Maude Bevers, Career Woman

December 28, 2024December 28, 2024 MRW3 Comments

In September 1883, 8-year-old Maude Bevers, living near Liverpool, England, wrote a letter to her father Alfred C. Bevers, who had traveled to Dakota Territory in America. One of the things she reported to her father was: “Mama say’s that I am getting on very well at school.” (See the full letter in Ada, Gertie and Maude) About fifteen months later, Maude emigrated to Dakota Territory with her mother and two older sisters, joining her father. Because Maude’s father was a supply pastor for the Methodist Episcopal Conference in Dakota Territory and in South Dakota when it became a state, Maude continued her education in several small towns. Eventually, she would be the first among her siblings to attend and complete high school. According to the reports her siblings gave for the 1940 United States census, the highest grades they had attended were 6^th, 7^th or 8^th grade.

Not only did Maude complete high school, in her early twenties, Maude attended college. An agricultural college had been established by the Dakota Territorial Legislature in 1881, and in Brookings the first building was built in 1884.¹ A college catalog explained the history and purpose of the college, including the following statements:

Upon the division of the territory of Dakota into the states of North and South Dakota when admitted into the Union in 1889, the agricultural and mechanical college of Dakota became known as the South Dakota Agricultural College [SDAC].

… The college is devoted to advancing the interests of practical education and its purpose is to give men and women such training as will best fit them for the active duties of life, whether it be in the fields, the shops, the house, or in the class or counting rooms.²

Even though the college was initially established as an agricultural and mechanical college, by 1896 it had broadened its curriculum to include 24 departments. Maude’s name is listed in the SDAC catalog dated 1897-98, which indicated she was studying Commercial Science and her address was Willow Lakes.³ Her father had been assigned to the Willow Lakes Methodist Episcopal charge in 1896.⁴ With a population of approximately 220, in 1897-98, Willow Lakes sent 10 young men and women to the agricultural college, five of whom studied Commercial Science. Other subjects studied by these students were Domestic Science, Mechanical Engineering and Agriculture.

News item of *The Brookings Register*
May 8, 1897⁵

During the 1897-98 school year, there were about 550 students attending SDAC. Two-thirds of them were men and one-third women. The college catalog explained the affordability for students to attend the state-established college:

No young person should be deterred from obtaining a liberal education when such advantages as this college offers can be had at a nominal price. The aggregate of all the regular fees is only four dollars per quarter and is payable at the time of registration. Books and stationery are furnished by the student. A laboratory fee of one dollar is charged for the use of each laboratory in which a student takes work.⁶

Due to the expansion of the educational departments during the first decade and a half, the dormitories had been converted into classrooms and teaching labs. By 1896, there was only one cottage available for lodging on the campus. It held about 20 young women. The rest of the student population boarded in Brookings—a town with a population of nearly 2000—in private homes or hotels, starting at about 50 cents per week.⁷ It is not known whether Maude lodged on or off campus. The expenses of the average student who attended three quarters of the school year were: $6.00 for tuition, $90.00 for board and room, $45.00 for clothes, $15.00 for laundry, $25.00 for books and stationery, and $10.00 for traveling expenses.⁸

About fifteen percent of the SDAC students of the 1897-98 school year were majoring in Commercial Science. The college catalog described the aim of the department:

Appreciating the fact that business men are governed largely by certain specific and established rules, it becomes necessary that this department keep in touch with these usages and impart the same to the student in such definite and concise terms as shall prepare him for successful entrance to the business world.

The rooms for the department are exceptionally well suited and adapted to the work of the business student. The amanuensis room is supplied with fifteen typewriting machines and ample table and black board surface. The offices such as the Bank, Post Office and Mercantile are well fitted for giving the student actual practice in business methods. The college library affords good opportunity for references and collateral reading. …⁹

Note: The 1886 edition of Webster’s Dictionary defines amanuensis as “A person whose employment is to write what another dictates, or to copy what another has written; a copyist.”¹⁰

Based on the dates that news items reported about when Maude was at the college or left the college, it appears that Maude attended for two years. Therefore, she would not have earned a bachelor’s degree, but she may have completed the coursework to earn a certificate of graduation in Commercial Science. To earn this certificate, a student had to complete the courses of shorthand, penmanship, advanced dictation, commercial law, bookkeeping, business practice, correspondence, typewriting, commercial arithmetic and English words. The description of the course in English Words was: “A study of Anglo-Saxon, Latin, French and Greek derivatives and synonyms. This course is designed to form an intermediate step between grammar and rhetoric, and aims to make the student familiar with the elements entering into the growth and present use of the English language.”¹²

News item of *The Brookings Register*
October 2, 1897¹³

In June 1897, The Brookings Register reported “Rev. Bevers, of Willow Lakes, led chapel devotionals Thursday noon.”¹⁴ This was Maude’s father. The SDAC students were not required to attend the chapel exercises, instead the college catalog stated:

The Young Men’s and Young Women’s Christian Associations are important elements in retaining a strong christian fellowship among the student body. Their relations to the State and Inter-National organizations assist in keeping the college in touch with other educational institutions. … [T]hese student organizations are allowed to take the religious lead by holding prayer and devotional meetings nearly every day to which all are invited.¹⁵

Another item in The Brookings Register reported that Maude left the college in March 1898, stating that she had “accepted a position which she [was] fully capable of filling.“¹⁶ According to a family historian, she was hired by Alfred Newman Waters, an attorney and realtor, doing business in De Smet, South Dakota.¹⁷ A. N. Waters was one of the pioneer settlers of Kingsbury County, arriving in August 1880.¹⁸ He had been a prominent citizen of De Smet since its founding. Besides being a businessman, a few of the capacities in which he served the community were as a notary public, a director on the boards of financial businesses, and a county court judge. When Maude became an office worker in De Smet, she joined the nearly eighteen percent of gainfully employed workers in the United States who were women.¹⁹ Also, among the gainfully employed women, she joined the nine percent of women engaged in nonagricultural pursuits who were working in the clerical field.²⁰

News item of *The Brookings Register*
March 29, 1898

Traditionally, rather than pursue an occupation in the community, most women have worked within the home. The percentage of women that were gainfully employed in 1870 was less than 10 percent.²¹ The three occupations most often held by women between 1870 and 1900 were domestic service worker, teacher, and nurse. As the industrial revolution advanced, more women entered the workforce. By 1900, the percentage of women that were gainfully occupied was over 14 percent²² and the percentage of single women that were gainfully occupied was nearly 41 percent.²³ One of the reasons for this growth was an increase in the demand for professional and semi-professional workers, including clerical workers, due to “the need by business and industry for accurate record-keeping, with the development of large-scale business practices, and with modern methods used in distributing the output of a vastly expanded economy.”²⁴ A report of the United States Department of Labor provides additional information on this point:

… The invention of the typewriter and other office machines, in response to the growing needs of business, made it possible to carry out record keeping, communication, and related activities on a tremendous scale. The result was the creation of entirely new occupations many of which women perform.²⁵ …

The greatest rate of increase for women “office workers” in any decade occurred from 1880 to 1890. Women in these selected office occupations [referring to stenographers, typists, and secretaries; shipping and receiving clerks; clerical and kindred workers; and office machine operators] multiplied nearly 20 times – a testament to the growing acceptance of the typewriter and of the trained woman typist.²⁶ …

In 1900, the percentage of office workers that were women was about 29%.²⁷ “In taking on the functions of clerical workers, women did not replace men. Rather they found entirely new opportunities.”²⁸

By the fall of 1898, Maude’s parents and sister Gertrude had moved to De Smet as well. In 1900, Maude and her family lived on First Street.²⁹ The Methodist Episcopal church was only a few blocks away. Records of the church state that all of them became members on November 26, 1898.³⁰ Maude was the church choir leader for many years.³¹ In addition, the minutes of the women’s group noted that in December 1902 she was the organist at the Epworth League meeting (an organization for young adults), and she was the secretary pro tem at the women’s meeting on April 16, 1903.

Maude had a poetic and artistic side to her. On February 14, 1900, she created a tribute to Lieutenant Sidney Ellsworth Morrison. It is not known what the relationship was between Maude and Lieutenant Morrison, but it is noteworthy that the tribute was dated on Valentine’s Day. An item in The Christian Advocate, dated April 27, 1899, reads: “Lieutenant Sidney Morrison, who was killed in the recent charge of the South Dakota Regiment at Mariloa, was a brother of the Rev. J. G. Morrison, Pastor of Franklin Avenue Church, Minneapolis, Minn.”

Sidney Morrison was a member of Company E of First South Dakota Infantry and his rank was 2^nd Lieutenant. He died in the Philippines on March 27, 1899,³² but it wasn’t until January 25, 1900, that his remains were transported on the ship “City of Peking” to his father James Morrison, whose residence was De Smet, South Dakota.³³

Maude’s tribute, entitled Translated, is typewritten. As far as is known, this is the earliest piece of family memorabilia that was written using a typewriter. The keys $, #, % and @ were used to create the decorative border.

More about Maude’s life will be continued in another blogpost.

1 South Dakota Agricultural College [SDAC], “The South Dakota Agricultural College Catalog 1897-1898 with Announcements for 1898-1899” (1898). Campus Course Catalogs and Bulletins. Paper 15, https://openprairie.sdstate.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1011&context=archives_catalogs, page 31.

2 SDAC, “SDAC Catalog 1897-1898,” page 31.

3 SDAC, “SDAC Catalog 1897-1898,” page 14.

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

5 “Items of Local Interest,” The Brookings Register (Brookings, South Dakota), May 8, 1897, page 3, Newspapers.com.

