robert evans, sr.

1874-1953

Life Story

Early Life in the First Generation After Emancipation

Robert Evans was born on February 14, 1874, in Mississippi, the son of Benjamin “Ben” Evans and Nancy Watkins Evans.¹ His birth came less than a decade after the end of the Civil War, placing Robert among the first generation of his family to be born into freedom.

The 1880 census provides the earliest known record of his childhood. Recorded as four-year-old “Robt.” Evans, he was living with his parents in Beat 4 of Newton County, Mississippi. Also in the household were his older siblings Laura, Thomas, and Fannie Evans.¹

Robert grew up in the rural Piney Woods of east-central Mississippi, where farming shaped the economic life of much of the Black population. Like many children of formerly enslaved parents, he came of age during the difficult decades following Reconstruction, when African American families were establishing households and livelihoods while confronting the economic limitations and racial restrictions of the postwar South.

Agriculture would remain at the center of Robert’s life for most of the next seven decades.

Marriage to Betsy Curry

Around 1893, Robert married Betsy Curry, a Newton County woman whose name sometimes appeared as Bessy or Betsey in the records.²

Betsy’s death certificate later identified her as the daughter of Jake Curry and Sallie Logan, both Mississippi natives.³ Her marriage to Robert therefore joined two longstanding African American families of the Lawrence community—the Evans and Curry families.

By 1900, Robert and Betsy had established their own household in Beat 4. Robert was working as a farmer, and the census recorded the family as renting their farm. Their household included three young sons: Dee, Sam, and Jay Evans.²

At that time, Robert was recorded as unable to read or write.

During the next decade, both his household and his circumstances changed.

A Growing Family and an Adult Education

By 1910, Robert and Betsy had been married approximately seventeen years. Their household had grown substantially and included Dee, Sam, Jay, Jody, Sally, Nina, Birta, and Nancy Evans.⁴

The census, however, does not preserve the complete story of Robert and Betsy’s children. Five years later, another son was born who would live too briefly ever to appear in a federal census.

On March 28, 1915, Betsy gave birth to a son whom the couple named Robert Evans, apparently after his father. The infant lived only one month. He died at Lawrence on April 28, 1915, with his death certificate recording the cause as “bold hives” and noting that he had received no medical attention. Robert himself supplied the information for his son’s death certificate and was also listed in the undertaker field, indicating that he assumed responsibility for the arrangements surrounding the child’s burial. The infant was buried at a place recorded on the certificate as “Lawrence Cntry.”⁵

The discovery of this child adds another member to Robert and Betsy’s known family and illustrates why census records alone cannot provide a complete accounting of their children. Born and deceased between the 1910 and 1920 censuses, the infant Robert would have disappeared entirely from the federal census record. His death certificate preserves the only evidence presently known of his brief life.

Robert remained a farmer on rented land, but the census classified him as an employer, rather than simply a wage laborer or farm worker. That designation suggests that his farming operation involved the labor of people beyond himself, although the census does not tell us the size of the operation or whom he employed.⁴

An equally interesting change concerned Robert’s education.

Although the 1900 census recorded him as unable to read and write, by 1910 Robert was reported as able to do both.² ⁴ If both census entries are accurate, Robert acquired literacy as an adult.

For a Black man born in rural Mississippi in 1874, only nine years after emancipation, that was a meaningful accomplishment. The records do not tell us where, when, or from whom Robert learned, so we cannot reconstruct the circumstances of his education. What they do show is a change between the two censuses: by middle adulthood, Robert had gained skills that had been denied to generations of enslaved African Americans before him.

The Death of Betsy

Robert and Betsy’s marriage ended with her death in 1916.

Betsy Evans died at Lawrence on June 17, 1916. Her death certificate recorded her as a married Black woman and housekeeper, age forty-four, born in Newton County. It identified her father as Jake Curry and her mother as Sallie Logan. Robert himself—recorded as “Rob Evans” of Lawrence—provided the information for the certificate. Betsy was buried in Lawrence Cemetery.³

There is some uncertainty concerning Betsy’s year of birth. Her age in earlier census records suggests a birth during the mid-1870s, while her death certificate’s reported age of forty-four would place her birth around 1872. Because the surviving records disagree, it is safest to describe her as having been born about 1872–1875 rather than assign a precise birth year.

