was performed at Ada and William’s “Fairview Farm.”34  Florence married Grant B. Bruce, a widower employed by the Government Forestry Department in Washington, D. C.  The city directory provides additional information:  He was a statistician for the Department of Agriculture.35  Upon settling in Grant’s home in northwest Washington, D. C., Florence would host lodgers in their home for the next couple of decades.  Many of the lodgers worked for the United States government. 

Reported in Richmond Times-Dispatch, December 1, 1923

Two more weddings occurred in the 1920s.  Hazel married James H. Weeks in October 1924,36 and G. Floyd, who had moved to San Francisco in the mid-1920s, married Lucia Neira, an Italian immigrant, in May 1927.37

In December 1927, Ada’s sister Gertrude mailed a Christmas greeting card from the town of Remington, Virginia.  The card was addressed to one of her brother Herbert’s sons and his wife, Willis and Elizabeth Bevers, in Hazel, South Dakota.  Presumably Gertrude was visiting Ada and her family.

According to the 1930 United States census, 61 year-old Ada and 71 year-old William were living on a dairy farm that they owned, still in Fauquier County.  William was a farmer and he had worked on the day before the census taker visited their home.38  He was not a veteran.  They did not own a radio set.  Florence and Grant were living at the same location in Washington, D. C.39  W. Arthur and his family had left California and were living in Detroit, Michigan.  W. Arthur was an aeronautical engineer, working in the auto products industry.40   George and Lucille were in San Francisco and George was working as an automobile salesman.41  They owned a radio set.  Hazel and James were living with her in-laws on her father-in-law’s dairy farm which was not far from Ada and William.42  They had two children by this time, giving Ada and William a total of five grandchildren.  Three years later, Florence would give them their sixth grandchild.

In 1935, Ada and William still lived on a farm outside of Remington.43  Florence and Grant with their child were living at the same address as previously in Washington, D. C.44  W. Arthur and his family had moved to Santa Monica, California.45  Hazel and James were on a farm in Lee, Virginia.46  George and Lucille still lived in San Francisco,47 but by 1937, they would move to southern California where Lucille gave birth to Ada and William’s seventh grandchild.48

Tragedy struck Ada and Florence within a single day of each other.  Florence’s husband died on April 30, 1938.  Grant had worked for the federal government for about 37 years and had been “in charge of all map records of the United States Forest Service” for 25 years before his retirement in May 1937.49  The day after Grant died, William at nearly 80 years-old passed away on May 1, 1938.  His death certificate states that he worked as a dairy farmer “to time of death.”50  William is buried in Remington Cemetery, Remington, Virginia.

The 1940 United States census record indicates that 72 year-old Ada was a lodger in Washington, D. C. and in the previous year she had received more than $50.00 that was not money wages or salary.51  Florence, at 46 years-old was continuing to live at the same residence which she owned in Washington, D. C.; also at the residence was her seven year-old child and three lodgers.52  W. Arthur had returned to the east coast, he and his family were living in Baltimore County, Maryland.53  He was an aeronautical engineer at an airplane factory.  George and Lucille had moved to Montebello, Los Angeles County and he was working as a house roofer.54  Hazel and her family were still living on a farm in Lee, Virginia.55  Her father-in-law lived with them and they had two children.  There was also a lodger and a servant living with them.

During the last years of Ada’s life, her eighth and ninth grandchildren were born, the children of Hazel and James, born in 194056 and 1943.57  At the age of 75, Ada’s last days were spent in Warrenton Hospital, Fauquier County and she died there on Monday, July 19, 1943.  She is buried in Remington Cemetery with her husband.

Reported in Washington, D. C.’s Evening Star, July 21, 1943

1 Ancestry.com, New York, Passenger Lists, 1820-1957 (Provo, Utah, USA: Ancestry.com Operations Inc, 2010): http://www.Ancestry.com.

2 “United States Census, 1880”, database with images, FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:MXV4-9J7 : Mon Sep 18 07:00:43 UTC 2023), Entry for Thomas Mankey and Mary Mankey, 1880.

3 “United States Bureau of Land Management Tract Books, 1800-c. 1955,” database with images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:3QS7-89WS-ZB44?cc=2074276&wc=M7WS-8ZC%3A356164401%2C356186301 : 14 October 2022), Dakota Territory > Vol 32 > image 54 of 254; Records Improvement, Bureau of Land Management, Washington D.C.”

4 United Methodist Church, Dakotas Conference, Commission on Archives and History, personal communication with M. R. Wilson (June 20, 1995).

5 J. G. Palmer, Palmer’s Directory of the Methodist Episcopal Church for Dakota Conference, “Henry” (1888): 128.

6 K. & M. Bevers, marriage note attached to William Mankey in Ancestral Quest program file dated June 29, 2022.

7 South Dakota Department of Health, “South Dakota Birth Records With Birth Dates Over 100 Years,” [Birth Information for Florence Mankey, State File Number: 599515]: https://apps.sd.gov/PH14Over100BirthRec/resultDetail.aspx?args=B7173D5000910C4994EA3F8456480222D6E12B84CB216B4C0933C9B568E36E1D0E715C23B1B77D480BE3E15CB8FC342C.

8 K. and M. Bevers, record of William Arthur Mankey, Ancestral Quest program file dated June 29, 2022.

9 South Dakota Department of Health, “South Dakota Birth Records With Birth Dates Over 100 Years,” [Birth Information for George Mankey, State File Number: 571260]: https://apps.sd.gov/PH14Over100BirthRec/resultDetail.aspx?args=B7173D5000910C4994EA3F8456480222567A6332A151C9247E16A4E0455BC1DD47D4462802BD74BF1CB49DF6E38B4573.

10 “United States Census, 1900,” database with images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:S3HY-6PQ9-455?cc=1325221&wc=9BW8-7MH%3A1031648401%2C1030694601%2C1032143801 : 5 August 2014), South Dakota > Clark > ED 89 Eden, Elrod & Maydell Townships > image 5 of 16; citing NARA microfilm publication T623 (Washington, D.C.: National Archives and Records Administration, n.d.).

11 United States of America, “First Naturalization Paper of Ada N. Bevers,” (Codington County, Dakota Territory: USA, May 22, 1889).

12 “United States Census, 1900,” database with images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:S3HY-6PQ9-QHQ?cc=1325221&wc=9BW8-7MH%3A1031648401%2C1030694601%2C1032143801 : 5 August 2014), South Dakota > Clark > ED 89 Eden, Elrod & Maydell Townships > image 6 of 16; citing NARA microfilm publication T623 (Washington, D.C.: National Archives and Records Administration, n.d.).

13 South Dakota State Historical Society, online cemetery search, “Thomas Mankey,“ https://apps.sd.gov/dt58cemetery/.

14 Peterson, E. F., and S. Wangersheim. Map of Clark County, South Dakota: compiled and drawn from a special survey and official records (Vermillion, S.D.: E. Frank Peterson, 1900): https://www.loc.gov/item/2012593005/.

15 South Dakota Department of Health, “South Dakota Birth Records With Birth Dates Over 100 Years,” [Birth Information for Hazel Mankey, State File Number: 599514]: https://apps.sd.gov/PH14Over100BirthRec/resultDetail.aspx?args=B7173D5000910C4994EA3F845648022241EB9E32217A5B880C0B80F399C73EA3C6FFD3355FD484F8AC6A0AC2E2AEC648.

16 South Dakota State Historical Society, online cemetery search, “Mary Mankey,“ https://apps.sd.gov/dt58cemetery/.

17 Kingsbury County Independent, “Mrs. Alfred C. Bevers,” (DeSmet, South Dakota: July 22, 1910): 4.

18 “United States Census, 1910,” database with images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:33S7-9TD2-CVC?cc=1727033&wc=QZZH-XC3%3A133638201%2C133675901%2C133835401%2C1589089262 : 24 June 2017), South Dakota > Clark > Eden > ED 108 > image 3 of 8; citing NARA microfilm publication T624 (Washington, D.C.: National Archives and Records Administration, n.d.).