6 SDAC, “SDAC Catalog 1897-1898,” page 56.

7 SDAC, “SDAC Catalog 1897-1898,” page 57.

8 SDAC, “SDAC Catalog 1897-1898,” page 57.

9 SDAC, “SDAC Catalog 1897-1898,” page 83.

10 Noah Webster, Webster’s complete dictionary of the English language (London: George Bell & Sons, 1886): 42, https://archive.org/details/websterscomplete00webs/page/42/mode/2up.

11 SDAC, “SDAC Catalog 1897-1898,” following page 82.

12 SDAC, “SDAC Catalog 1897-1898,” page 89.

13 “College News,” The Brookings Register (Brookings, South Dakota), October 2, 1897, page 4, Newspapers.com.

14 “College Chestnuts,” The Brookings Register (Brookings, South Dakota), June 16, 1897, page 4, Newspapers.com.

15 SDAC, “SDAC Catalog 1897-1898,” page 43.

16 “College News,” The Brookings Register (Brookings, South Dakota), March 29, 1898, page 2, Newspapers.com.

17 K. and M. Bevers, notes attached to Agnes Maude Bevers in Ancestral Quest program file dated June 29, 2022.

18 The De Smet News, “A. N. Waters, Pioneer, Laid to Rest Here Sunday” (De Smet, South Dakota), September 2, 1927, in Waters, http://www.pioneergirl.com/waters_cemetery.pdf.

19 Joseph A. Hill, Women in Gainful Occupations 1870 to 1920 (Washington, D. C., USA: United States Government Printing Office, 1929): 52, https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=hvd.hba9kx&seq=1.

20 Joseph A. Hill, Women in Gainful Occupations 1870 to 1920: 40.

21 Janet M. Hooks, Women’s Occupations Through Seven Decades (Washington, D. C., USA: United States Government Printing Office, 1947): 34, https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=uiug.30112104139180&seq=1.

22 Janet M. Hooks, Women’s Occupations Through Seven Decades: 34.

23 Janet M. Hooks, Women’s Occupations Through Seven Decades: 39.

24 Janet M. Hooks, Women’s Occupations Through Seven Decades: 72.

25 Janet M. Hooks, Women’s Occupations Through Seven Decades: 72.

26 Janet M. Hooks, Women’s Occupations Through Seven Decades: 74.

27 Janet M. Hooks, Women’s Occupations Through Seven Decades: 76.

28 Janet M. Hooks, Women’s Occupations Through Seven Decades: 75.

29 “United States Census, 1900”, , FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:MMRW-TKS : Sat Aug 17 18:09:29 UTC 2024), Entry for Alfred C Peevers and Mary N Peevers, 1900.

30 First Methodist Church of De Smet, “Record of Members.”

31 First Methodist Church, “A History of the Church,” Consecration Service of the Remodeled First Methodist Church (De Smet, South Dakota: First Methodist Church, September 26, 1965).

32 “LT Sidney Ellsworth Morrison,” Find a Grave, https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/154931201/sidney-ellsworth-morrison.

33 Ancestry.com, U.S., National Cemetery Interment Control Forms, 1928-1962 [database on-line] (Lehi, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2012): http://www.Ancestry.com.

Aunt Gertie, An Active Methodist

October 12, 2024November 30, 2025 MRW4 Comments

Born in August 1872, Gertrude Mary Bevers was the eighth child of Alfred C. and Mary N. (nee Bridges) Bevers, although at the time of her birth only three of her siblings had lived past the age of one. She was born in a small town in England and during her childhood her family moved every few years, including emigrating to the United States when she was 12 years old. (A summary of the young lives of Gertrude and her sisters can be found in Ada, Gertie and Maude Bevers, and an article about her brother George is found in George C. Bevers, Bookkeeper.)

There is evidence that at a young age Gertrude began following in the footsteps of her parents. One example is that at the age of 15, Gertrude along with her 20 year-old sister Ada embraced a tenet of her father and her father’s father, William Bevers, who “had been a total abstainer over 60 years … [and] was an ardent temperance advocate.”¹ Gertrude’s father participated in the temperance movement in England by giving lectures, one of which proposed that alcohol gave no assistance to the health of one’s body.² When Gertrude’s family was living in Wolsey, South Dakota, she and Ada were involved in the Hope of Wolsey, an offshoot of a temperance organization that had risen up in England called the Band of Hope. (More about the Band of Hope’s history and mission can be found in Ada, Gertie and Maude Bevers.) In April 1888, Gertrude was issued a certificate of membership in the Hope of Wolsey, which was signed by Ada. It certified that she had made a pledge of temperance, which was printed on the certificate: “I hereby solemnly promise to abstain from the use of all intoxicating liquors, including wine, beer and cider, as a beverage, and from the use of tobacco in every form, and from all profanity.” Appendix 1 below provides the text of the certificate.

Gertrude’s certificate of membership in the temperance organization Hope of Wolsey

In the year that Gertrude turned 26 years-old, she moved with her parents and younger sister Maude to De Smet, South Dakota, where she would reside for the rest of her life, about 55 years. Their residence in 1900 was on First Street.³ The town of De Smet had been established when the Dakota Central Railway Company laid tracks through Kingsbury County. (Soon afterward, in 1881, the railroad was bought by Chicago Northwestern Railroad Company).⁴

“The first family of De Smet was that of Charles P. Ingalls. He was the timekeeper for the railway construction crew at his camp on the shore of Silver Lake, a mile east of where De Smet was to be built. As construction work ceased in the fall of 1879, he and his wife, along with four daughters remained in the timekeeper’s building through the winter and spring and built what was to become Ingalls’ store.

“By 1883, De Smet was a typical early prairie town. De Smet had about 60 buildings including grocery and provision stores, wagon shops, lumber yards, banks, a drug store, newspaper companies, a flour mill, a church, a school, an elevator, two attorneys, a harness shop, one hotel and two real estate dealers.”⁵

One of the early real estate dealers was Alfred N. Waters, who would be a prominent land developer and citizen of the town. Two decades after establishing himself in De Smet, he would marry Gertrude’s sister Maude.

On November 26, 1898, Gertude with her parents and sister were received, by letter from the Willow Lake congregation, into membership of First Methodist Episcopal Church of De Smet.⁶ The De Smet congregation was small, having dropped in size from 100 members in 1891 to 60 members in 1900.⁷ The history of the church traces its beginning to the founding of the town.

“In 1880, all of the Protestant people of this area met for their worship services in the Chicago & Northwestern Railway depot, part of the time in the town’s public school house. Many families of the community cooperated to build a church edifice in 1882 under the chartered name of First Congregational Church and this was used by both Methodist and Baptist organizations for services, by alternating Sundays and hours.

“The Methodist organization, including the Ladies’ Aid Society, was formed in 1881 under the leadership of V. P. Neary. A separate building was not erected until 1885. It was then The Methodist Episcopal Church. …”⁸

Never marrying, Gertrude’s role would be housekeeper while living in her parent’s home, as well as while living in her sister’s home after her parents passed away.^9,10 In the community, Gertrude was active in several organizations. Some of what is known about her life has been extracted from minutes of meetings of women’s groups. Known as Gertie in the records of the Ladies Aid Society, she is found on its membership roll as of May 19, 1899, along with her mother. Sometimes Gertie served as the secretary or secretary pro tem of the aid society. She also served as its treasurer in 1902. Her name and her parents’ names were often mentioned in the minutes, as seen in these summarized examples:

July 11, 1899. “The Ladies Aid of the First M. E. Church met with Mrs. Crane.”

The scripture reading was Psalm 115. Mrs. Bevers gave the opening prayer. It was moved “that the Ladies serve a gallon of ice-cream each day at the church, during Institute.” Gertie seconded the motion and she signed the minutes of the meeting as the “sec pro tem.” There were 21 in attendance, not including children. Lastly, ice cream and cake were served.

August 23, 1899. “The Ladies Aid met with Mrs. O. E. Sterns.”

Gertrude signed the minutes of the meeting as secretary. The scripture reading, John 15:18, and opening prayer were given by Rev. Bevers. It was moved and carried that the society give Brother Akers, their minister, $5.00 for his salary. Rev. Bevers on behalf of the society presented Sister Akers, the minister’s wife, with a monetary gift ($5.00) for her birthday, and he sang a birthday song at the end of his presentation of the gift. This was followed by music and a social time. There were 10 members, seven visitors and eight children present.

News item in *Kingsbury County Independent*
May 20, 1904

One of the aims of the Ladies Aid Society was to raise money for the church. According to the 1965 history of the Methodist Church of De Smet: “The money paid in for the minister’s salary was never enough, so the Ladies’ Aid Society always put on big public chicken suppers. The group published a cook book, Kitchen Echoes, in 1909 with tried recipes from the women of the town. This brought in quite a bit of money for the church.” Both Gertie and Maude contributed recipes which were printed in Kitchen Echoes, which sold for 50 cents per copy.

“Potato Salad.—Two teacups cold sliced potato, two hard boiled eggs, one good sized onion. Dressing for same: one egg, two tablespoons sugar, one-half cup vinegar, one tablespoon of butter, one teaspoon of mustard dissolved in a little milk, a pinch of salt. Heat until it thickens, but do not let it boil.—Gertie Bevers.”

