allice evans
1911-1914
Life Story
A Brief Life in Newton County
Allice Evans was born on June 7, 1911, in Newton County, Mississippi, to Jno Evans and Anna White. Her family lived in the rural Lawrence community of Newton County, where generations of African American families made their homes during the early twentieth century.
Only a few surviving records preserve details of Allice’s brief life. Like many children who died very young, she never lived long enough to appear across decades of census records, school rolls, marriage records, or other documents that ordinarily allow us to reconstruct a person’s life.
Instead, much of what is known about her comes from the record created at its tragic end.
A Tragic Accident
Allice died on January 12, 1914, in Newton County after suffering fatal burns.
Her death record described the cause starkly as “burned to death,” documenting an accident that ended the life of a very young child.
The record identifies Autury Evans as the person who supplied the information concerning her death.
There is an apparent discrepancy between Allice’s recorded birth date and the age reported at death. A birth date of June 7, 1911, would place her at approximately two years and seven months old in January 1914, while the death record reportedly gives her age as three years and six months. Without additional evidence establishing which information is correct, both should be preserved as part of the historical record.
Burial at Union Chapel
Following her death, Allice was laid to rest in the Union Chapel Methodist Church Cemetery in Lawrence, Newton County, Mississippi.
Her burial there connected her brief life to a cemetery that became the final resting place of numerous African American families from the Lawrence community.
Remembering Allice
Allice Evans lived only a few years, and the surviving records tell us very little about the child herself.
We do not know what she liked, what made her laugh, or the small everyday moments her parents remembered after losing her. Those details were never captured by the documents that survived.
What remains are a name, parents, dates, the record of a terrible accident, and a burial place.
For family historians, those fragments still matter.
Allice was a daughter of Jno Evans and Anna White, a child of the Lawrence community, and a member of a family whose history continued long after her own short life ended. More than a century later, the surviving records and her connection to Union Chapel Cemetery ensure that Allice Evans remains part of the documented history of her family and community.
Resting Place
Union Chapel United Methodist Church Cemetery
Photos/Albums
Sources
- Mississippi State Board of Health, Bureau of Vital Statistics, certificate of death for Allice Evans, January 12, 1914, Lawrence, Newton County, Mississippi, Registered No. 1146. The certificate records her birth as June 7, 1911, in Newton County and identifies her parents as Jno. Evans and Anna White, both born in Newton County.
- Ibid. The death certificate records Allice’s age as three years and six months. This conflicts with the specific birth and death dates recorded on the same certificate; June 7, 1911, to January 12, 1914, would place her age at approximately two years and seven months.
- Ibid. Allice died on January 12, 1914, with the cause of death recorded as “Burned to Death.” No additional circumstances surrounding the fatal burning are provided on the certificate.
- Ibid. Autury Evans of Lawrence, Mississippi, was the informant. The certificate records Allice’s burial at Union Chapel following her death.
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