19 K. & M. Bevers, biographical note attached to W. A. Mankey.

20 University of Cambridge, Populations Past – Atlas of Victorian and Edwardian Population, https://www.populationspast.org/about/.

21 Statista, Child mortality rate (under five years old) in the United States, from 1800 to 2020, https://www.statista.com/statistics/1041693/united-states-all-time-child-mortality-rate/.

22 “South Dakota State Census, 1915,” database with images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:S3HY-6917-3R9?cc=1476041&wc=MJQL-MNL%3A1041735101 : 21 May 2014), 004245361 > image 1948, 1970, 1972 & 1997 of 3079; State Historical Society, Pierre.

23 “South Dakota State Census, 1915,” database with images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:S3HY-691Q-K1F?cc=1476041&wc=MJQL-MNL%3A1041735101 : 21 May 2014), 004245361 > image 1953 of 3079; State Historical Society, Pierre.

24 K. & M. Bevers, biographical note attached to W. A. Mankey.

25 “United States Census, 1930,” database with images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:33SQ-GR4N-9Y7?cc=1810731&wc=QZFS-M82%3A648807101%2C651480501%2C651480502%2C1589283887 : 8 December 2015), California > San Francisco > San Francisco (Districts 1-250) > ED 134 > image 40 of 43; citing NARA microfilm publication T626 (Washington D.C.: National Archives and Records Administration, 2002).

26 “United States Headstone Applications for U.S. Military Veterans, 1925-1949,” database with images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:3QS7-994Q-YRD4?cc=1916249&wc=MDBG-K68%3A205942901%2C213448601 : 26 April 2021), 1941-1949 > Mangum, Tully-Marks, Edward > image 136 of 2371; citing NARA microfilm publication M1916 (Washington, D.C.: National Archives and Records Administration, n.d.).

27 Ancestry.com, South Dakota, U. S., Marriages, 1905-2018 (Ancestry.com Operations, Inc.: Lehi, Utah, USA, 2005).

28 The Mitchell Capital (Mitchell, South Dakota, December 13, 1917): 3.

29 “United States Census, 1920,” database with images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:33SQ-GRFW-4QZ?cc=1488411&wc=QZJT-FXV%3A1038215501%2C1038273601%2C1036505301%2C1589332367 : 14 September 2019), Virginia > Fauquier > Lee > ED 47 > image 19 of 42; citing NARA microfilm publication T625 (Washington, D.C.: National Archives and Records Administration, n.d.).

30 “United States Census, 1920,” database with images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:33S7-9R69-46Q?cc=1488411&wc=QZJG-FM7%3A1036474401%2C1036474402%2C1036476301%2C1589335824 : 10 September 2019), District of Columbia > Washington > Washington > ED 317 > image 18 of 28; citing NARA microfilm publication T625 (Washington, D.C.: National Archives and Records Administration, n.d.).

31 “United States Census, 1920”, , FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:MNLV-Z7N : Thu Oct 05 15:18:14 UTC 2023), Entry for George F Mauky, 1920.

32 The Tabor Independent (Tabor, South Dakota, October 6, 1921): 6.

33 The Los Angeles Times (Los Angeles, California, April 20, 1985): 61.

34 Richmond Times-Dispatch (Richmond, Virginia, December 1, 1923): 4.

35 Ancestry.com, Boyd’s Directory of the District of Columbia 1923, U.S., City Directories, 1822-1995 [database on-line] (Lehi, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2011).

36 K. & M. Bevers, biographical note attached to Hazel Maude Mankey, Ancestral Quest program file dated June 29, 2022.

37 Ancestry.com, “California, U.S., Federal Naturalization Records, 1843-1999” [Naturalization record of Lucille Mankey, Naturalization Records/i. National Archives at Riverside, Peris, California] (Lehi, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2014).

38 “United States Census, 1930,” database with images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:33SQ-GRZF-38K?cc=1810731&wc=QZFW-811%3A648805201%2C650224701%2C648825601%2C1589282415 : 8 December 2015), Virginia > Fauquier > Lee > ED 7 > image 30 of 38; citing NARA microfilm publication T626 (Washington D.C.: National Archives and Records Administration, 2002).

39 “United States Census, 1930,” database with images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:33SQ-GR4D-K8R?cc=1810731&wc=QZF9-L2Q%3A648806901%2C648806902%2C648806903%2C1589285158 : 8 December 2015), District of Columbia > Washington > Washington > ED 229 > image 29 of 34; citing NARA microfilm publication T626 (Washington D.C.: National Archives and Records Administration, 2002).

40 “United States Census, 1930,” database with images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:33SQ-GRHZ-Z3X?cc=1810731&wc=QZF3-G74%3A648805801%2C649542601%2C651567401%2C1589285374 : 8 December 2015), Michigan > Wayne > Detroit (Districts 0251-0500) > ED 304 > image 55 of 84; citing NARA microfilm publication T626 (Washington D.C.: National Archives and Records Administration, 2002).

41 “United States Census, 1930,” database with images, FamilySearch (8 December 2015), California > San Francisco > San Francisco (Districts 1-250) > ED 134 > image 40 of 43.

42 “United States Census, 1930,” database with images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:33SQ-GRZF-3ND?cc=1810731&wc=QZFW-DPK%3A648805201%2C650224701%2C648825601%2C1589282427 : 8 December 2015), Virginia > Fauquier > Lee > ED 8 > image 15 of 24; citing NARA microfilm publication T626 (Washington D.C.: National Archives and Records Administration, 2002).

43 “United States Census, 1940”, database with images, FamilySearch (ark:/61903/1:1:K73M-H7C : Fri Jun 09 01:27:49 UTC 2023), Entry for Ada N Mankey, 1940.

44 “United States Census, 1940,” database with images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:3QS7-L9M1-53H5?cc=2000219&wc=QZFM-7NZ%3A790105901%2C790105902%2C792841801%2C792851601 : accessed 11 November 2023), District of Columbia > District of Columbia > Police Precinct 13, District of Columbia, Tract 33 > 1-508 Police Precinct 13 (Tract 33 – part), District of Columbia > image 8 of 41; citing Sixteenth Census of the United States, 1940, NARA digital publication T627. Records of the Bureau of the Census, 1790 – 2007, RG 29. Washington, D.C.: National Archives and Records Administration, 2012.

45 “United States Census, 1940,” database with images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:3QS7-L9M1-HL5H?cc=2000219&wc=QZXB-4M5%3A790103401%2C790855101%2C790360501%2C951056401 : accessed 11 November 2023), Maryland > Baltimore > Election District 9 > 3-58 Election District 9 S of Joppa Rd, W of Forest Av, W and N of Stevenson Av, and E of York Rd and Dulaneys Valley Rd; Aigburth Manor, Towson (part) including Baltimore County Jail and Presbyterian Home of Maryland for Aged Women > image 55 of 67; citing Sixteenth Census of the United States, 1940, NARA digital publication T627. Records of the Bureau of the Census, 1790 – 2007, RG 29. Washington, D.C.: National Archives and Records Administration, 2012.

46 “United States Census, 1940,” database with images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:3QSQ-G9MR-37NM?cc=2000219&wc=QZXG-CKG%3A794217401%2C796669201%2C794293801%2C796711401 : accessed 12 November 2023), Virginia > Fauquier > Lee Magisterial District > 31-11 Lee Magisterial District outside Remington Town S of Southern Railway and W of State Road 17, Morrisville (part) > image 21 of 29; citing Sixteenth Census of the United States, 1940, NARA digital publication T627. Records of the Bureau of the Census, 1790 – 2007, RG 29. Washington, D.C.: National Archives and Records Administration, 2012.

