emma evans mcadory
1860-death unknown
Life Story
Emma Evans McAdory (c. 1860–after 1930)
Emma Evans McAdory was born about 1860 in Newton County, Mississippi, into slavery. She was the daughter of Kizziah (Kizzie) Evans, an enslaved African American woman held by Catherine McInnis Evans, a white widow whose family owned land and enslaved laborers in the Mount Moriah and Bethel communities of Newton County. Emma grew up among her siblings Sena Evans, Emanuel Evans, Rebecca Evans, and Delany Evans, members of a family whose lives would eventually become closely connected to the establishment of independent African American churches and the acquisition of land following emancipation.
In 1860, Catherine Evans was recorded as the enslaver of fifty-three African Americans, including twenty-two males and thirty-one females. Among those enumerated were children of various ages, including a three-year-old girl who has been associated with Emma in the family’s genealogical reconstruction. Because federal slave schedules did not ordinarily identify enslaved individuals by name, the identification cannot be established from the schedule alone.
Although Emma was born into a system that denied her legal freedom, the surviving records of Mount Moriah Presbyterian Church preserve an important event from her earliest years.
Baptism at Mount Moriah Presbyterian Church, April 22, 1860
On April 22, 1860, the Reverend W. C. Emerson baptized three young enslaved girls identified in the Mount Moriah Presbyterian Church baptismal register as Becca, Lancy, and Emma. The church described them as infant servants of Mrs. C. Evans, identifying their enslaver as Catherine McInnis Evans.
The three girls were sisters: Rebecca Evans, Delany Evans, and Emma Evans, daughters of Kizziah Evans. Their baptism occurred less than a month after their older sister Sena Evans had been examined, admitted to membership, and baptized at the same church on March 25, 1860.
The baptismal entry is particularly significant because it preserves Emma’s name during slavery, years before the federal census would identify her as a free person.
Under Presbyterian religious practices, the baptism of children was connected to the responsibilities of Christian families and the authority of the church. However, the surviving records do not explain who requested the baptism of Emma and her sisters. Their mother, Kizziah Evans, may have participated in the decision, or Catherine Evans may have arranged for the children to be presented. The records do not establish which individual initiated the ceremony.
The baptism also raises questions about the religious experiences of other children enslaved by Catherine Evans. Although the 1860 slave schedule recorded numerous children, the surviving baptismal entries do not readily account for all of them. Whether those children were baptized elsewhere, were never presented for baptism, or appeared in records not yet identified remains uncertain.
For Emma, however, the April 22 entry provides a documented connection to Mount Moriah Presbyterian Church during her childhood in slavery.
Emancipation and Childhood in the Bethel Community
Emma was a young child when the Civil War and emancipation transformed the legal status of African Americans in Mississippi. The end of slavery brought freedom to Kizziah Evans and her children, but their economic circumstances remained closely tied to agriculture and the land on which they had previously labored.
In the 1870 federal census, Emma Evans, age ten, was enumerated in Township 5, Range 11, Newton County, Mississippi, in the household of her mother, Kizziah Evans, age fifty-two. Also living in the household were Emanuel Evans, eighteen; Rebecca Evans, fifteen; and Lany Evans, fourteen.
The census documented the family’s continued residence in the same general community where they had lived during slavery. It also marked an important change: unlike the 1860 slave schedule, the 1870 census recorded formerly enslaved African Americans by their individual names.
For Emma, the census provides one of the earliest federal records of her life as a free African American.
The Evans Family Land Purchase of January 7, 1876
One of the most significant events in Emma’s early life occurred on January 7, 1876, when she joined three of her siblings in a recorded land transaction that established their ownership interests in approximately eighty acres in Newton County.
On that date, Nancy Evans, Emily J. Evans, and Mary Evans, identified as heirs of Catherine W. Evans, executed a quitclaim deed conveying their interests in the west half of the southeast quarter of Section 18, Township 5, Range 11 East, to Sena Evans, Emanuel Evans, Delany Evans, and Emma Evans.
The consideration was $400.
The deed identified the four purchasers as “Colored” and stated that the property was already in their possession. This language establishes that Emma and her siblings occupied the land when the conveyance was executed.
The transaction was especially meaningful because it occurred only eleven years after the end of slavery. Emma, who had been held in bondage by the Evans family during her earliest years, was now named among the purchasers of land conveyed by members of that same white family.
The quitclaim deed transferred the grantors’ rights and interests in the property rather than guaranteeing an unrestricted title against every possible claim. Nevertheless, it provided a recorded legal foundation for the family’s continuing possession and ownership interests.
The property would remain closely associated with the Evans family for decades, becoming the subject of additional conveyances, divisions, and exchanges among relatives.
The 1880 Census and Life as a Young Farm Laborer
By 1880, Emma Evans was living in Beat 4, Newton County, with her mother, Kizzie Evans, and sisters Senie Evans and Laura Evans, the latter identified in other records as Delany (Lany) Evans.
The census recorded Emma as eighteen years old, unmarried, and employed as a farm laborer.