“Sugar Cookies.—Two cups sugar, one cup butter, one cup sour cream, two eggs, one teaspoon soda, one teaspoon essence of lemon, flour to mix just stiff enough to roll easily.—Gertie Bevers”

News item in *Kingsbury County Independent*
April 7, 1911

Another organization in which Gertie held an office was the Woman’s Christian Temperance Union (W. C. T. U.). Although this organization was originally established to advocate for temperance, it later adopted the stance that local branches could advocate for other social causes, such as women’s suffrage. In April 1905, the Kingsbury County Independent announced the re-organization of the chapter in De Smet by Miss Grace Van Vleet, who was the state secretary of Y. W. C. T. U. (the young women’s branch) and a temperance lecturer. Gertie was elected to be the Correspondence Secretary of the local chapter.¹¹ In March of the following year, the district convention of W. C. T. U. was held in De Smet.¹² Most of the meetings on the 27^th and 28^th were held at the Methodist Episcopal Church.

News item in *Kingsbury County Independent*
April 21, 1905

A third organization in which Gertie participated was the Epworth League, which had been founded in 1889 as a merger of several young people’s organizations of Methodist Episcopal churches.¹³ Epworth League was made up of primarily young adults. There were six departments of social service: Spiritual Life, Social Work, Literary Work, Correspondence, Mercy and Help, and Finance. At the Methodist Episcopal church in De Smet, there were two Epworth League meetings held on Sundays, one was called the junior league and the other was the senior league.¹⁴ Gertie at the age of 39 was a delegate to an Epworth League convention in Brookings, South Dakota in September 1911.¹⁵

Additionally, Gertie was a dues-paying member of the Methodist women’s group. She served on a committee in 1902 and was assistant to the 1^st Vice in 1905. She held a supper at her house in December 1910 to raise funds, $4.60 was collected. On December 26, 1911, the minutes recorded: “Resolved Miss Bevers assist Evelyn in social work.” She held another supper in April 1912, which raised $3.85.

On May 11, 1904, Gertie was a bridesmaid at her sister’s wedding. Maude married her employer Alfred N. Waters, whose first wife had passed away in 1900.¹⁶ One of the earliest businessmen of De Smet, Waters was the president of Waters Land and Loan, as well as being the mayor of De Smet. He had hired Maude to be his stenographer in 1898.¹⁷ The groomsman at the wedding was Professor C. E. Swanson, who was the superintendent of the De Smet schools, and the officiating minister was Rev. Henry Preston of the Methodist church. The wedding was held at Syndicate Hotel which had opened in De Smet in 1887. After an addition to the hotel was constructed in 1902, it was one of the largest hotels in South Dakota.¹⁸

As of the date of this blogpost, digitized versions of the issues of Kingsbury County Independent are only available for the years 1904 to 1929, which is when the Independent merged with the De Smet News.¹⁹ The succeeding issues are not available online. From the issues that are digitized some of Gertie’s personal life can be envisioned because the local newspapers often reported on the events and travels of the Bevers family.

Sometimes Gertie’s sister Ada or her children made a trip to visit the Bevers family, but during the latter half of June 1906, Gertie spent two weeks with Ada, who lived with her husband William Mankey on a farm near Garden City, South Dakota.²⁰ When the 1910 United States census was taken, Gertie was 37 years-old and still living with her parents who were 72 and 69.²¹ That year, Gertie’s mother passed away on July 14, and a lengthy obituary was published.²² It explained that Mary had had an operation six years earlier, from which she never fully recovered. A couple of years later, she developed diabetes, and during this illness, Gertie and her family lovingly cared for Mary until her death. Soon after the funeral, Gertie accompanied her father to Arlington, South Dakota to visit friends.²³ And a month later, Mrs. James Bridges (the wife of Gertie’s mother’s nephew) came from Minneapolis to spend five days as a guest at the Bevers’ home.²⁴ Shortly after that, both Gertie and her father took trips, in part separately and partly together. Gertie went to Arlington for two weeks, then joined her father at Ada’s home.²⁵

News item in *Kingsbury County Independent*
Aug. 26, 1910

In March 1911, Gertie went again to Arlington to visit friends,²⁶ and in August 1911, Mrs. John Glendenning came from Arlington to visit Gertie.²⁷ Mrs. Glendenning was the daughter of Mrs. James Bridges and the granddaughter of Mathias Bridges, who was Gertie’s mother’s brother. A month later, the newspaper reported about an experiment that Gertie conducted with an Easter lily she had purchased.²⁸

News item in *Kingsbury County Independent*, September 15, 1911

Gertie and Maude made a trip to Mitchell, South Dakota, in May 1916 to attend the wedding of their nephew W. Arthur Mankey, who was their sister Ada’s son.²⁹ The wedding was held in the home of the bride, Birdella Carhart, and the officiating minister was the bride’s father, Rev. A. E. Carhart. Also, in attendance were Arthur’s brother G. Floyd Mankey and his cousin Lester Mankey.

When Gertie was in her thirties and forties, suffrage for women was a fiercely contended political issue on both the state and federal levels. In 1918, the men of South Dakota were asked to consider the question of amending the South Dakota state constitution, granting women the right to vote. That November the amendment passed by approximately 63% of the vote.³⁰ Six months later, the congress of the United States passed a suffrage amendment. During subsequent months, the individual states either ratified or rejected the amendment. South Dakota ratified it “without a dissenting vote in either house on Dec. 4, 1919, being the 21^st state to act.”³¹ Ratification by the final state that was needed to adopt the 19^th Amendment to the Constitution of the United States occurred on August 18, 1920. The next day, a newspaper in Sioux Falls, South Dakota, declared, “Thus the political freedom for which women have contended since the founding of the republic has been attained and 27,000,000 women, half the population of the United States, accorded the right to vote under the constitution.”³²

In January 1920 when the United States census was taken, 47-year-old Gertie and her 82-year-old father were living on Second Street in De Smet.³³ Gertie’s father lived nearly two more years. A news article dated September 23, 1921 included the following:

“For a number of years, the elderly gentleman had been in poor health, first being confined to a wheel chair, but later to his bed. His continued illness made it advisable for him to be moved from the Bevers home to A.N. Waters’ home, where his two daughters, Mrs. Waters and Gertrude Bevers, have cared for him.”³⁴

A couple of Gertie’s correspondences have survived for about 100 years. In December 1922, she mailed a postcard to her nephew Willis Bevers, son of her brother Herbert. Willis and his parents and six of his siblings had gone to southern Texas in the fall of 1919. The travel log of Willis’ mother has also survived. After finding that they didn’t like farming in Texas, his parents with most of his siblings returned to South Dakota in 1920. Willis stayed in Texas for another year but also returned to South Dakota about 1921.

Front of a Christmas postcard mailed by Gertie in December 1922

Back of a Christmas postcard mailed by Gertie in December 1922

In 1927, apparently, Gertie made a cross-country trip to visit her sister Ada. Ada with her husband and two daughters had moved to Virginia, near Remington, between 1915 and 1920. Gertie’s trip is known because she mailed a Christmas greeting from Remington to Mr. and Mrs. Willis Bevers who were living in Hazel, South Dakota. Postage for the letter was two cents and it took five days to travel from Virginia to Watertown, South Dakota.

Small envelope addressed by Gertie in December 1927

Small greeting card enclosed in the envelope mailed in December 1927

Little is known about Gertie’s personal life during the remaining years of her life. In 1930, 1940 and 1950, when the United States censuses were taken, she was living with her widowed sister Maude, whose house was on 3^rd Street in De Smet. In 1930, Gertie was 57 years-old, Maude was 54 years-old and both of them were naturalized citizens.³⁵ In 1940, both of them were engaged in home housework and they both received “income of $50 or more from sources other than money wages or salary.”³⁶ Gertie’s brother George passed away in June 1943 in Los Angeles, California, and a month later Ada passed away in Washington, D. C. About a year and a half later, her brother Herbert died in November 1944 in Watertown, South Dakota.

One miscellaneous item known about Gertie is that she continued to be active in the community in her sixties and seventies. She and Maude were members of the Friendly Garden Club in De Smet. In May 1939, they each participated in the program of the garden club by reading papers to the group. Gertrude read “Garden Verse” and Maude read “Gardening in all Countries and All Ages.”³⁷ Nearly 10 years later, the sisters hosted a garden club meeting at Maude’s house.³⁸

News item in *The Daily Plainsman*
October 1, 1948

In April 1950 the record of the United States census designates Gertie and Maude’s residence as Block 2 of “Original Town” of De Smet City.³⁹ They were 77 and 74 years-old, respectively. To the question, “What was this person doing most of last week – working, keeping house, or something else?” the answer for both of them was keeping house. Gertie was selected to answer additional questions. Her responses included that she was living in the same house a year earlier. Her education level was recorded as “S7” (seventh grade), and she didn’t finish that grade. She had not worked any weeks outside of her home in the previous year. She didn’t receive money by working as an employee, or by working in her own business. And to the question, “How much money did he receive from interest, dividends, veteran’s allowances, pensions, rents or other income (aside from earnings)?” she answered “none.”

Aunt Gertie passed away in De Smet on October 3, 1953, at the age of 81, after a “lingering illness” of stomach cancer.⁴⁰ Her remains are buried in De Smet Cemetery beside her parents. Nearby, her sister Maude and her brother-in-law Alfred N. Waters are also buried.

APPENDIX 1

Text of the certificate of membership of the Band of Wolsey:

Thy Word is Truth

This is to certify that

Gertrude M. Bevers

Having signed the subjoined Pledge, has become a member of the

Hope of Wolsey

BAND OF HOPE

PLEDGE

I hereby solemnly promise to abstain from the use of all intoxicating liquors, including wine, beer and cider, as a beverage, and from the use of tobacco in every form, and from all profanity.