47 “United States Census, 1940”, , FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:K9W9-D85 : Tue Nov 28 18:48:53 UTC 2023), Entry for George F Mankey and Lucille A Mankey, 1940.

48 Ancestry.com, “California, U.S., Federal Naturalization Records, 1843-1999.”

49 Evening Star (Washington, District of Columbia, May 1, 1938): 14.

50 Commonwealth of Virginia, Department of Health, Bureau of Vital Statistics, certificate of death of William Mankey.

51 “United States Census, 1940”, FamilySearch, Entry for Ada N Mankey.

52 “United States Census, 1940,” FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:3QS7-L9M1-53H5?cc=2000219&wc=QZFM-7NZ%3A790105901%2C790105902%2C792841801%2C792851601).

53 “United States Census, 1940,” FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:3QS7-L9M1-HL5H?cc=2000219&wc=QZXB-4M5%3A790103401%2C790855101%2C790360501%2C951056401).

54 “United States Census, 1940”, FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:K9W9-D85), Entry for G F Mankey and L A Mankey.

55 “United States Census, 1940,” database with images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:3QSQ-G9MR-37NM?cc=2000219&wc=QZXG-CKG%3A794217401%2C796669201%2C794293801%2C796711401}.

56 “Virginia, Marriage Certificates, 1936-1988,” database with images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:3Q9M-C9TN-K9CD?cc=2370234 : 10 January 2019), > image 1 of 1; from “Virginia, Marriage Records, 1700-1850,” database and images, Ancestry (http://www.ancestry.com : 2012); citing Virginia Department of Health, Richmond.

57 “Virginia, Marriage Certificates, 1936-1988,” database with images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:3Q9M-C9TF-G7KK-9?cc=2370234 : 10 January 2019), > image 1 of 1; from “Virginia, Marriage Records, 1700-1850,” database and images, Ancestry (http://www.ancestry.com : 2012); citing Virginia Department of Health, Richmond.

George C. Bevers, Bookkeeper

George Cockin Bevers was the first child born to Alfred Cockin Bevers and Mary Naomi Bridges.  They recorded his birth in their Family Bible as June 9, 1865 in Hull.  His birth is also recorded in the civil registration records of Hull, Yorkshire East Riding.1  The full name of this town is Kingston-Upon-Hull, the name it was given after King Edward I had purchased the town and gave it a royal charter.2  The name is a derivative of King’s Town upon Hull (referring to the river Hull.)3  A hundred years before George was born, Hull was the birthplace of William Wilberforce, the champion of the abolition of the slave trade and slavery in the British Empire.4

Kingston-Upon-Hull is a port city on the northeastern coast of England, situated at the mouth of the Hull River entering the Humber River.  At the time of George’s birth, the city had grown from 12,000 houses to over 20,000 houses during the previous 35 years, the growth being primarily outside the medieval old town.5  The expansion of the town was due to industrial advancement in the region and the resulting increase in importation. 

During George’s childhood Alfred and Mary Bevers moved their residence several times.  The locations are recorded in their Family Bible with every child’s birth, and sadly, with the deaths of some of George’s siblings.  By the time he was 17 years old, George had 10 siblings.  Six of his siblings died in their first year of life or shortly after.

List of “Children’s Names” with their birthplace and birthdate
in the Family Bible of Alfred C. and Mary N. Bevers

When George’s first and second sisters were born his family lived in Bridlington, Yorkshire.  The first one only lived 16 days; the second sister Ada would live to be 75 years-old.   At the next location, Sheepridge, Yorkshire, which is the town where George’s father had been born, four of George’s siblings were born: a brother, a sister and a set of twin boys.  The only one of these four who would survive was his brother Herbert and he would live to be 75 years-old.  When the 1871 census was recorded in Sheepridge, at the age of five George was a scholar and his father was a collector and canvasser for Prudential Insurance Company.6  Their next residence was south of Sheepridge in Barnsley, which is where his sister Gertrude was born.  Then the family returned to Sheepridge where George’s last sister Maude was born.  Gertrude would live to be 81 years-old and Maude would live to be 83.

On December 18, 1875, the Weekly Examiner, a newspaper published in Huddersfield, printed a lengthy article describing a concert performed by the school children of the Hillhouse School Board.  One of the students named in the article is a Master George Bevers.  Since Sheepridge, the town where the Bevers are known to have lived when Maude was baptized, is only about 1¼ mile from Hillhouse, it is possible that this article is referring to the subject of this blogpost.

CONCERT BY THE HILLHOUSE BOARD SCHOOL CHILDREN. – On Thursday night, the eighth annual concert by the children attending this school was given in the schoolroom, and the profit arising from it will be handed over to the Huddersfield Infirmary.  The room was very tastefully decorated for the occasion with mottoes and texts appropriate to the coming festival, and also with evergreens studded with artificial flowers, and a few pretty bannerets judiciously and effectively placed.  The concert was given by about seventy children, only those being chosen who could sing a little piece of music, chosen by Mr. Gaunt, their instructor, at sight, and one piece on the programme; and in making choice of the children to sing, neither their age nor the standard they were in was taken into account, but only their efficiency in the tonic sol fa method of singing.  The result was that, with the assistance of a few adults, a concert was given which, both for the quality of the music and the manner in which it was performed, would have done credit to much older scholars. …  The dialogues were well given, the accurate pronunciation of the words, and the absence of a “singing” style being very marked.  The first one was taken part in by the Misses Beatrice Waite, Clara Louisa Hirst, Clara Jane Brier, and Ellen Fisher, and Masters George Bevers, F. W. Thornton, Albert Victor Shaw ….  A very interesting part of the entertainment was the sight singing test, and before it took place, Mr. W. H. Bedford said some people had been under the misapprehension that it was to be a singing contest, but that was not the case; it was a test for the whole of the children together, to show that Mr. Gaunt’s teaching was real, and not that he had merely taught them to sing those pieces of music by ear.  He (Mr. Bedford), taking into account the ages of the children, had not gone in for anything very difficult or elaborate.  He had therefore written a long metre hymn tune.  The children would sol-fa it three times first, the treble part only, and then the other voices would join in.  Nobody present but himself had seen the music before that night.  Copies of the test piece were then given to each scholar, and they had to hold them with the print downwards till all had got a copy; then Mr. Gaunt gave the signal to start, and the tune (which is called Clara Street), was sol-faed three times by the children very accurately.  Next the other singers joined them, and it was sung through the use of the “la” only, and afterwards “Praise God from whom all blessings flow” was sung to the music, which, thus rendered, showed a simple grandeur of construction very commendable to the composer. … The room was crowded with the parents and friends of the children, and others who take an interest in the school, all of whom seemed to thoroughly appreciate and enjoy the concert, and they must have felt highly gratified with the successful manner in which Mr. Gaunt had trained the children, not in music merely, but musical knowledge.7

Sometime after Maude’s birth, the Bevers family made a long move west, across the country, to Liverpool where another brother was born.  Finally, Alfred and Mary would have their last child in Bootle, a town three miles north of Liverpool.  Both of these brothers passed away as infants.

In 1881, when the census of England was taken, the Bevers family resided at 97 Derby Road, Kirkdale, a ward of Liverpool.8  George, having completed his education through the 8th grade,9 at the age of 15, was a “pupil teacher” at a Church of England school and his father was a tailor’s cutter.10  When George was about 17 years-old, his father emigrated to America, and a year or two later, his mother and sisters followed George’s father.  Following the departure of their family, it is not known where George and his brother Herbert stayed.