Her age differed somewhat from the birth year suggested by the 1870 census, illustrating the inconsistencies common in nineteenth-century records. Taken together, the census entries place her birth around 1860, although the exact year remains uncertain.
The household reflected the continued importance of family relationships after emancipation. Kizziah Evans remained surrounded by daughters whose labor contributed to the household’s agricultural livelihood.
Although the records do not describe Emma’s daily experiences, her occupation indicates that farm work remained an important part of her life as a young adult.
Marriage to Spencer McAdory and Establishment of a Farming Household
Around 1896, Emma Evans married Spencer McAdory, an African American farmer residing in Newton County. Their marriage established another family connection within the Bethel community, where the Evans family continued to hold property.
By the 1900 federal census, Emma McAdory, recorded as thirty years old, was living with her husband, Spencer McAdory, age forty, in Beat 4, Newton County.
The census reported that the couple had been married for four years and that Emma had borne no children.
The couple’s residence in the same community as Emma’s relatives placed them within a network of African American families whose economic lives centered on farming, landownership, and family cooperation.
Although the census provides only limited details about their household, later property records demonstrate that Emma and Spencer were active participants in the acquisition and management of land.
The 1898 Land Conveyance to Joe Mosley
On February 8, 1898, Emma McAdory joined Sena Evans, Delaney Mosley, Norfleet Evans, Millie Evans, and Vina Strong in executing a deed conveying approximately twenty acres to Joe Mosley, the husband of Emma’s sister Delany Evans Mosley.
The deed described the property as the north half of the northwest quarter of the southeast quarter of Section 18, Township 5, Range 11 East.
The consideration was $112.50.
The document identified Emma among the grantors and preserved her signature by mark. She and several other family members formally acknowledged the transaction before M. H. Roberts, a member of the Newton County Board of Supervisors, on July 28, 1898. Other grantors acknowledged their participation in Hinds County the following month.
The deed was filed for recording on September 5, 1898.
This transaction illustrates the continuing involvement of Emma and her relatives in the management of family property. It also demonstrates how land passed among members of the extended Evans family as marriages created new households and property interests were reorganized.
The 1902 Family Land Partition
By the beginning of the twentieth century, the Evans family’s landholdings in Section 18 had become the subject of several transactions designed to establish more clearly defined interests among relatives.
On November 10, 1902, Emma McAdory and her husband, Spencer McAdory, participated in a series of deeds involving Nathaniel Evans and Rebecca Evans.
One deed conveyed approximately eight acres to Nathaniel Evans, beginning at the northeast corner of the southeast quarter of the southeast quarter of Section 18. The grantors included Rebecca Evans, Spencer McAdory, and Emma E. McAdory.
A second deed conveyed approximately eight acres to Rebecca Evans, while another conveyed approximately eight acres to Spencer and Emma McAdory.
The parcel conveyed to the McAdory couple began at the northwest corner of the southeast quarter of the southeast quarter of Section 18, Township 5, Range 11 East.
Each transaction stated a consideration of one dollar, suggesting that the deeds formed part of a coordinated redistribution of property interests rather than ordinary unrelated land sales.
The deeds were acknowledged on November 10, 1902, and filed for recording on December 1 of that year.
These transactions are particularly important because they document Emma as a named grantee alongside her husband. The property was conveyed to Spencer and Emma McAdory, preserving her individual legal interest in the land.
The partition also illustrates the continued cooperation among members of the Evans family nearly four decades after emancipation.
The 1906 Land Exchange Between Emma and Delany
On March 17, 1906, Emma McAdory and her sister Delaney Ann Moseley executed reciprocal deeds involving property in Section 18, Township 5, Range 11 East.
In the first transaction, Delaney Ann Moseley conveyed to Emma McAdory her undivided one-half interest in the south half of the southwest quarter of the southeast quarter of Section 18.
The deed stated a consideration of $50.
In the corresponding transaction, Emma McAdory conveyed to Delaney Ann Moseley her undivided one-half interest in the north half of the southwest quarter of the southeast quarter of the same section.
That deed also stated a consideration of $50.
Both deeds were acknowledged on March 17, 1906, and filed for recording two days later.
Although the documents described twenty-acre tracts, each sister conveyed an undivided one-half interest rather than an entire twenty-acre parcel. The reciprocal conveyances therefore rearranged their ownership interests in the adjoining portions of the property.
The exchange reveals the continuing economic relationship between Emma and Delany, who had grown up together in slavery, lived with their mother after emancipation, and participated in the family’s acquisition of land in 1876.
Nearly thirty years after that original purchase, the sisters were still using recorded deeds to manage their respective property interests.
Later Life with Spencer McAdory, 1910–1920
The 1910 federal census recorded Emma McAdory, whose surname was written as McAdary, living with her husband, Spencer McAdory, whose given name appeared as Spincer.
The couple remained in Beat 4, Newton County, where their household was associated with farming. Emma was recorded as fifty years old, while Spencer was listed as fifty-five.
The census provides evidence that the couple continued their agricultural livelihood in the same community where Emma’s family had acquired land decades earlier.