Thy Sign the Triple Pledge

BECAUSE

Drunkenness is a sin.
The Bible says no drunkard shall enter heaven
Moderation tends to drunkenness, while total abstinence is perfectly safe.
The first drink is a long step toward drunkenness.
Those who do not resist the temptation to take the first drink, are not likely to resist the temptation to drink to excess.
We can never tell, when we commence the habit of drinking, how it will end.
Intoxicating drinks do us no possible good.
They are the means of great injury to our health and character.
The habit of drinking leads to many other evil habits.
Drinking always leads to misery.
Drinking usually leads to poverty.
Drinking oftentimes leads to crime.
Sixty thousand persons are ruined every year by the evils of drink.
It is a Christian duty to deny ourselves for the good and happiness of others.
While millions repent of drinking, none ever repent of abstaining.
The habit of drinking is supremely foolish.
The use of tobacco leads to an appetite for drink.
Using tobacco is a filthy and costly habit, which does no good.
Swearers and drinkers go together.
God has said, “Swear not.”

Published by the Revolution Temperance Publishing House, David C. Cook, Manager, 13 & 15 Washington st., Chicago.

Bible verses printed in each corner of the certificate:

Proverbs 23:29 Who hath woe? Who hath sorrow?

II Corinthians 7:1 Let us cleanse ourselves from all filthiness.

Proverbs 23:32 At the last it biteth like a serpent, and stingeth like an adder.

Matthew 5:34 Swear not at all.

1 “RIPON. Death of an Old Temperance Advocate,” The Yorkshire Herald and the York Herald (York, North Yorkshire, England), February 17, 1894, page 11, Newspapers.com.

2 “Longwood Temperance Society,” Weekly Examiner (Huddersfield, West Yorkshire, England), April 24, 1869, page 6, Newspapers.com.

3 “United States Census, 1900”, , FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:MMRW-TKS : Sat Aug 17 18:09:29 UTC 2024), Entry for Alfred C Peevers and Mary N Peevers, 1900.

4 City of De Smet, South Dakota, “Depot Museum / Harvey Dunn School,” https://cityofdesmet.com/depot-museum.

5 Caryl Lynn Meyer Poppen, ed., excerpt from De Smet Yesterday and Today “Little Town on the Prairie” in “History,” De Smet, South Dakota, https://desmetsd.com/history.

6 First Methodist Church of DeSmet, “Record of Members.”

7 First Methodist Church, “A History of the Church,” Consecration Service of the Remodeled First Methodist Church (De Smet, South Dakota: First Methodist Church, September 26, 1965).

8 First Methodist Church, “A History of the Church.”

9 “South Dakota State Census, 1905”, , FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:MM42-JWN : Sun Mar 10 20:39:28 UTC 2024), Entry for Gertrude M Bevers.

10 “United States Census, 1940”, , FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:V19L-5LM : Fri Mar 08 09:56:34 UTC 2024), Entry for Maude Waters and Gertrude Bevers, 1940.

11“Local News,” Kingsbury County Independent (De Smet, South Dakota), April 21, 1905, page 5, Newspapers.com.

12 Kingsbury County Independent (De Smet, South Dakota), March 23, 1906, page 4, Newspapers.com.

13 Case Western Reserve University, “Epworth League,” Encyclopedia of Cleveland History, https://case.edu/ech/articles/e/epworth-league.

14 “Church Services,” Kingsbury County Independent (De Smet, South Dakota), September 15, 1911, page 5, Newspapers.com.

15 “Local News,” Kingsbury County Independent (De Smet, South Dakota), September 15, 1911, page 5, Newspapers.com.

16 Nancy S. Cleaveland, “Alfred N. Waters,” Laura Ingalls Wilder A-Z, http://www.pioneergirl.com/blog/archives/7204.

17 “College News,” The Brookings Register (Brookings, South Dakota), March 29, 1898, page 2, Newspapers.com.

18 Nancy S. Cleaveland, “Syndicate Hotel,” Laura Ingalls Wilder A-Z, http://www.pioneergirl.com/blog/archives/9165.

19 Library of Congress, Kingsbury County Independent (Desmet, Kingsbury County, S.D.) 1894-1929, https://www.loc.gov/item/sn00065130/.

20 “Local News,” Kingsbury County Independent (De Smet, South Dakota), June 15, 1906, page 5, Newspapers.com.

21 “United States Census, 1910”, , FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:MPX1-9J6 : Sun Mar 10 11:44:32 UTC 2024), Entry for Alfred C Bevers and Mary N Bevers, 1910.

22 Kingsbury County Independent (De Smet, South Dakota), July 22, 1910, page 4, Newspapers.com.

23 “Local News,” Kingsbury County Independent (De Smet, South Dakota), July 22, 1910, page 5, Newspapers.com.

24 “Local News,” Kingsbury County Independent (De Smet, South Dakota), August 19, 1910, page 5, Newspapers.com.

25 “Local News,” Kingsbury County Independent (De Smet, South Dakota), August 26, 1910, page 5, Newspapers.com.

26 “Local News,” Kingsbury County Independent (De Smet, South Dakota), March 24, 1911, page 5, Newspapers.com.

27 Kingsbury County Independent (De Smet, South Dakota), August 11, 1911, page 4, Newspapers.com.

28 “Local News,” Kingsbury County Independent (De Smet, South Dakota), September 15, 1911, page 5, Newspapers.com.

29 “Society,” Mitchell Capital (Mitchell, South Dakota), May 4, 1916, page 5, Newspapers.com.

30 Forest City Press (Forest City, South Dakota), December 5, 1918, page 2, Newspapers.com.

31 Argus-Leader (Sioux Falls, South Dakota), August 19, 1920, page 4, Newspapers.com.

32 Argus-Leader, August 19, 1920.

33 “United States Census, 1920”, , FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:M6JQ-J85 : Thu Mar 07 04:17:06 UTC 2024), Entry for Alfred C Bevers and Gertrude Bevers, 1920.

34 Nancy Cleaveland and Gina Terrana, Waters (2015), http://www.pioneergirl.com/waters_cemetery.pdf.

35 “United States Census, 1930”, , FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:XQVH-29Z : Thu Jul 11 05:02:51 UTC 2024), Entry for Maude A Waters and Gertrude V Bevers, 1930.

36 “United States Census, 1940”, Entry for Maude Waters and Gertrude Bevers, 1940.

37 The Daily Plainsman, (Huron, South Dakota), May 12, 1939, page 5, Newspapers.com.

38 The Daily Plainsman, (Huron, South Dakota), October 1, 1948, page 5, Newspapers.com.

39 “United States Census, 1950”, , FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:6F9N-CQQP : Wed Oct 04 18:17:08 UTC 2023), Entry for Agnes Maude Katers and Gertrude M Bevers, 10 April 1950.

40 K. and M. Bevers, notes attached to Gertrude Mary Bevers in Ancestral Quest program file dated June 29, 2022.

Ada, Gertie and Maude Bevers, Daughters of a Methodist Supply Pastor

August 10, 2023October 2, 2024 MRW3 Comments

On the northeast coast of England lies the town of Bridlington. Alfred C. Bevers and his wife Mary (nee Bridges) with their infant son George (see George C. Bevers, Bookkeeper) arrived in the town sometime between late 1865 and late 1866. Mary gave birth to a daughter in November 1866 but the newborn only lived 16 days. The following fall, on October 10, 1867, she gave birth to another daughter, which they named Ada Berry Bevers, according to the entry in Alfred and Mary Bevers’ Family Bible (see Alfred and Mary Bevers’ Family Bible). The name Berry was the maiden name of the second wife of Ada’s grandfather William Bevers. William had married Susanna Berry in the first quarter of 1865.¹ Even though the Family Bible indicates that her name was Ada Berry Bevers, most of Ada’s genealogical records use a middle initial of “N” which stands for Naomi, her mother’s middle name.

Within a year and a half of Ada’s birth, her family moved to a village called Sheepridge in the township of Huddersfield in central northern England, which was the birthplace of Ada’s father. In March 1869 Ada’s mother gave birth to her brother Herbert (see An Introduction to Herbert James Bevers). Three more siblings would be born in Sheepridge, but none of them survived past their first year of life. When the 1871 census was recorded in the ecclesiastical district of Christ Church Woodhouse, Ada’s 33-year-old father was a collector and canvasser for Prudential Insurance Company.² Her mother was 30 years-old and Herbert was two years-old. Ada at the age of three and George at the age of five were listed as scholars.

By the time Ada was five years-old, her family had moved to Barnsley, an agricultural market and coal-mining town southeast of Sheepridge. Barnsley is the hometown of J. Hudson Taylor, a missionary who spent many years in China in the mid-1800s and upon his return to England he founded China Inland Mission; then in 1866, Taylor and his wife traveled to China with 20 missionaries to establish Christian missions in every province of China.³ In Barnsley Ada gained a sister on August 22, 1872 when Gertrude Mary was born. Before two years had passed, the Bevers family returned to Sheepridge, and on April 25, 1875 Agnes Maude was born. She was baptized in June of that year at Christ Church in Woodhouse Parish.⁴

Within a couple of years, the family had relocated to the city of Liverpool, on the northwest coast of England. The port of Liverpool was the second largest in the country, the largest being at London. In Liverpool, another brother was born in May 1877 and lived for about 14 months. On July 22, 1877, Gertrude was baptized at St. Mary, Kirkdale,⁵ which was a ward of Liverpool. In a town three miles north of Liverpool called Bootle, one more brother was born in November 1881, who lived about 9 months. In total, there had been 11 children born to Alfred and Mary, only five of which survived past infancy.

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

When the census was taken in 1881, the Bevers family resided at 97 Derby Road, Kirkdale.⁶ Forty-three year-old Alfred was a tailor’s cutter. Tailoring had been a trade of the Bevers family for generations. Mary was 40 years-old and George, at 15 years-old and having completed his education through the 8^th grade,⁷ was a “pupil teacher” at a Church of England school. Ada was 13 years-old and she would also complete the 8^th grade.⁸ She and her younger siblings were scholars. Herbert was 12, Gertrude was eight and Maude was five years-old.