Both brothers would also emigrate to the United States, and it is possible that they made the trip together in the fall of 1885.  Some of the details of an entry in a passenger list of the steamship, Lord Clive, correspond with information about George and Herbert, but some does not correspond.  This passenger list includes the names George Bevers and Herbert Bevers.11  The spelling is the correct spelling, but Ireland is recorded as their place of birth.  The Lord Clive departed from Liverpool, which would very likely be the port where the brothers would have departed.  This steamship arrived at the port of Philadelphia on December 1, 1885.  This date corresponds with information in the 1900 U. S. census which states that George C. Bevers immigrated in 1885.12 But the 1900 U. S. census record for Herbert J. Bevers indicates that he didn’t immigrate until 1888.13  The passenger list of the Lord Clive provides additional information about the men: they were both laborers, they had never been to the United States and they were not tourists.  Something that is missing on the ship manifest is the age of George and Herbert Bevers.  If that information had been recorded, there would have been additional information to confirm whether the record is about our families’ ancestors.

Passenger List of the Steamship “Lord Clive”

Upon immigrating to the USA, George settled in Philadelphia.  The first time there is an entry for him in the city directory of Philadelphia is in 1886 and he was the only Bevers listed in the directory that year.  He was a clerk and living at 1532 Herbine.14  This was the same residence as Arthur Wright, a tailor, who would the following year become George’s father-in-law.  Possibly, the Wright family and Bevers family were acquainted with each other in England.  Both families lived in wards of Liverpool in 1881 and both Alfred C. Bevers and Arthur Wright were tailors.

George and Evelina Bevers

In 1887 and for a few years afterwards, the Philadelphia city directory would list George and Arthur at the same address: 47 Apsley in Germantown, which was a suburb northwest of Philadelphia.15  In that home on Friday September 2, 1887, George married Arthur’s daughter Evelina.16  The marriage record can be found in the marriage register of the Church of Saint John the Baptist, an Episcopal church.  One of the witnesses was Evelina’s brother Ernest Wright.  Two years later, the baptism register of this same church has a record of George and Evelina’s daughter Evelina.  The record documents her birth as September 8, 1889 and her baptism on Thursday, December 26, 1889.17  Two of the sponsors of the infant Evelina were her uncle Francis Wright and her aunt Louisa Wright, her mother’s brother and sister.  In July 1888, George had declared his intention to become a citizen of the United States.18


Above and below:
Marriage record of George C. Bevers and Evelina Wright,
Marriage register of the Church of Saint John the Baptist, Germantown, Pennsylvania


Above and below:
Baptismal record of Evelina Maude Bevers,
Baptism register of the Church of Saint John the Baptist, Germantown, Pennsylvania

The Philadelphia city directories of the 1890s give a few details of George’s life.

  • In 1891 and in following years, George’s occupation was listed as bookkeeper instead of clerk.19
  • In 1893, the address for George and Arthur was Old York Road, Milestown, a few miles northeast of Germantown.20  But the following year they returned to Germantown at “Pulaski a, N Apsley”21 and that year Evelina gave birth to a son, Arthur William Bevers on September 2, 1894.22
  • In 1895 and 1896, George and Arthur’s address would be 4460 Pulaski Avenue, Germantown.23 
  • Then in 1897, although George’s name was not listed in the directory, at the same address as in ’95 and ’96, Arthur’s name was listed along with Arthur’s newly widowed daughter-in-law Catherine Wright and his son Ernest G. Wright.24 
  • In 1899 George and Arthur were both living at 3308 N. Broad, Philadelphia.25 
  • In 1900 they would both change their residence again to 2211 Venango, Philadelphia,26 but the following year they would return to Germantown at 223 Apsley.27

From that point forward Arthur’s name would no longer be listed in the city directory.


“Originally a township independent of Philadelphia …. The establishment of Germantown as a permanent German settlement in America in 1683 put into place William Penn’s bold ideas of religious toleration of different faiths in one colony, bringing Quakers to Pennsylvania together with Mennonites, Dunkards, and other groups that had been unwelcome in England and Continental Europe.  In 1688 four Germantown settlers drafted a protest against slavery within the Dutch-German Quaker community that is considered to be the earliest antislavery document made public by whites in North America. …”28


The 1900 U. S. census tells us some information about George’s in-laws.  Arthur Wright was 63 years-old, born in England in August 1836.29  His occupation was “taylor-cutter.”  His wife was 69 year-old Eliza Wright, who was born in England in September 1830.  Arthur, Eliza and daughter Evelina had immigrated from England in 1883.  Arthur was renting a home and 35 year-old George with 38 year-old Evelina were living there, as well as their two children, 10 year-old Evelina and five year-old Arthur.  Also living in the household was another of Arthur Wright’s daughters.  She was 27 years-old and unmarried. A few years later, George’s in-laws would pass away. Eliza Ann Ventom Wright died on October 27, 190230 and Arthur died on March 18, 1904.31

From 1906 to 1911, the city directories of Philadelphia listed George’s address as 5607 Baynton, Germantown and the entries for 1909 and 1910 included his place of employment: “Mitchell & Bevers.”32  Apparently, George was in business with a man named Harry T. Mitchell.  In 1911, George’s occupation was listed simply as accountant, without the notation of his business.  This would be the last time that George’s name was printed in the Philadelphia city directory.

In July 1908, the Philadelphia Inquirer printed a news item about a meeting of the Artisans Order of Mutual Protection:

Germantown Assembly, No. 36, … on the 3d of July, held a unique entertainment for the enjoyment of the members.  Twenty-three questions in American history were propounded, and to the member answering the greatest number correctly was given a pair of beautiful American flags.  Strange to say, an Englishman, Bro. Geo. C. Bevers, won the prize with sixteen correct answers. …33

The Artisans Order of Mutual Protection was organized May 1, 1873, the result of gentlemen who desired “to devise a form of beneficial society, embracing improvement upon the old organizations as to death benefits, and a fraternal organization to give it strength and permanency.”34  The society is still in existence as of this writing, being “the second oldest fraternal insurance organization in the country.”  Its website explains its position in American society: “The role of fraternalism, along with the efforts of our schools and churches, is to form a powerful alliance with government to give us a more orderly, and economically successful society.”

As of the date of the above-mentioned Artisans fraternal meeting, July 3, 1908, the United States flag had 45 stars.  But beginning July 4, 1908, the flag had 46 stars because Oklahoma had been admitted to the union in November 1907.35  Most likely, George had been given two 46-star flags at the Artisans meeting.  The 46-star flag was flown until July 3, 1912, then it was replaced with a 48-star flag because New Mexico and Arizona had become states in the winter of 1912.  (See the flag of 1908 at https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Flag_of_the_United_States_(1908%E2%80%931912).svg)

The 1910 U. S. Census records that the Bevers family was living in a rented home at 5607 Baynton Street in Philadelphia,36 although the city directory indicates that this is in Germantown.   George was an accountant in private business working on his own account.  He was 44 years-old and Evelina was 48. They had been married for 23 years.  Their unmarried daughter Evelina was 19; she was not attending school and did not have an occupation.  Their son Arthur was 15 and attending school.

Two family events were held in Christ Church, an Episcopal church, in Germantown.  George and Evelina’s son was baptized on February 13, 1910.37 Then on December 2, 1911 their daughter was married to William P. Woodroffe.38  The Woodroffes would move to Brooklyn, New York where George and Evelina’s grandson Francis was born in 1914 and their granddaughter Mildred was born in 1919.39


Baptismal record of Arthur W. Bevers,
Baptism Register of Christ Church, Germantown, Pennsylvania

In 1917 the United States entered the great war which had been raging in Europe since 1914.  Arthur Bevers joined the Army and served in the Engineer Reserve Corps from September 1917 to December 1918.40   Upon entering the Army, he declared his residence as 39 Woodlawn Avenue, Aldan, Pennsylvania, which is the town where his parents were living when the 1920 U. S. census was taken.  Only a few months after Arthur’s entrance into the Army, George and Evelina made a trip to Camden, New Jersey to attend his marriage to Martha T. Severns on December 22, 1917.41  George and Evelina gained three more grandchildren when Dorothy was born in 1919, George was born in 1922 and William was born in 1923.