Betsy’s death left Robert a widower with children still at home.

At some point afterward, he married a second wife, Anna. The exact date of their marriage has not yet been established.

From Tenant Farmer to Farm Owner

By 1930, Robert was fifty-seven years old and still living in Beat 4. His household included his second wife, Anna, his daughter Nancy, and ten-year-old Marie Williams.⁵

The census documents an important change in Robert’s economic circumstances.

In 1900 and 1910, Robert had been recorded as farming rented land. In 1930, he was recorded as owning his farm.⁵

The record does not tell us when or how Robert acquired the property. Nevertheless, the transition from tenant farmer to farm owner was significant, particularly for an African American farmer in Jim Crow Mississippi.

Landownership could provide greater independence and economic security, but Robert’s later records also demonstrate that ownership was not necessarily a simple or permanent progression.

Also living in the household was Marie Williams, age ten, identified by the census as Robert’s granddaughter. Her presence provides another glimpse of the multigenerational nature of Robert’s household. By 1930, his home included not only his second wife, Anna, and his daughter Nancy, but also a member of the next generation of the family. The census does not, however, identify which of Robert’s children was Marie’s parent, so that relationship should remain open pending additional evidence.

Farming Through His Sixties

By 1940, Robert and Anna were living in the Lawrence area of Newton County.⁶

Robert was sixty-six years old and still actively farming. He reported working 48 hours during the census reference week and 52 weeks during the preceding year. His educational attainment was recorded as approximately the third grade.⁶

The census also introduces another important complication in Robert’s history with the land. Although he had been recorded as owning his farm in 1930, the 1940 census listed the farm as rented.⁶

We cannot determine from the census alone what happened.

Robert may have sold his earlier farm, transferred property, lost ownership, moved to another farm, or simply rented the particular property on which he was then living. Without deeds, tax records, mortgages, or other land records, it would be inappropriate to choose among those possibilities.

What we can document is the changing pattern:

1900 — rented farm
1910 — rented farm
1930 — owned farm
1940 — rented farm

Rather than a simple story of steady economic advancement, Robert’s records reveal the changing realities of a Black agricultural household across several decades.

Nancy Scott Returns Home

Robert’s household in 1940 also reveals an important transition in the life of his daughter Nancy.

Nancy had married and taken the surname Scott, but by 1940 the marriage had ended. She was living once again in her father’s household and was specifically recorded by the census as divorced.⁶

Her presence therefore was not simply that of an unmarried adult daughter who had never left home. Nancy had established a married life of her own, experienced the dissolution of that marriage, and returned to her father’s household.

She would remain with Robert into his final years.

The arrangement also demonstrates the continuing importance of the extended family household. Robert’s home provided a place to which his adult daughter could return after a major change in her own life.

His Final Census

The 1950 census found Robert living on South 7th Street in Newton County.⁷

His age was recorded as seventy, although a February 1874 birth would have made him approximately seventy-six. Such discrepancies in census ages are common and should not override the more precise birth information preserved in other records.

After spending most of his adult life farming, Robert was now recorded as unable to work.⁷

His daughter Nancy Scott remained in his household. Also living in the household were three of Robert’s grandchildren: Bill Evans, age fourteen; Sam Evans, age thirteen; and Johnny Evans, age ten. Their presence, along with Robert’s divorced daughter Nancy Scott, shows that even in his final years, Robert’s home remained a multigenerational family household. The census establishes the children’s relationship to Robert as grandchildren, although it does not by itself identify which of Robert’s children was their parent.

Death and Burial

Robert Evans died on January 15, 1953, at the age of seventy-eight, just one month before his seventy-ninth birthday.⁸

He was buried at Union Chapel Methodist Church Cemetery in Lawrence, Newton County, Mississippi, returning in death to the community in which he had spent nearly his entire life.⁸

At present, his burial at Union Chapel should not by itself be interpreted as proof that Robert was a member or officer of the church. An obituary, church record, or other documentation may eventually establish a stronger connection.

A Life Rooted in Newton County

Robert Evans’s life spanned a remarkable period in the history of his family and of African Americans in Mississippi.

He was born in 1874, less than a decade after slavery ended.

As a young man, he established a household with Betsy Curry, joining two families deeply rooted in the Lawrence community. Together they raised a large family while Robert made his living from the soil.