In 1883 Alfred decided to travel to America “to determine if they would like it.”⁹ He made his way to Dakota Territory and wrote to his family about his experiences on board the ship and in the new country, which included killing a snake. On September 29, eight year-old Maude replied to her father’s letter:

13 Orlando St.

Sep. 29/1883

My Dear Papa

I am very glad to hear that you like that country and I hope we will all like it to, I wish I was with you, please I would like you to set a apple-tree for me ready for me when I get over I heard that you had some fun on board the ship and I was very glad to hear that you got there all safe. I saw that you sent some flowers to us and plucked them where you killed a snake and you sent a card to us. Gerty has got two cards from school they are so pretty. I am quiet well and so Is Gerty. Mama say’s that I am getting on very well at school that I am getting a very good writer I have not told you what Gerty’s cards are for one is for the best sewing the other is for the best dictation book. Please Papa will you excuse these lines because I drew them and I hav drawn them crooked I could not draw them straight. I would like to know how you are. when you go to Cousin Ben’s house well that is if you go there I want you to tell me how he is and Estella and little Clarence and little Gerty May. now I must bring it to a close. I must send you some Kisses.

Your loving Maud

*The letter eight year-old Maude wrote to her father when he went to Dakota Territory ahead of his family*

The person Maude identified in her letter as “Cousin Ben” was probably Benjamin T. Bridges, a son of Mathias Bridges, Maude’s mother’s brother. In 1895, it was recorded that Benjamin had moved to Minnesota in 1872 and he had lived in Minneapolis since about 1882.¹⁰ His wife was Helen Estella (nee Huntley) and they had a son Clarence, a daughter Gertie and a daughter Nellie. At the time of Maude’s letter Clarence would have been about two years-old and Gertie would have been just months old.

A year and a half after their father’s departure, Ada, Gertrude and Maude emigrated with their mother, arriving at the port of Philadelphia on December 17, 1884,¹¹ and subsequently joining their father in Dakota Territory. The girls were 17, 12 and nine years-old, respectively. Their brother George would emigrate to the United States in 1885 but he settled in Philadelphia. Later, their brother Herbert also emigrated, which is recorded as occurring in 1888.¹² Herbert may have spent time in Philadelphia and in Virginia but eventually he would settle in South Dakota.

Not long after arriving in the United States, Gertrude and Maude were photographed with an elderly man and other youngsters. These were possibly their uncle Mathias Bridges and his grandchildren. It is believed that the portrait was taken in Worthington, Minnesota.

Standing on left are Gertrude and Maude Bevers. The man is probably their mother’s brother Mathias Bridges. (The photograph is believed to have been taken in Worthington, Minnesota; estimated date of 1885.)

When Ada, Gertrude and Maude arrived in Dakota Territory, their father had been assigned, as of October 1884, as a supply pastor to the Methodist Episcopal Church in Castlewood,¹³ which that year had become the county seat of Hamlin County. A short history of Castlewood M. E. Church includes the following:

… it was the Northwestern Railway which built a branch line through the Big Sioux Valley to a point 40 miles north and a little west of Brookings. Here they built a turn table so that the engines which had been backing up to Brookings could turn around at this spot and so here is the beginning of Castlewood. This was in 1882 and the railway built a depot here too. That started the wealthy men coming to this spot and homesteading and also building business places. The building boom had started, soon hotels, livery stables, horses and rigs for rent for persons to look over the land. Many homesteaded and also set up business places. The Depot was used as a gathering place for religious services and in summer tents were set up near [the] depot to hold services as well. When a store building was built on [the] south side of main street this was [the] first two story one so [the] upstairs room was used for church services and the first school held here in 1883. … Before any church was built services were also held in school houses. Methodist E. people held services in Caverhill School House and Swift School House.¹⁴

Due to their father’s assignments to many Methodist congregations in Dakota Territory (and in South Dakota after it gained statehood), Ada, Gertrude and Maude lived in many small towns. It is uncertain whether Gertrude attended school in any of these small towns. There are conflicting statements in the 1940 and 1950 United States censuses which reveal that Gertrude completed either seventh or eighth grade. Possibly she had completed her education in England before immigrating. On the other hand, Maude would have attended school after immigrating. She went on to complete high school.

Following the one-year assignment in Castlewood, their father served as the pastor of Henry M. E. Church, Codington County, for two years (October 1885 to October 1887).¹⁵ There is the possibility that their father was simultaneously serving as the pastor of the Garden City congregation which was about 10 miles away. In 1886, the town of Henry had 149 inhabitants.¹⁶ While the family lived in Henry, the girls’ father secured a parsonage for the church for $500.00.¹⁷

In about May 1886, Alfred chaired the committee that organized a Sunday School at Henry M. E. Church.¹⁸ Each week Sunday School was opened with singing a hymn and with prayer, often followed by a responsive reading from a scripture lesson sheet. A scripture lesson was given and the meeting was closed with singing a hymn. According to the minutes of the Sunday School dated March 6, 1887, it appears that an essay was read by the secretary discussing the use of questions and answers in Sunday School classes. The following week the minutes state: “Question given out who were punished for lying and how.” On March 20, 1887, it is recorded in the minutes: “Last Sunday’s question answered by Gertie Bevers Acts 5 for Ananias and Sapphira.” Gertie was 14 years-old at this time. During the summer months of 1887, each week a different word was assigned and the attendees were expected to find a text of scripture that had that word in it. On the following Sunday, the texts were read by individuals or by class groups. For example, on June 26, the texts contained the word “Holiness” and on September 11, the word was “Kingdom.”

*Henry United Methodist Church (formerly Henry Methodist Episcopal Church); the building to the left appears to be the original parsonage (Photographed by MRW August 2010)*

Following the Henry appointment, the girls’ father was appointed for one year (October 1887 to October 1888)¹⁹ to Wolsey M. E. Church, a church of 67 members.²⁰ Then he was assigned to the Bradley Charge for an unknown period beginning in October 1888.²¹ While in Wolsey, Ada and Gertrude were involved in an association called the Band of Wolsey, a local branch of a temperance organization that had its origins in England called Band of Hope. Temperance was a lifestyle that had been followed by their grandfather William Bevers, who has been described as “an ardent temperance advocate” and at his death he “had been a total abstainer over 60 years.”²²

An explanation of the setting of the Temperance Movement and the birth of the Band of Hope follows:

One of the evils of Victorian society was cheap and grossly abused child labour – small children were regarded as ideal for working in coal mines, in cotton mills and as chimney sweeps. Some children, employed as chimney sweeps, were as young as 8 years. Life, both for them and their parents, was wretched; physical and emotional pain oppressed them all the time, prospects of escaping from this drudgery were nil – and their only solace was in the alehouse. Beer was cheap, spirits were plentiful and there were no restrictions on children visiting alehouses. …

For many children, the alehouse was the only place where they could escape from the wretchedness of their environment. Some Sunday schools existed in fashionable churches but most of the prosperous city churches catered for the children of gentry rather than for the scruffy, dirty urchins who frequented the gin palaces, and they would certainly not have been welcomed into these fashionable churches.

It was against this backdrop of juvenile misery and deprivation that the Temperance Movement was born. …

The pioneer of the Temperance Movement in England was Joseph Livesey, himself from poor surroundings. He was orphaned and worked as a cottage weaver as a child. Livesey was concerned by the excessive drinking he saw in Preston and founded both an adults’ and a children’s Sunday School in the town. In 1832, he, together with six other men, founded the Preston Temperance Society. The seven men felt that they had to be totally committed to abstinence and on September 1st 1832 they all signed the following pledge; “We agree to abstain from all liquor of an intoxicating quality whether ale, porter, wine or ardent spirits, except as medicines.” Others joined them in this pledge and one of the seven, Dicky Turner, blurted out “Nothing but the tee-total will do” – and the expression tee-total stuck.

The idea of total abstinence quickly gained popularity. Mrs Ann Carlile, the widow of a Presbyterian Minister, was challenged by the dreadful conditions of the women in Newgate Prison, Dublin, most of whom blamed cheap whiskey for their downfall. At the mature age of 72, she resolved to devote the rest of her life to total abstinence. She joined forces with the Reverend Jabez Tunnicliff, who in 1842 became minister of the influential South Parade Baptist Church in Leeds. On one occasion he was asked to visit a former Sunday School teacher dying from a sickness brought about by alcohol. Turning to Mr Tunnicliff, he pleaded with him “Warn young people against the danger of the first glass”. Jabez Tunnicliff persuaded Ann Carlile to come to Leeds in 1847 to address a number of mass meetings. This was the providential meeting that saw the birth of the ‘Band of Hope’ (a name for which both Ann Jane and the Rev Tunnicliff took credit), a temperance organisation specifically for children who suffered as much as adults from the consequences of unregulated alcohol consumption. She is supposed to have said, “What a happy Band these children are – they are the Hope for the future.” …

Band of Hope meetings used techniques that aimed to press home their strong belief in total abstinence. Their meetings were lively, child-centred (in a Victorian context!), involved much singing, often including the Band of Hope theme song “Come, all ye children, sing a song”, Magic Lantern slides were always popular; many a Band of Hope speaker took with him a Magic Lantern carbide for producing a strong beam and a set of slides. The children were shown slides illustrating the dreadful ways in which alcohol could affect their lives and the stability of their family lives, not to mention the damage to their own health, and this would have been accompanied by stirring speeches from the team. The climax of most meetings would have been an invitation to the children to sign the pledge of total abstinence. This part of the Band of Hope service would always be taken very seriously (parents were sometimes asked to sign their permission for this act of public commitment to total abstinence). Other popular activities might have included model making, spelling tests, an annual Temperance Knowledge exam, and a wide circulation of books and pamphlets.²³

On May 22, 1889, at the age of 21, Ada appeared before the Clerk of the District Court in Codington County, Dakota Territory. She declared her intention to become a citizen of the United States of America. Near the end of that year, Dakota Territory was divided and two states were accepted into the United States, North Dakota and South Dakota.