From this point forward the record trail for George and Evelina dwindles.  According to the 1920 U. S. census, they were living at 201 East Providence Road in Aldan, Pennsylvania, a small town west of Philadelphia.  George owned their house, he had a mortgage and he was a cashier at a mill.42  The census record also indicates that George had become a naturalized citizen of the United States in 1908 and that Evelina was naturalized as well, but no date is supplied in the record.

Only a couple of family events are known about George and Evelina’s life in the 1920s.  First, Evelina’s sister Louise Wright Millar died in 1924, and George submitted the information for her death certificate.43 Second, their daughter Evelina and her husband moved back to Philadelphia sometime after 1920 and in 1927 their third child Mary was born, George and Evelina’s sixth grandchild.44

When the U. S. census was taken in 1930, it appears that George and Evelina were still living in the same home in which they had lived 10 years earlier.  The home was valued at $10,000 and they owned a radio set.45  George at 64 years-old was a credit manager at a woolen goods establishment.  Evelina was 68 years-old.  A couple of family historians state that Evelina died on August 12, 1933 and one states that she was buried in Aldan on August 15, 1933, but documentation of Evelina’s death has not been located.  In the 1940 U. S. census, 74 year-old George was recorded as a widower, unable to work and he was living with his son Arthur in Inglewood, California at 520 W. Hillcrest Blvd.46  Arthur’s family included his wife Martha and their children Dorothy, George and William.  According to the census, five years earlier George had been living in Philadelphia.

Three years later Arthur supplied the information for George’s death certificate.  George had lived with Arthur for five years prior to his death and for the last five months of his life he stayed at Gray’s Sanitarium in Los Angeles, California.47  On June 21, 1943, twelve days after his 78th birthday, George succumbed to cardiac failure, having suffered from cardiac disease for a couple of years.  George’s body was cremated by Inglewood Park Cemetery, Inglewood, California.

 


1 FreeBMD, “Births registered in April, May, June 1865,” [vol. 9D, page 234] England & Wales, FreeBMD Birth Index, 1837-1915 (Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations Inc, publisher, 2006): http://www.Ancestry.com.

2 V. Bettney, “Hull: A History,” The York Historian (August 8, 2017): https://theyorkhistorian.com/2017/08/08/hull-a-history/.

3 “Kingston upon Hull” (Wikipedia): https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kingston_upon_Hull.

4 Encyclopaedia Britannica, editors, “William Wilberforce, British Politician,” Britannica (January 13, 2023): https://www.britannica.com/biography/William-Wilberforce.

5 V. Bettney, “Hull: A History”: https://theyorkhistorian.com/2017/08/08/hull-a-history/.

6 Ancestry.com, 1871 England Census [Class: RG10; Piece: 4372; Folio: 86; Page: 19; GSU roll: 848087], (Provo, Utah, USA: Ancestry.com Operations Inc., publisher, 2004): http://www.Ancestry.com.

7 Weekly Examiner (Huddersfield, West Yorkshire, England, December 18, 1875): 3.

8 Ancestry.com, 1881 England Census [Class: RG11; Piece: 3684; Folio: 133; Page: 23; GSU roll: 1341882] (Provo, Utah, USA: Ancestry.com Operations Inc., publisher, 2004): http://www.Ancestry.com.

9 “United States Census, 1940”, database with images, FamilySearch (ark:/61903/1:1:K975-B84 : Thu Mar 16 16:18:54 UTC 2023), Entry for Dorothy Bevers and George S Bevers, 1940.

10 Ancestry.com, 1881 England Census.

11 “Pennsylvania, Philadelphia Passenger Lists, 1883-1945,” database with images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:33SQ-GPBF-QKS?cc=1921481&wc=M616-JTP%3A214200701 : 21 May 2014), 006 – v. G, Jul 5, 1885-Dec 28, 1885 > image 393 of 448; citing NARA microfilm publication T840 (Washington, D.C.: National Archives and Records Administration, n.d.).

12 “United States Census, 1900,” database with images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:S3HY-DZV6-7M?cc=1325221&wc=9B7K-NQX%3A1030550501%2C1036056801%2C1036357801 : 5 August 2014), Pennsylvania > Philadelphia > ED 976 Philadelphia city Ward 38 > image 28 of 33; citing NARA microfilm publication T623 (Washington, D.C.: National Archives and Records Administration, n.d.).

13 “United States Census, 1900,” database with images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:S3HT-68DY-PH?cc=1325221&wc=9B7H-9LQ%3A1031648401%2C1033119401%2C1033119402 : 5 August 2014), South Dakota > Roberts > ED 282 Agency, One Road & Spring Grove Townships > image 4 of 11; citing NARA microfilm publication T623 (Washington, D.C.: National Archives and Records Administration, n.d.).

14 James Gopsill’s Sons, Publishers, Gopsill’s Street Index and City Guide of the City of Philadelphia (Philadelphia: James Gopsill’s Sons, Publishers, 1886): 182.

15 Gopsill’s Sons, Publishers, Gopsill’s Philadelphia City Directory (Philadelphia: Gopsill’s Sons, Publishers, 1887): 180 & 1843.

16 Historical Society of Pennsylvania, “St. John the Baptist Church, Germantown, 1876 to March 1891” in Pennsylvania and New Jersey, U.S., Church and Town Records, 1669-2013 [database on-line] (Lehi, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2011): 200-01.

17 Historical Society of Pennsylvania, “St. John the Baptist Church, Germantown, 1876 to March 1891” in Pennsylvania and New Jersey, U.S., Church and Town Records, 1669-2013 [database on-line] (Lehi, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2011): 100-01.

18 Ancestry.com, [Naturalization Petition of George C. Bevers], Pennsylvania, Federal Naturalization Records, 1795-1931 (Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2011).

19 James Gopsill’s Sons, Publishers, Gopsill’s Philadelphia City Directory (Philadelphia: James Gopsill’s Sons, 1891): 165.

20 James Gopsill’s Sons, Gopsill’s Philadelphia City Directory (Philadelphia: James Gopsill’s Sons, 1893): 169 & 2124.

21 James Gopsill’s Sons, Gopsill’s Philadelphia City Directory (Philadelphia: James Gopsill’s Sons, 1894): 173 & 2167.

22 Historical Society of Pennsylvania, “Christ Church and St Michaels Episcopal, Germantown, Philadelphia PA, 1899 to 1938” in Pennsylvania and New Jersey, U.S., Church and Town Records, 1669-2013 (Lehi, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2011): 34-35.

23 James Gopsill’s Sons, Gopsill’s Philadelphia City Directory (Philadelphia: James Gopsill’s Sons, 1895): 164 & 2050.

24 James Gopsill’s Sons, Gopsill’s Philadelphia City Directory (Philadelphia: James Gopsill’s Sons, 1897): 2180.

25 James Gopsill’s Sons, Gopsill’s Philadelphia City Directory (Philadelphia: James Gopsill’s Sons, 1899): 197 & 2471.

26 James Gopsill’s Sons, Gopsill’s Philadelphia City Directory (Philadelphia: James Gopsill’s Sons, 1900): 197 & 2498.

27 James Gopsill’s Sons, Gopsill’s Philadelphia City Directory (Philadelphia: James Gopsill’s Sons, 1901): 215 & 2631.

28 D. W. Young, “Historic Germantown: New Knowledge in a Very Old Neighborhood,” The Encyclopedia of Greater Philadelphia: https://philadelphiaencyclopedia.org/essays/historic-germantown-new-knowledge-in-a-very-old-neighborhood-2/.