By 1920, Emma and Spencer were still living in Beat 4. The census recorded Emma as sixty years old and Spencer as sixty-five.
Their continued residence in Newton County demonstrates the family’s long-term connection to the land and community.
Although the surviving census entries do not describe their daily lives, the combination of census records and recorded deeds establishes that Emma and Spencer maintained a farming household over many years.
Widowhood and Landownership
On April 22, 1928, Spencer McAdory, the husband of Emma Evans McAdory, died in Mississippi. His death certificate, number 8455, documents his death and burial at Evans Cemetery in Newton County, Mississippi. His burial in the family cemetery provides another connection between the McAdory household and the Evans family community.
Following Spencer’s death, Emma continued living in Newton County. The 1930 federal census enumerated her in Beat 4 as Emma Mcadary, age seventy, a widow and head of household.
Most significantly, the census recorded Emma as the owner of her farm home. She appeared in dwelling 141, family 143, documenting her continued residence and property ownership in the community where she had spent nearly her entire life.
Her status as a widowed African American woman owning her farm home in 1930 represented a remarkable contrast to the circumstances of her birth.
Seventy years earlier, Emma had been an enslaved child under the authority of Catherine McInnis Evans. By 1930, she was recognized in the federal census as the head of her own household and the owner of her home.
Emma’s date of death has not yet been established. Her documented life extends through the 1930 federal census.
Legacy: From an Enslaved Child to a Widowed Landowner
The life of Emma Evans McAdory reflects the transformation experienced by one African American family in Newton County across the decades following emancipation.
Born into slavery, Emma first appeared by name in the records of Mount Moriah Presbyterian Church when she was baptized on April 22, 1860, alongside her sisters Rebecca Evans and Delany Evans.
Her mother, Kizziah Evans, raised a family whose members survived slavery and later acquired land in the same community where they had once lived under the authority of the Evans slaveholding family.
The January 7, 1876, deed marked an important turning point. Through that transaction, Emma and her siblings Sena, Emanuel, and Delany acquired recorded interests in approximately eighty acres.
Over the following decades, Emma participated in additional land transactions involving her sisters, relatives, and husband. The deeds of 1898, 1902, and 1906 reveal a woman actively involved in the management and redistribution of family property.
Her marriage to Spencer McAdory established a farming household that remained in Newton County for decades. Following his death, Emma continued as a widowed head of household and property owner.
Her life also belongs to the larger history of the Bethel and Mount Moriah African American communities, where formerly enslaved families sought independence through landownership, religious institutions, and family cooperation.
The church register that documented Emma’s baptism in 1860 and the census that recorded her as a landowning widow in 1930 stand at opposite ends of an extraordinary historical journey.
Emma Evans McAdory’s legacy is preserved not through a single dramatic event, but through decades of documented perseverance, family relationships, agricultural labor, and property ownership. Her story demonstrates how one woman born into slavery became part of a generation that established lasting roots in the land and community of Newton County, Mississippi.
Historical Sources and Notes
- Mount Moriah Presbyterian Church, Newton County, Mississippi, baptismal register, April 22, 1860, baptisms of Becca, Lancy, and Emma by Rev. W. C. Emerson, p. 194; Mississippi Department of Archives and History, microfilm roll 36108.
- 1860 U.S. census, slave schedule, Newton County, Mississippi, Catherine Evans household, enumeration of fifty-three enslaved individuals.
- 1870 U.S. census, Newton County, Mississippi, Township 5, Range 11, household of Kizziah Evans, including Emma Evans, age ten.
- Newton County, Mississippi, Deed Book 1, pp. 42–43, quitclaim deed from Nancy Evans, Emily J. Evans, and Mary Evans to Sena, Emanuel, Delany, and Emma Evans, January 7, 1876; filed January 24, 1876.
- 1880 U.S. census, Newton County, Mississippi, Beat 4, household of Kizzie Evans, including Emma Evans, age eighteen.
- 1900 U.S. census, Newton County, Mississippi, Beat 4, household of Spencer and Emma McAdory, reporting four years of marriage.
- Newton County, Mississippi, Deed Book 14, p. 869, deed from Sena Evans, Delaney Mosley, Emma McAdory, Norfleet Evans, Millie Evans, and Vina Strong to Joe Mosley, February 8, 1898; filed September 5, 1898.
- Newton County, Mississippi, Deed Book 23, pp. 390, 392–393, deeds involving Nathaniel Evans, Rebecca Evans, Spencer McAdory, and Emma E. McAdory, November 10, 1902; filed December 1, 1902.
- Newton County, Mississippi, Deed Book 27, pp. 773–774, reciprocal deeds between Delaney Ann Moseley and Emma McAdory, March 17, 1906; filed March 19, 1906.
- 1910 U.S. census, Newton County, Mississippi, Beat 4, household of Spencer and Emma McAdory.
- 1920 U.S. census, Newton County, Mississippi, Beat 4, household of Spencer and Emma McAdory.
- 1930 U.S. census, Newton County, Mississippi, Beat 4, dwelling 141, family 143, Emma McAdory, widowed head of household and owner of her farm home.
Resting Place
Unknown
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