Late in the 1880s, the girls’ father filed a claim for a homestead a few miles northeast of Henry in Phipps Township, Codington County. In front of the small frontier house that was built on the homestead, family and friends gathered to celebrate the 25^th wedding anniversary of their parents which occurred on September 19, 1889. A photograph was taken of the gathering. Maude (age 14) and Gertrude (age 17) can be seen standing in white dresses on the right of the group. Ada (age 21) is sitting on the ground on the left. Their parents are in the center, Mary wearing a white hat with Alfred standing to the right of her. Their brother Herbert is standing in the back row on the far left. It is believed that Lena Huppler, who would become Herbert’s wife, is standing on the far left in the row in front of Herbert. It is also believed that William Mankey, who would become Ada’s husband, is standing in the back row on the far right.

The 25th wedding anniversary of Alfred and Mary Bevers (1889), photo taken on their homestead in Phipps Township, Codington County. Sitting on the ground on the left is Ada, standing on the right in white dresses are Maude and Gertrude, to the left of Maude is Alfred and sitting in the center with a white hat is Mary.

On October 28, 1891, 24 year-old Ada married William Mankey.²⁴ Quite certainly, she had met William during the time that her father was the supply pastor of the Henry M. E. Church. In 1887-88, William was involved in the church in a few capacities. He was approved as one of the Sunday School Superintendents, he was appointed to the Missions Committee, and he was a Steward.²⁵ William had emigrated from England to the United States in 1875 with his mother and siblings,²⁶ presumably his father had arrived prior to their emigration. When the 1871 census of England was taken, William was a tin miner at the age of 12 years old,²⁷ and in 1880 he was a coal miner in Illinois, along with his father and younger brother James.²⁸

After several years of improving the land of his homestead, in January 1893 Gertrude and Maude’s father submitted his final proof for his claim. Three years later the homestead was sold. At the time of the sale, their parents’ residence was recorded as Clark County. Their father had once again begun serving as a supply pastor, being assigned to Waubay in Day County in October 1895.²⁹ Then from October 1896 to October 1899, he served the Willow Lake (Clark County), Hazel (Hamlin County) and Vienna (Clark County) congregations.

In May 1897 the local newspaper reported that Maude had gone to Brookings to finish a stenography course at the state agricultural college.³⁰ That fall, Maude was elected Secretary of a class society at the college.³¹ Several months later, it was reported that Maude had left the college and accepted a position.³² Family historians of the Bevers family have stated that Maude began working as a secretary for Alfred N. Waters, a prominent businessman of De Smet in Kingsbury County.³³ Possibly that is the position she took when she left the college. In 1898, Gertrude and Maude moved with their parents to De Smet. That year Gertrude turned 26 years-old and Maude turned 23. They would spend the rest of their lives, over half a century, in De Smet.

*The Brookings Register news clipping dated May 8, 1897*

*The Brookings Register news clipping dated October 2, 1897*

The Brookings Register news clipping dated March 29, 1898

1 FreeBMD, England & Wales, FreeBMD Marriage Index, 1837-1915, (Provo, Utah, USA: Ancestry.com Operations Inc., 2006): 138.

2 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.

3 G. H. Anderson, “Taylor, James Hudson (1832-1905),” Biographical Dictionary of Christian Missions (New York: MacMillan Reference USA, 1998): https://www.bu.edu/missiology/missionary-biography/t-u-v/taylor-j-hudson-1832-1905/.

4 Ancestry.com, West Yorkshire, England, Church of England Births and Baptisms, 1813-1910 [database on-line] (Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2011): http://www.Ancestry.com.

5 Ancestry.com, England, Select Births and Christenings, 1538-1975 [database on-line] (Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2014): http://www.Ancestry.com.

6 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.

7 “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.

8 “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.

9 “Mrs. Alfred C. Bevers,” Kingsbury County Independent, Jul 22, 1910 [accessed from Newspapers.com].

10 Ancestry.com, Minnesota, U.S., Territorial and State Censuses, 1849-1905 [database on-line] (Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations Inc, 2007): http://www.Ancestry.com.

11 United States of America [1^st Naturalization Paper of Ada N. Bevers], (Codington County, Dakota Territory: District Court, May 22, 1889).

12 “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.).

13 Annual Conference of Dakota Mission, Minutes of the Fifth Session of the Annual Conference of Dakota Mission of the Methodist Episcopal Church (Mitchell, Dakota Territory, USA: S. D. Cook, Printer and Binder, 1884): 61.

14 __________, History of the Methodist Episcopal Church – Castlewood So. Dak. (The First Methodist Episcopal Church of Castlewood, n. d.).

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

16 Henry Historical Book Committee, Glimpses of our Town 1882-1982 (1982): 4.

17 J. G. Palmer, “Henry,” Palmer’s Directory of the Methodist Episcopal Church for Dakota Conference (1888): 127-8.

18 Minutes of Henry E. M. Church Sunday School (Henry, South Dakota: Henry Episcopal Methodist Church, May 1886-October 1887).

19 Dakota Conference, Minutes of the Third Session of the Dakota Conference (Sioux Falls, Dakota Territory, USA: Dakota Bell Publishing Co., 1887): 136.

20 J. G. Palmer, “Wolsey,” Palmer’s Directory of the Methodist Episcopal Church for Dakota Conference (1888): 63.

21 Dakota Conference, Minutes of the Fourth Session of the Dakota Conference (Yankton, Dakota Territory, USA: Press and Dakotaian, 1888): 176.

22 __________, The Yorkshire Herald and the York Herald, 17 Feb 1894 [accessed from Newspapers.com].

23 D. Edgington, Hope UK – a walk through history (2010):1-3, https://www.hopeuk.org/wp-content/uploads/Walk-Through-History-PDF.pdf.

24 A. & M. Bevers Family Bible, “Marriages.”

25 Minutes of the Fourth Quarterly Conference for Henry, Huron District, Dakota Conference (August 20, 1887).

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

27 Ancestry.com, 1871 England Census (Provo, Utah, USA: Ancestry.com Operations Inc, 2004). [Original data – Census Returns of England and Wales, 1871. Kew, Surrey, England: The National Archives of the UK (TNA): Public Record Office (PRO), 1871.]

28 “United States Census, 1880”, database with images, FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:MXV4-9J7 : Thu Aug 03 04:50:54 UTC 2023), Entry for Thomas Mankey and Mary Mankey, 1880.

29 United Methodist Church, personal communication with M. R. Wilson.

30 The Brookings Register, May 8, 1897.

31 The Brookings Register, October 2, 1897.

32 The Brookings Register, March 29, 1898.

33 K. and M. Bevers, notes attached to Agnes Maude Bevers in Ancestral Quest program file dated June 29, 2022.

George C. Bevers, Bookkeeper

May 15, 2023January 5, 2025 MRW5 Comments

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.

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 8^th 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.

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 78^th 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.

Alfred and Mary Bevers’ Family Bible

January 30, 2023August 2, 2025 MRWLeave a comment

One of the sources that documents the marriage and offspring of Alfred C. and Mary N. (nee Bridges) Bevers is the Family Register on which, it is assumed, either Alfred or Mary wrote in distinguished script the details of their marriage as well as the births and deaths of their children. (To see these records, go to this Legacy page: https://sojourners.family.blog/legacies/bevers-family-bible/.) This Family Register can be found in a Bible that has been in the possession of one of Alfred and Mary’s great-great-grandsons, Kyle N. Bevers. He relates: “It was in terrible shape when my parents rescued it from the sale items after Maude Bevers Waters died in 1958. There were many loose pages and both the leather covers were completely separated from the binding. It was passed on to me by my father ….”¹ Maude Waters was Alfred and Mary’s youngest daughter (b. 1875) and she was a grandaunt of Kyle’s father.

There is no publication date in the Bevers’ Family Bible, but based on some comparisons with similar Bibles sold on the Internet, at the time Kyle’s parents obtained the Bible, it was probably around eighty or ninety years old. Another fifty years would pass by before the Bible would be restored and rebound. Kyle’s wife decided to take it to a bookbinder, and in 2007 the Bible’s original august appearance was renewed. Kyle explains: “the binder … is a native of England and was trained by monks there who did book binding. He has some great old equipment and was of course thrilled to work on the book that size and of such antiquity.”²

The bookbinder’s goal of restoration was “to retain the original appearance” of the Bible and he declared that, if the book was cared for, the restoration would enable it to exist for another one or two hundred years.³ The restoration included:

Mending the pages with an archival quality repair tape, especially the pages around the family history section
Making new cloth-jointed endpapers using authentic Victorian Bible papers imported from England
Attaching new linings of linen and kraft paper on the spine
Attaching a new silk page marker ribbon
Attaching endbands at the head and tail of the spine
Re-backing the spine of the book with new goatskin leather (archivally tanned in England) which was placed underneath the original leather
Re-mounting the original spine onto the newly bound spine
Dyeing and polishing the faded original leather
Re-attaching the brass clasps with brass pins⁴

Alfred and Mary’s Bible is an edition of The Self-Interpreting Family Bible edited by Rev. John Brown of Haddington, Scotland. Their edition was printed in Glasgow, Scotland, although the publisher was located in Bolton-Le-Moors, England. The title of the Bible is followed by explanations of its contents:

CONTAINING THE

OLD AND NEW TESTAMENTS

TO WHICH ARE ANNEXED

AN EXTENSIVE INTRODUCTION; MARGINAL REFERENCES AND ILLUSTRATIONS;

AN EXACT SUMMARY OF THE SEVERAL BOOKS;

A PARAPHRASE ON THE MOST OBSCURE OR IMPORTANT PARTS;

EXPLANATORY NOTES, EVANGELICAL REFLECTIONS, &c., &c. …

WITH MANY ADDITIONAL REFERENCES AND A LIFE OF THE AUTHOR.