29 “United States Census, 1900”, database with images, FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:M3WT-MLY : 27 January 2023), Authur Wright, 1900.

30 Historical Society of Pennsylvania, “Kirk & Nice, Undertakers” [record books], in Pennsylvania and New Jersey, Church and Town Records, 1708-1985 (Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2011).

31 Historical Society of Pennsylvania, “Kirk & Nice, Undertakers” [record books].

32 C. E. Howe Co., Philadelphia City Register (Philadelphia: C. E. Howe Company, 1910): 213.

33 “Artisans Order of Mutual Protection,” Philadelphia Inquirer (Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, July 12, 1908): 3, Newspapers.com.

34 Artisans Order of Mutual Protection, “History”: http://www.artisansaomp.org/history.html.

35 Armed Forces History Collections, “Facts about the United States Flag,” Smithsonian Institution (Public Inquiry Services, September 2001): https://www.si.edu/spotlight/flag-day/flag-facts.

36 “United States Census, 1910,” database with images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:33S7-9RKV-WRB?cc=1727033&wc=QZZH-W5T%3A133638001%2C143194401%2C143376101%2C1589124991 : 24 June 2017), Pennsylvania > Philadelphia > Philadelphia Ward 22 > ED 407 > image 15 of 24; citing NARA microfilm publication T624 (Washington, D.C.: National Archives and Records Administration, n.d.).

37 Historical Society of Pennsylvania, “Christ Church and St Michaels Episcopal, Germantown, Philadelphia PA, 1899 to 1938”: 34-35.

38 Historical Society of Pennsylvania, “Christ Church and St Michaels Episcopal, Germantown, Philadelphia PA, 1899 to 1938”: 388-389.

39 The National Archives at Philadelphia, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, “Petition of Naturalization” [of Evelina M. Woodroffe] in Pennsylvania, U.S., Federal Naturalization, 1795-1931 (Lehi, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2011).

40 Ancestry.com, Pennsylvania, U.S., World War I Veterans Service and Compensation Files, 1917-1919, 1934-1948 (Lehi, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2015).

41 Ancestry.com, “St. John’s Church, Camden, N. J. 2d Appendix to Volume 3, Marriages,” New Jersey, U. S., Episcopal Diocese of New Jersey, Church Records, 1700-1970 (Lehi, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2021): 118.

42 “United States Census, 1920”, database with images, FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:M61K-TBX : 3 February 2021), George C Bever, 1920.

43 Ancestry.com, Pennsylvania, U.S., Death Certificates, 1906-1968 (Lehi, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2014).

44 The National Archives at Philadelphia, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, “Petition of Naturalization” [of Evelina M. Woodroffe].

45 “United States Census, 1930,” database with images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:33SQ-GRZH-HT?cc=1810731&wc=QZF7-YD9%3A649490601%2C649796601%2C649796602%2C1589282332 : 8 December 2015), Pennsylvania > Delaware > Aldan > ED 1 > image 14 of 22; citing NARA microfilm publication T626 (Washington D.C.: National Archives and Records Administration, 2002).

46 “United States Census, 1940”, database with images, FamilySearch (ark:/61903/1:1:K975-B84 : Thu Mar 16 16:18:54 UTC 2023), Entry for Dorothy Bevers and George S Bevers, 1940.

47 “California, County Birth and Death Records, 1800-1994,” database with images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:3QS7-89SV-Y9CV-J?cc=2001287&wc=FP4T-DP8%3A285176601%2C285575401 : 27 September 2019), Los Angeles, Los Angeles > Death certificates 1943 no 7540-9600 > image 2603 of 2794; California State Archives, Sacramento.

Reminiscences of Uncle Bob, Part Six

At about the age of 75, Charles M. Daily retired from farming, and with his wife Maggie, they moved into a house in east Watertown. Their son Robert Daily said in an interview, “… it was downtown.  It was about somewhere around six, seven, eight hundred block.”1 Later they rented a house in southwest Watertown at 620 2nd Street SW.  One of the things that Charles did following his retirement was to make a trip to Omaha to sell the two houses that they owned there.2

Charles and Maggie’s family continued to grow as their daughters Gladys Bevers, Iona Zick and Elizabeth Bevers and their daughter-in-law Ruby Daily gave them more grandchildren.  As of August 1934, they had 22 living grandchildren.  Tragically, the birth of Gladys’ eighth child left her weak and unable to recover.  In an interview about fifty years later, her brother Robert recounted some details of Gladys’ illness and subsequent death.

Interviewer:  Um, Aunt Gladys, um, she died in October of ‘34? [1934]

Uncle Bob:   Yeah, it’s in ’34, all right, I know.  I don’t know what the date is on there.  [He was referring to a paper they were looking at.]

Interviewer:  On this here.

Uncle Bob:  She, she was born in ’92.  She was, uh, eight and 34 made it 42, didn’t it?  Yeah. She was 42 years-old when she passed away.

Interviewer:  Um hmm.  But it was, it was more or less complications after [the baby] was born?  She never really regained her strength after [the baby] was born.

Uncle Bob:  Yeah, she, she was, when –

Interviewer:  [The baby] was born in August.

Uncle Bob:  When [the baby’s older sibling] was born in 19–, August 7.

Interviewer:  In ’29.

Uncle Bob:  Yeah, why, Dr. Hammond told them they shouldn’t have any more children because it would be either the mother or the child, see.

Interviewer:  I see, uh huh.

Uncle Bob:  And five years to the day was when [the baby] was born.  It was enlargement of the liver.  The liver had enlarged so much she couldn’t get her breath, see. 

Interviewer:  Ohhh.

Uncle Bob:  That’s the reason –

Interviewer:  So, it was what they call liver disease now?  Or?

Uncle Bob:  Well, I don’t know.  But I would have thought that — what could ha’ been the cause of it?  But Doc Hammond knew too well.  He said –

Interviewer:  Hm.

Uncle Bob:  See, she got through with, uh, [the baby’s older sibling] –

Interviewer:  Um hmm.

Uncle Bob:  — he said they shouldn’t have any more family anymore because it’d be either the mother or the child.

Interviewer:  Well, she did – [the baby] was born, it was two months later but –  

Uncle Bob:  Well, yeah.

Interviewer:  — she was jus’ too weak then.

Uncle Bob:  Yeah, she never – I know she told mother, Gladys told mother that she – I guess she kinda realized in that way.  An’ she said, “If it happens to me, I want you to take care of [the baby].”  That’s the reason [the baby], Mother took care of, from that time on until, until Elsie and Arthur took her.

Interviewer:  Um huh.

Uncle Bob:  Took her from there.   Mother … at her age, at that time ….  Oh, at that time she was in her –.  Well, ah, see, thirty, uh – 

Interviewer:  33 and 34, she was already 60.  Close to 70.

Uncle Bob:  Yeah, she didn’t want the job of raising her up and keeping her.  She, she didn’t feel able to do that.3

Maggie was nearly 67 years-old when Gladys passed away and she began caring for her infant granddaughter.  Her son-in-law Arthur Bevers, having seven children ranging in age from 14 to 4 (excluding the infant), secured the help of an 18 year-old young lady named Elsie Ludtke.  The Ludtke family had been living in Rauville Township when the Daily family moved to Rauville in 19154 and the Ludtkes lived there until after 1920,5 so it is possible that the two families knew each other.  By 1925, the Ludtkes had moved to Kampeska Township, Codington County,6 and by 1930 Arthur and his family were also living in Kampeska Township.7 Kampeska Township is approximately 13 miles southwest of Watertown.