The census records trace a life that was neither static nor a simple progression.

Robert began as a tenant farmer.

He apparently learned to read and write as an adult.

By 1910, he was classified as an employer.

He endured the death of Betsy in 1916 and eventually remarried.

By 1930, after decades of renting farmland, he was recorded as a farm owner.

By 1940, he was again farming rented land and still working long weeks into his sixties.

And when his divorced daughter Nancy needed to return home, Robert’s household once again became a place for family.

By 1950, the farmer who had spent much of his life working the land was finally unable to work. Yet he remained surrounded by family until near the end of his life.

Robert’s story is therefore not simply one of landownership or farming. It is a story of persistence, adaptation, and family continuity.

The land beneath him changed from rented to owned and back to rented. His household changed as children were born, a wife died, a second marriage began, and an adult daughter returned home. Mississippi itself changed enormously between Robert’s birth during Reconstruction and his death in 1953.

Through those changes, one thing remained remarkably constant:

Robert Evans remained rooted in Newton County for nearly eight decades, building his life and raising his family in the same Lawrence community into which he had been born.

Resting Place

Union Chapel United Methodist Church Cemetery

Photos/Albums

Sources

1. 1880 U.S. census, Newton County, Mississippi, Beat 4, population schedule, enumeration district 87, p. 63B, dwelling 384, family 384, household of Benj. Evans; Robt. Evans, age 4, son, born in Mississippi; household included parents Benjamin and Nancy Evans and siblings Laura, Thomas, and Fannie; digital image, Ancestry.com, accessed 2026.
2. 1900 U.S. census, Newton County, Mississippi, Beat 4, population schedule, enumeration district 52, p. 16, dwelling 304, family 305, household of Robert Evans; Robert Evans with wife Bessy and children Dee, Sam, and Jay; Robert recorded as a farmer operating a rented farm and as unable to read or write; digital image, Ancestry.com, accessed 2026.
3. Mississippi State Board of Health, Bureau of Vital Statistics, certificate of death for Betsy Evans, Newton County, Mississippi, registration district 9165, file no. 90, died June 17, 1916, Lawrence, Newton County; age 44; married; occupation, housekeeper; birthplace, Newton County; father, Jake Curry, born Mississippi; mother, Sallie Logan, born Mississippi; informant, Rob Evans, Lawrence, Mississippi; burial, Lawrence Cemetery; certificate filed July 18, 1916.
4. 1910 U.S. census, Newton County, Mississippi, Beat 4, population schedule, enumeration district 93, p. 21A, household of Rob[ert] Evans; Robert and wife Bessy, married approximately seventeen years; household included Dee, Sam, Jay, Jody, Sally, Nina, Birta, and Nancy Evans; Robert recorded as a farmer, employer, able to read and write, and operating a rented farm; digital image, Ancestry.com, accessed 2026.
5. 1930 U.S. census, Newton County, Mississippi, Beat 4, population schedule, enumeration district 13, p. 5A, dwelling 93, family 99, household of Robert Evans; Robert Evans, age 57, with wife Anna, daughter Nancy, and granddaughter Marie Williams, age 10; Robert recorded as owning his farm; digital image, Ancestry.com, accessed 2026.
6. 1940 U.S. census, Newton County, Mississippi, Lawrence area, population schedule, enumeration district 51-15, sheet 7B, household 130, household of Robert Evans; Robert Evans, age 66, with wife Anna and daughter Nancy Scott; Nancy recorded as divorced; Robert reported approximately a third-grade education, worked 48 hours during the census reference week and 52 weeks during the preceding year, and operated a rented farm; digital image, Ancestry.com, accessed 2026.
7. 1950 U.S. census, Newton County, Mississippi, population schedule, enumeration district 51-22, p. 31, dwelling 239, household of Rob[ert] Evans; Robert recorded as age 70 [inconsistent with his documented 1874 birth] and unable to work; household included his daughter Nancy Scott and his grandchildren Bill Evans, age 14; Sam Evans, age 13; and Johnny Evans, age 10; digital image, Ancestry.com, accessed 2026.
8. Find a Grave, memorial for Robert “Rob” Evans, February 14, 1874–January 15, 1953, Union Chapel Methodist Church Cemetery, Lawrence, Newton County, Mississippi; digital memorial database, accessed 2026.

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