WITH NUMEROUS COLOURED ILLUSTRATIONS IN OIL.⁵

Rev. John Brown who lived from 1722 to 1787 published his original edition of The Self-Interpreting Family Bible in 1778.⁶ For about 140 years, there were numerous versions printed in Scotland and America.⁷ The Dunham Bible Museum provides a description of the uniqueness of Brown’s edition over other Bibles of the time:

Brown’s Bible included explanatory notes placed at the bottom of the page with the scriptural text above. These notes, focusing primarily on translation issues, grammar or historical background, were primarily to make the text more understandable. The notes for each section were followed by “reflections,” which applied the Scripture to the heart. Throughout his work Brown emphasized that the goal of Scripture was to promote holiness and virtue and to glorify God. Dates and Scripture cross-references were placed in the margin.⁸

Rev. Brown himself remarked about his work on this Bible: “I can truly say, that my labor, in collecting the parallel texts in this work, has afforded me much more Pleasant Insight into the oracles of God than all the numerous commentaries which I ever perused.”⁹ (A digitized version of The Self-Interpreting Bible can be found on the Reformed Standards website.)

Although Alfred and Mary’s edition of Brown’s Family Bible does not have a date of publication, an estimated date can be surmised by the contents of the Bible. One of the items listed on the title page is “a life of the author.” A version of Rev. John Brown’s biography, believed to be written by his son William Brown, appeared in the 1859 edition of Brown’s Self-Interpreting Family Bible.¹⁰ The biography does not give the author’s name, but William Brown was the editor of the 1859 edition. Since there is a biography in Alfred and Mary’s Bible, it is unlikely that their edition was printed before 1859. Another item which helps date the Bible is the title page in Alfred and Mary’s Bible. The same title page can be found in Bibles published by different publishers (all of the wording is the same except the name of the publisher at the bottom). One publisher’s edition of Brown’s Bible having this version of the title page was listed on a book seller’s website. The description of the Bible on the website says that it was printed by the same printer as Alfred and Mary’s Bible, and the book seller supplied an estimated printing date of 1870.¹¹

Excerpts from a biography of Rev. John Brown

The REV. JOHN BROWN was born in the year 1722, at Carpow, a small village in the parish of Abernethy, and county of Perth. His parents ranked in that class of society who earn their bread by the sweat of their brow. His father could boast of no rent-rolls, nor had he any title of honour, save that of an honest man and an industrious mechanic, who, during the greater part of his life, laboured in the profession of an operative weaver. … he was nevertheless a man of considerable intelligence, moral worth, and Christian sincerity. He made conscience of keeping up the worship of God in his family, and set a Christian example before them ….¹²

When Brown was about 11 years old, both of his parents passed away, first his father and shortly afterwards his mother.

An elder in the parish of Abernethy – an aged shepherd and an eminent Christian, respectable also for his intelligence, though so destitute of education that he could not so much as read – cheerfully embraced the opportunity of supplying the deficiency under which he laboured, by engaging the homeless orphan, to assist him in tending his flock, and in reading for him as opportunity allowed.¹³

Throughout this arrangement, the elder and young Brown read, conversed and prayed together, resulting in spiritual nurturing as the youngster grew.

… by pondering over the books he read, and the sermons he heard, the young man was brought under very impressive apprehensions of the majesty of God, the hatefulness of sin, the love of Christ, and the utter insignificance of all earthly enjoyments, when contrasted with the glories of heaven; so that the pleasure of his secret devotions was greatly augmented, while he felt his conscience daily becoming more tender, and his walk and conversation more assimilated to that of his Lord and Master.¹⁴

When the elder chose to settle in Abernethy, Brown found a position with a nearby farmer. During this time, he felt it was his duty to join the Secession Church, a sect that had separated from the Church of Scotland due to its institution of a policy to disregard the expression of dissenting opinions.¹⁵ Brown continued to study diligently, mostly on his own, so that he could become a “shepherd of souls.”¹⁶ His studies included becoming acquainted with the Greek and Latin languages.

… he was, at this time, anxious to obtain a Greek Testament, that he might have the satisfaction of reading, in the original language, the character and work, the holy life and vicarious death, of Him who feedeth his flock like a shepherd, and laid down his life for his sheep. Buoyed up with these hopes, and excited by this anxiety, after folding his flock one summer evening, and procuring the consent of his fellow-shepherd to watch it next day, he made a nocturnal trip to St. Andrews, distant about twenty-four miles, where he arrived in the morning. He called at the first bookseller’s shop that came in his way, and having inquired for the article in question, the shopman, on observing his apparent rusticity and mountain habiliments (dress characteristic of his occupation), told him that he had Greek Testaments and Hebrew Bibles in abundance, but suspected an English Testament would answer his purpose much better. In the mean time some gentlemen, said to have been professors in the university, happened to enter the shop, and learning what was going on, seemed much of the shopman’s opinion. One of these, however, ordered the volume to be produced, and, taking it in his hand, said, “Young man, here is the Greek Testament, and you shall have it at the easy charge of reading the first passage that turns up.” It was too good an offer to be rejected: the shepherd accepted the challenge, and performed the conditions to the satisfaction and astonishment of the party; and Mr. Brown very modestly retired with his prize.¹⁷

Eventually, Brown left his vocation as a shepherd and took up being an itinerant salesman. As he traveled around the countryside, he would often take up reading the books of his hosts rather than attend to his business of selling wares.¹⁸ Subsequently, it was suggested to Brown that he may do well as a schoolmaster. This profession he did for two years and it is noteworthy that nine of his students became ministers.¹⁹ During the school vacations, Brown studied philosophy and divinity. After completing several courses, he was licensed in 1751 by the presbytery of Edinburgh.²⁰ Shortly thereafter, he accepted the call from the congregation at Haddington to serve as their pastor.

Rev. Brown had an exceptional capacity to learn languages as well as committing scripture passages to memory.

In the summer months his constant rule was to rise between four and five, and during the winter by six. From these early hours, till eight in the evening, excepting the time allotted to bodily refreshment, family worship, or when called away on the duties of office, he continued to prosecute his studies with unremitting application. To a mind so ardent in the acquisition of knowledge, with a judgment so clear, a retentive memory, and exertions so intense, it was by no means surprising that he became greatly superior to most men engaged in discharging the same sacred duties.

In acquiring the knowledge of languages, ancient or modern, he possessed a facility altogether his own. Without an instructor [except for one month], … he soon got so far acquainted with [Latin] as to relish its beauties; and, left to his own resources, … he soon became critically acquainted with the Greek, and especially the Hebrew. Of the living languages, he could read and translate the Arabic, Syriac, Persic, and Ethiopic, the French, Spanish, Italian, Dutch, and German.

With him natural history, civil law, natural and moral philosophy, were particular objects of research; but divinity, and the history of human affairs, sacred or civil, were his favourite studies ….²¹

While Rev. Brown served as a minister at Haddington, he also became an author. His first publication was a “large work on the Catechism, which appeared in the year 1758 …,” and the publication which required the most work was his Dictionary of the Bible.²² In 1768, he was elected by a branch of the Secession Church to be a professor of divinity.²³ Rev. Brown continued his ministerial services until shortly before his death in 1787.

For many of the years that Alfred C. Bevers and his wife lived in Dakota Territory and then in South Dakota after it was organized as a state, Alfred was a supply pastor in the Dakota Conference of the Methodist Episcopal Church. Over a period of about 15 years, Alfred was assigned to seven churches. As they moved from town to town, it is likely that the Family Bible was transported with them. It is intriguing to contemplate that this Bible with its well-researched explanations and notes by Rev. John Brown was available to Alfred when he wanted to study the Scriptures.

1 K. N. Bevers, email communication with M. R. Wilson, dated April 23, 2020.

2 Bevers, April 23, 2020.

3 T. Farthing, personal letter to M. A. Bevers, dated Christmas, 2006.

4 Farthing, Christmas, 2006.

5 W. Bruckshaw, Publisher, Brown’s Self-Interpreting Bible, (Bolton-Le-Moors, Lancashire, England: n. d.): Title Page.

6 Dunham Bible Museum, “John Brown’s Self-Interpreting Bible” (Houston, Texas: Dunham Bible Museum, 2008): 1, https://www.hbu.edu/publications/museums/Dunham_Bible_Museum/DBM_JohnBrown_Self-Interpreting_Bible.pdf.

7 Reformed Standards, https://reformedstandards.com/bible/.

8 Dunham Bible Museum, “John Brown’s Self-Interpreting Bible”: 3.

9 Dunham Bible Museum, “John Brown’s Self-Interpreting Bible”: 3.

10 R. E. Waddell, “Rev John Brown of Haddington,” https://www.ornaverum.org/family/brown/john-haddington.html.

11 Halden Books (Exeter, Devon, United Kingdom, accessed January 27, 2023): https://www.abebooks.co.uk/servlet/BookDetailsPL?bi=31176038172&searchurl=sortby%3D17%26tn%3Dbrown%2527s%2Bself%2Binterpreting%2Bfamily%2Bbible%2Bcontaining%2Bthe%2Bold%2Band%2Bnew%2Btestaments&cm_sp=snippet-_-srp1-_-title9.