Undoubtedly, the news of Maggie taking on the care of her granddaughter reached her relations who were in California.  One of Maggie’s grandsons has stated that Maggie was an avid letter writer and that she wrote to her three siblings once a week, and occasionally, Maggie would receive a box from California that held trinkets.8 In November 1934, Maggie received a postcard and a letter from her brothers Sidney and Harman Finley Bonewitz, interestingly, both postmarked on the 11th of the month in Long Beach, California.  In Finley’s letter, he expressed his hopes that the baby was “getting along fine.”

Finley had left Omaha following the death of his wife Cornelia who died in 1920, and when he married again in 1922, he was in California.  In Finley’s letter, which was posted with a three-cent stamp, he notes that he was awaiting a letter from Maggie that week and he mentions the difficult times they were in, as well as news about himself and others in California:

Sister Maggie and All

Here is a foggy dismal day  the kind of weather I don’t like a little bit.  and then I have no letter from you this week.  I hope it will be on hand tomorrow, and that ever body back there are all O.K., hope [the baby] is getting along fine.  how I would like to see her, and in fact all the rest of the relation up there.  if these times continue I am a fraid we will never be able to go see each other.  well we will live in hopes of better times.  how I wish that pension would be a thing of benefit while I live altho others could enjoy if I did not get a chance.  I see I have over 83 dollars tax to meet.  for the privalage of living here.  don’t like it but will have to be thankful that they will let me live at all.  Stella was up to see May this week  she is on the mend but cant walk on it yet.  she sent back her wheelchair  could not afford it any longer  she can hobble around in the house on a chair.  I have not been up to see her yet.  now for a bit of newes, I must not forget.  Sidney and LaVerne are moving a gain.  but I will not try to tell about for he will explain it himself.  he sure seems sick of moving so often.  I hope he has found a stopping place for awhile and will make good.  Hill is watching them close for fear they might want to move in with her again.  and she has the place is cluttered up most as bad as it was before.  now she is draging in some little shrubs ever night to make a little hedge in our front yard.  she is the limit  I wish you could meet her.  you would not need to talk.  she could do it all.  and have a new story ever time.  for she knows all about ever thing.  or knows of some body who does know.  this paper I got this week is bum  I don’t like pad any way.  and it has no body to it.  well Stella says the eats are ready so I will saw of till after dinner –

well dinner is over.  and Ben was here a little while and went on to his cousin’s, so if Sidneys dont get around we will be by own lone selves.  well as I having no other newes I might as well saw off for this time.  hoping [the baby] and all the rest are all right so I will close for this time with love to all

Finley


Envelope dated November 11, 1934, sent from Harman Finley Bonewitz

Finley shared that Stella had gone to visit May.  Stella would be his wife and May could be his sister Carrie Mae Belle White.  Carrie and her husband Charles White and their possibly widowed daughter Mabel Day were living in Tujunga, a town 40 miles north of Long Beach.

Sidney had probably moved to California about 1927.  According to the message on his one-cent postcard, he and his wife La Verne were going to be moving to a ranch in a rural area 55 miles west of Long Beach.  In addition, the message briefly told about the moves that he had made during that week and he gave Maggie his new address:

Dear Sister & all

Sunday evening & just got a few minutes so will drop you a line on a card  we are moving to Route 1 Box 64  Arlington Calif

expect to get moved in some time Wed or Thur  I have been on the jump for a week packing & repacking, moving & removing from our apt to HF shed & from the shed to the ranch  I sure know how to move now  Ive done so much of it this last year

Well I guess close with love to all your bro S L



The year 1934 was in the midst of the Great Depression.  In his letter, Finley alluded to the difficult times the nation was experiencing.  When Finley expressed, “How I wish that pension would be a thing of benefit while I live,” he may have been referring to one of several insurance programs that were being proposed by various individuals and organizations (including the United States President).  A survey of 12,076 newspaper and farm journal editors, revealed that 64% of the editors believed “… that public opinion favors a compulsory governmental system of old age pensions ….”9

Mrs. [Eleanor] Roosevelt devoted one of her widely-syndicated columns to a discussion of old age pensions. “Old age pensions,” she wrote, “have been brought very much to the fore again in the Congressional campaigns on the coast this year, and there is no doubt that some type of this form of relief will be a part of the social program proposed to the next Congress ….

There is no question in my mind but that old people who have given of their strength and youth to the bringing up of a family and have been unable to save should not in their old age have to live off their children’s bounty or on charity. Older civilizations have long conceded this right and I feel that taking this group out of industry a little earlier would be a great help to another group which is now very much menaced–these men and women between 45 and 60 who are finding it harder and harder to get jobs. Every citizen, it seems to me, should study this question and give his support to discussions of it in Congress in the hope that some really workable plan may be found and established in every state in the Union.”10

On June 8, 1934, President Franklin D. Roosevelt, in a message to the Congress, announced his intention to provide a program for Social Security.  Subsequently, the President created by Executive Order the Committee on Economic Security, which was composed of five top cabinet-level officials. The committee was instructed to study the entire problem of economic insecurity and to make recommendations that would serve as the basis for legislative consideration by the Congress.11

This Committee was established … to develop a comprehensive social insurance system covering all major personal economic hazards with a special emphasis on unemployment and old age insurance.  The Committee’s legislative recommendations were presented to the President in January 1935, and introduced to Congress for consideration shortly thereafter.  A compromise Social Security Bill was signed by the President on August 14, 1935.12


Finley made a comment to Maggie in his letter that “the times” could prevent them from seeing each other again.  His letter gave no outright indication of him being in poor health, although perhaps that could be inferred from his statement that he might not experience the benefit of the pension.  In actuality, Finley did not see his relations in South Dakota again.  Three weeks after writing the November 11th letter, at 75 years of age, Finley passed away on December 1, 1934.

When the South Dakota census was taken in the spring of 1935, Elsie Ludtke was recorded with Arthur Bevers’ family and her occupation was listed as housekeeper.13 Two census records were completed for Arthur’s 9 month-old infant in Codington County: one at the home of her father in Kampeska Township14 and the other at 620 2nd Street SW, Watertown which was Charles and Maggie’s home.15 In addition to the infant, Charles and Maggie’s daughter Oranna Mills and her three children, aged 9, 12 & 17, were also living with them.16 Later that year, a year after losing his wife, Arthur married Elsie.  In his interview, Uncle Bob reported that the infant then went to live with Arthur and Elsie.17

In the summer of 1935, the Daily family experienced a sudden loss.  Uncle Bob related that Charles and Maggie’s 12-year-old granddaughter Florence, who was living with them, “went out to Van’s” (most likely Florence’s uncle Van Mills’ farm in Germantown, Codington County)18 and “she had a severe headache.  … When she come in, she, they tried aspirin and things like that, in order to try to relieve her that way.”19 Sadly, by the end of the day, July 15, Florence had departed this life.  Uncle Bob stated that the illness was caused in some way by her brain.  He and his interviewer speculated that it could have been caused by sun stroke, cerebral hemorrhage or a tumor.


Charles and Maggie made a third move in Watertown in 1935.  They purchased a duplex at 219 5th Avenue SW.  Uncle Bob explained the purchase and also how they supported themselves during their retirement years:

Uncle Bob:  ‘Course, they got a chance to buy the duplex in ‘35.

Interviewer:  Yeah, that’s the only place I remember.

Uncle Bob:  An‘ o’course they lived there til ’47.  That’s twelve years.

Interviewer:  Um hm, um hm.  Yeah, right.

Uncle Bob:  Yep, then o’course, oh, I took it over.  Why, course Dad’d bought it for a thousand fifty dollars, the duplex in ‘35.