12 J. D. Chitty, “Memoir of the Rev. John Brown, part 1” [transcription of author’s biography of The Self-Interpreting Bible (Glasgow, Edinburgh and London: Blackie and Son, 1859)], (August 24, 2010): https://capthk.com/category/books/john-browns-self-interpreting-bible/memoir-of-the-rev-john-brown-of-haddington/.

13 Chitty, “Memoir of the Rev. John Brown, part 2,” [transcription] (August 25, 2010).

14 Chitty, “Memoir of the Rev. John Brown, part 2,” [transcription] (August 25, 2010).

15 Chitty, “Memoir of the Rev. John Brown, part 3,” [transcription] (August 31, 2010).

16 Chitty, “Memoir of the Rev. John Brown, part 4,” [transcription] (September 1, 2010).

17 Chitty, “Memoir of the Rev. John Brown, part 4,” [transcription] (September 1, 2010).

18 Chitty, “Memoir of the Rev. John Brown, part 6,” [transcription] (November 27, 2011).

19 Chitty, “Memoir of the Rev. John Brown, part 6,” [transcription] (November 27, 2011).

20 Chitty, “Memoir of the Rev. John Brown, part 7,” [transcription] (February 26, 2012).

21 Chitty, “Memoir of the Rev. John Brown, part 8,” [transcription] (November 3, 2012).

22 Chitty, “Memoir of the Rev. John Brown, part 10,” [transcription] (November 8, 2012).

23 Chitty, “Memoir of the Rev. John Brown, part 9,” [transcription] (November 5, 2012).

The Early Life of Herbert J. Bevers

May 14, 2020March 3, 2025 MRW1 Comment

Herbert James Bevers’ life begins in the county of York, in central northern England, an area where it is likely that his ancestors had lived for hundreds of years. Some information can be gleaned about his childhood from the Bible of his parents, Alfred Cockin Bevers and Mary Naomi Bridges. Herbert was born on March 8, 1869 in Sheepridge, which is in Huddersfield Parish. Three children had been born to his parents before Herbert’s birth, but one sister had died when she was 16 days old. So, when Herbert was born, his brother George, who had been born in Hull, York County, was four years-old, and his sister Ada, who was born in Bridlington, York County, was one and a half years-old. Two months after his birth, Herbert was baptized on May 16, 1869.¹

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

Date — Child’s Name — Parents’ Names — Mother’s Parents’ Names — Profession

Baptismal record of Herbert James Bevers, dated May 16, 1869

From the lists of births and deaths in the Bevers’ Bible we can follow where Herbert’s family was living during his childhood. While living in Sheepridge, a sister and a set of twin boys were born, but none of them survived their first year of life. The baby girl and one of the twins died while the family was in Sheepridge, but the second twin died in Barnsley. It appears that the Bevers family had lived in Sheepridge for about four years. The 1871 Census of England was taken while Herbert’s family was living in Sheepridge. At that time, Herbert’s father was a “Collector and Canvasser for Prudential Insurance Company.”²

After moving to Barnsley, a town about 20 miles southeast of Sheepridge, another sister, Gertrude, was born when Herbert was three and a half years old. Then about two and a half years later they would be in Sheepridge again for the birth of another sister, Agnes (but called by her middle name Maud). At that time (April 1875) Herbert’s brother George was nearly 10 years-old, his sister Ada was 7 ½ years-old, Herbert was six years-old and Gertrude was about 2 ½ years-old.

The family made a longer move sometime before May 1877, for another son was born in Liverpool, on the west coast of England. This son lived for about 14 months, dying in Bootle, a town three miles north of Liverpool. In 1881, when the Census of England was taken, the Bevers family was located in Kirkdale, a ward of Liverpool.³ Herbert’s father was a “tailors cutter” and his brother George at the age of fifteen was a “pupil teacher.” Herbert and his sisters were “scholars.” At the end of 1881, another brother was born and the family was living in Bootle. They were still living there nine months later when the baby died. At that point (August 1882), George was 17 years-old, Ada nearly 15 years-old, Herbert was 13 ½ years-old, Gertrude 10 years-old and Maud was seven and a half years-old.

During the next several years, all the members of Herbert’s family would immigrate to the United States. Resources give varying years for their arrivals in the USA, but I will report the years as they were recorded in the U. S. censuses. Herbert’s father immigrated to the United States first, in 1883,⁴ leaving his family presumably in Bootle (Alfred’s daughter Maud wrote a letter to her father dated September 29, 1883 which identified her address as 13 Orlando Street. An Internet search for this address locates it in Bootle, not Kirkdale nor Liverpool). Then in 1884 Herbert’s mother and sisters immigrated⁵, joining Alfred in South Dakota. Herbert would have been 15 years-old at that time. It is not known why he stayed in England. According to the 1940 U. S. Census, the highest grade that Herbert had completed was 6^th grade,⁶ so he probably was no longer attending school. His brother George immigrated in 1885,⁷ but Herbert didn’t immigrate until about 1888.⁸

When George Bevers immigrated to the USA, he settled in Philadelphia. The first time there is an entry for him in the Philadelphia City directory is in 1886.⁹ He lived there nearly all of the rest of his life. One of Herbert’s grandsons believes that Herbert spent some time in Philadelphia,¹⁰ but Herbert’s name cannot be found in the city directory. Another source states that Herbert went to Virginia for a time.¹¹ I have found no documentation to corroborate this either. After Herbert traveled to the USA, the first thing that is known for certain is that Herbert was a resident of Phipps Township in Codington County, South Dakota when he married Lena Huppler in 1892.¹² It is a likely guess that Herbert had been living with his parents on their homestead in Phipps Township. The story of Herbert and Lena’s life together will have to wait for another time.

“West Yorkshire, Non-Conformist Records, 1646-1985” (Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2011), http://www.Ancestry.com.
“1871 England Census” [Class: RG10; Piece: 4372; Folio: 86; Page: 19; GSU roll: 848087]. In the repository of Ancestry.com (Provo, Utah, USA: Ancestry.com Operations Inc., 2004): https://www.ancestry.com/interactive/7619/WRYRG10_4369_4372-0637/25690148?backurl=https://www.ancestry.com/family-tree/person/tree/18041304/person/620842544/facts/citation/145258692549/edit/record.
“1881 England Census” [Class: RG11; Piece: 3684; Folio: 133; Page: 23; GSU roll: 1341882]. In the repository of Ancestry.com (Provo, Utah, USA: Ancestry.com Operations Inc., 2004): https://www.ancestry.com/interactive/7572/LANRG11_3682_3686-0678/9137172?backurl=https://www.ancestry.com/family-tree/person/tree/18041304/person/620842544/facts/citation/140137474899/edit/record#?imageId=LANRG11_3682_3686-0679.
“United States Census, 1910,” database with images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:33S7-9RGL-SS6B?cc=1727033&wc=QZZH-HGB%3A133638201%2C135920101%2C135948601%2C1589092018 : 24 June 2017), South Dakota > Kingsbury > De Smet Ward 2 > ED 257 > image 6 of 8; citing NARA microfilm publication T624 (Washington, D.C.: National Archives and Records Administration, n.d.).
“United States Census, 1910,” database with images, FamilySearch, South Dakota > Kingsbury > De Smet Ward 2.
“United States Census, 1940,” database with images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:3QSQ-G9M1-58J8?cc=2000219&wc=QZFM-WH1%3A791611401%2C793270701%2C793367301%2C951353501 : accessed 14 May 2020), South Dakota > Codington > Watertown City, Watertown, Ward 3 > 15-24A Watertown City Ward 3 bounded by (N) Kemp Av; (E) Maple; (S) 4th Av S; ward line; also Barton Hospital, Codington County Jail, Watertown City Jail > image 17 of 42; 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.
“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.).
“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.).
James Gopsill’s Sons, Publishers, Gopsill’s Philadelphia Directory (Philadelphia: James Gopsill’s Sons, Publishers, 1886): 182.
M. E. Bevers, Willis Bevers Family History Slideshow (Unpublished, n. d.): 6.
“Herbert James Bevers Family,” In The First 100 Years in Codington County, South Dakota, 1879-1979, by Codington County History Book Committee (Watertown, South Dakota: Watertown Public Opinion Print, 1979): 116.
“Application for Marriage License of Herbert J. Beavers” (Circuit Court, Codington County, South Dakota, November 23, 1982).

An Introduction to Herbert James Bevers

October 9, 2019August 2, 2020 MRW5 Comments

Born March 8, 1869 in Sheepridge, Yorkshire, England
Parents: Alfred and Mary Bevers who immigrated to the USA about 1883 and 1884, respectively
Immigrated to the USA in August 1888
Married Lena Huppler on November 24, 1892 in Watertown, South Dakota
Children: Edgar, Clarence, Arthur, Willis, Florence, Helen, Hazel, Estella, Harold, Margaret
Rented or owned farms in Roberts, Codington, Hamlin and Deuel Counties in South Dakota and in Cameron County, Texas
Drove with his wife Lena and six of his children from Watertown, South Dakota to Raymondville, Texas in the fall of 1919 (to read about the trip, see Lena’s travel log)
Died November 26, 1944 and is buried in Mount Hope Cemetery, Watertown, South Dakota

Sojourners, Settlers & Other Legacy Conveyors

Ancestors and the Legacies They Left Behind

Tag: England