Interviewer:  In ’35, i’n’t that somethin’.

Uncle Bob:  Yeah.  Herman Michael wanted to sell it.  An’ he was land poor, property poor, see.  An’ he wanted to sell it.  ‘Course, taxes wasn’t bad.  But rent at that time was only $10 a month, see.

Interviewer:  It sounds unreal, isn’t it?  What –

Uncle Bob:  And they bought the duplex and that way they got $10 from the other side.

Interviewer:  Umm hmm.

Uncle Bob:  And o‘course, folks had, had old-age, got old-age assistance that way. 

Interviewer:  Uh-huh.

Uncle Bob:  An’ I, it always hurt me to think, how they, they had to know ever-, ev’rythin’, all expenditures.  Uh, an’ account for ‘em.  Dad shingled the duplex.  Aw, painted it and he had to do that on his, either on his own money or off that $10 that he got from the other side.  (chuckling)  An’ yet, when they passed on, it was against the property, see.  All the –

Interviewer:  Was it?  Ohhh.

Uncle Bob:  All the, their old-age assistance was, was all against the property, see.

Interviewer:  Hmmm.

Uncle Bob:  If, if you didn’t own anything, the old-age assistance paid your rent.

Interviewer:  But they owned –

Uncle Bob:  But now why, cuz they had a home –

Interviewer:  Huh.

Uncle Bob:  — why, why did they have to be so tight.  And it, whatever they got, all the money they got they – see, when Dad – they were getting old-age assistance, an’ Dad went down, that was in ’35 or ’34, Dad went back down to Omaha an’ sold his property.  Well, then he paid back the old-age assistance.

Interviewer:  Um hmm.

Uncle Bob:  An’ what he had got up to that time.

Interviewer:  Um hm.

Uncle Bob:  An’ they told ‘im that he could keep, uh, when they got – they were allowed to keep $250 a piece for burial expenses, see.  When they got down to close to that, then they could re–

Interviewer:  Re-apply.

Uncle Bob:  — re-apply, see.  Well then, o’course from that time on they had got, but they had to ‘count for everythin’.  The other side had to be accounted for, see.

Interviewer:  Ohhh, yeah.

Uncle Bob:  Well, they got over sixteen hundred dollars, see.  Course that was against the property.  I had to pay that off.20

Charles and Maggie lived in the left side of this duplex and rented out the right side.

One of Charles and Maggie’s grandchildren described their house as follows:

The duplex had three rooms downstairs and two bedrooms and hallway upstairs with an open stairway.  Grandma and Grandpa’s bedroom was the front room.  The middle room was the dining room with a large table, cupboard and the oil stove.  In one corner was Grandpa’s wicker rocker where he always sat with the paper or leaned close to the small radio to hear the progress of the war.  When we had Sunday dinner there with some of the cousins, we (the cousins) filled our plates and sat on the stairs to eat.

The back room was the kitchen with stove (and kerosine stove for summer cooking), cupboard, washing machine and large single sink.  A cistern pump was over the sink for getting water for washing dishes and clothes.  There was also a small pantry and the back porch.  The basement stairway led off of the kitchen under the stairs to the upstairs.  I was never down the basement more than once or twice.  I recall it was dark and damp down there.  I was told there was a sand point well there but can’t tell more than that.

The east half of the duplex was identical but in reverse.  And oh yes, the bathroom was out the back door and down the walk to the two identical small buildings at the alley called the “outhouses.”

Grandpa always had a large beautiful garden that filled all of their half of the back yard.  The fresh peas were always so tempting but we better not let Grandpa see us pick any and pop them into our mouths. My Aunt Oranna and children, Guy and George, also lived with Grandma and Grandpa. … Aunt Oranna was epileptic and unable to live alone so spent some time living with each of her sisters and then with Grandma and Grandpa.21

Charles and Maggie lived out their final years in this duplex in Watertown. Some of the events of those years will be shared in the next blogpost.


  1. M. R. Wilson, transcription of Robert Lee Daily Interview by R. Thiele, recording (ca. 1984): 27.
  2. L. A. Bevers, personal correspondence with M. R. Wilson, November 24, 2010.
  3. Wilson, Robert Lee Daily Interview: 22-23.
  4. “South Dakota State Census, 1915,” database with images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:S3HT-6LCJ-1L?cc=1476041&wc=MJQK-N38%3A1041734401 : 21 May 2014), 004245360 > image 3042 of 3102; State Historical Society, Pierre, South Dakota.
  5. “United States Census, 1920,” database with images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:33SQ-GRVM-DZJ?cc=1488411&wc=QZJB-434%3A1036874501%2C1039011801%2C1039036701%2C1589332505 : 13 September 2019), South Dakota > Codington > Rauville > ED 94 > image 4 of 7; citing NARA microfilm publication T625 (Washington, D.C.: National Archives and Records Administration, n.d.).
  6. South Dakota State Census, 1925,” database with images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:S3HY-DZ2S-88Z?cc=1476077&wc=MJ7S-T38%3A1041768301 : 21 May 2014), 004246371 > image 1862 of 3407; State Historical Society, Pierre, South Dakota.
  7. “United States Census, 1930,” database with images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:33SQ-GRCF-HB3?cc=1810731&wc=QZF7-6VX%3A648803701%2C649380801%2C649388101%2C1589282323 : 8 December 2015), South Dakota > Codington > Kampeska > ED 10 > image 1 of 8; citing NARA microfilm publication T626 (Washington D.C.: National Archives and Records Administration, 2002).
  8. L. A. Bevers, interview with M. R. Wilson, August 2, 2010.
  9. M. B. Schnapper, “Trend of Interest in Economic Security,” https://www.ssa.gov/history/reports/ces/cesvol9trend.html.
  10. Schnapper, “Economic Security,” https://www.ssa.gov/history/reports/ces/cesvol9trend.html.
  11. Social Security Administration, Historical Background and Development of Social Security, “The Committee on Economic Security (CES),” https://www.ssa.gov/history/briefhistory3.html.
  12. Congressional Panel on Social Security Organization, Organizational History of SSA, “Committee on Economic Security (1934),” https://www.ssa.gov/history/orghist.html.
  13. “South Dakota State Census, 1935,” database with images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:S3G9-DVBD-6?cc=1614831&wc=MJ4G-PTL%3A1041689201 : 21 May 2014), 004447442 > image 481 of 3547; State Historical Society, Pierre, South Dakota.
  14. “South Dakota State Census, 1935,” database with images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:S3G3-DKPS-FM?cc=1614831&wc=MJ4R-N38%3A1041633301 : 21 May 2014), 004443899 > image 2284 of 3338; State Historical Society, Pierre, South Dakota.
  15. “South Dakota State Census, 1935,” database with images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:S3G3-DKPS-F9?cc=1614831&wc=MJ4R-N38%3A1041633301 : 21 May 2014), 004443899 > image 2285 of 3338; State Historical Society, Pierre, South Dakota.
  16. “South Dakota State Census, 1935,” database with images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:S3HT-DW5Q-MN3?cc=1614831&wc=MJ4L-DP8%3A1041680801 : 21 May 2014), 004447088 > image 653 of 3506; State Historical Society, Pierre, South Dakota.
  17. Wilson, Robert Lee Daily Interview: 22.
  18. “South Dakota State Census, 1935,” database with images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:S3HT-DW53-YLN?cc=1614831&wc=MJ4L-DP8%3A1041680801 : 21 May 2014), 004447088 > image 693 of 3506; State Historical Society, Pierre, South Dakota.
  19. Wilson, Robert Lee Daily Interview: 10.
  20. Wilson, Robert Lee Daily Interview: 29.
  21. ___ Zick, “Daily,” (n. d.).