sam evans
1895-1970
Life Story
Early Life in Lawrence
Sam Evans was born in Lawrence, Newton County, Mississippi, the son of Robert Evans and Betsy Curry Evans.¹ His mother was the daughter of Jake Curry and Sallie Logan, connecting Sam to both the Evans and Curry families of the Lawrence community.
The surviving records disagree about Sam’s exact date of birth. The 1900 census indicates that he was born in June 1895, while later records give January 7, 1896. Rather than eliminate one in favor of the other without additional evidence, his birth is best described as occurring in 1895 or 1896.¹
In 1900, Sam was living with his parents and brothers Dee and Jay Evans on a rented farm in Beat 4. As the family grew, younger siblings Jody, Sally, Nina, Birta, and Nancy joined the household.²
By 1910, Sam was a teenager growing up within the agricultural world that defined much of his father’s life. He attended school and learned to read while also contributing to the work of the family farm.³
Agriculture would remain central to Sam’s life long after he reached adulthood.
The Loss of His Mother
Sam experienced a significant family loss as a young man.
His mother, Betsy Curry Evans, died at Lawrence on June 17, 1916. Her death certificate identified her parents as Jake Curry and Sallie Logan and recorded Sam’s father, Rob Evans, as the informant.⁴
Sam was only about twenty years old.
Within two years, the United States’ involvement in World War I would take his own life in a very different direction.
World War I Service
During World War I, Sam registered for the military draft in Warren County, Mississippi.⁵ His presence there indicates that he had temporarily moved away from his native Newton County, although the surviving information does not establish how long he lived in Warren County or what originally brought him there.
On June 22, 1918, Sam entered the United States Army.⁶
He served as a private in Company B, 416th Reserve Labor Battalion.⁶ Labor battalions performed essential support work for the Army, providing the physical labor necessary to move supplies, maintain facilities, and support military operations.
Sam served during the final months of World War I and remained in the Army after the November 1918 armistice.
He was honorably discharged on April 25, 1919, returning to civilian life after approximately ten months of military service.⁶
Marriage and a Family of His Own
Sam married Lillian, whose surname appears in surviving records in several forms, including Swager, Swaggin, and Saywar. Until a primary marriage record establishes the spelling more securely, those variations should be preserved rather than selecting one as definitive.
The marriage appears to have occurred around 1914, before Sam entered military service.
Following the war, Sam returned to the agricultural life he had known since childhood. He and Lillian established their household in Newton County and raised a large family.
Their known children included Mattie, Ed (Edd), Lorene, Ovetta (Oneta), Annie Lee, Frenelle (Freenell), Sophie, Irma, Willie Lee, Sam Jr., and Johnny Evans. Sam and Lillian’s growing family also experienced the tragic loss of a child. Their son Carson Evans, born around July 1922, died in Lawrence on February 24, 1924, at just one year and seven months old. His death certificate noted the cause simply as “Burned,” without further details regarding the circumstances. Carson was buried in Lawrence the following day.¹ His entire life fell between the 1920 and 1930 federal censuses, making his death certificate vital for preserving his place within the family.
The variations in several of the children’s names reflect the spellings found across different census and family records rather than necessarily representing different individuals.
Building a Life Through Farming
Like his father Robert, Sam spent much of his adult life working the land.
During the 1930s and 1940s, census records consistently identified him with agriculture. He worked as an independent or general farmer and supported a household that included a growing number of children.
The records also indicate an important economic transition over the course of his life. Sam eventually became the owner of his home and farm, rather than remaining permanently within the system of agricultural tenancy under which his father’s household had lived during Sam’s childhood.
That progression is significant, but it should be understood within the realities of Black farming in Jim Crow Mississippi. Ownership did not remove the racial and economic obstacles faced by African American farmers, but possession of a farm could provide a family with a greater measure of independence and stability.
For Sam, farming was more than a temporary occupation. It was the livelihood that connected his childhood household with the family he later raised himself.
A Family Beginning to Spread Beyond Mississippi
Although Sam remained rooted in Newton County, not all of his children did.
His daughter Sophie Evans, for example, eventually made her way to New Orleans, Louisiana, where she married John Calvin Dungen in 1955.
Her movement reflects a pattern that became increasingly common among the younger generations of rural Southern families. While parents such as Sam remained connected to the land in Newton County, their children increasingly sought marriages, employment, and new lives in cities elsewhere in the South and across the country.
The Evans family was gradually spreading beyond Lawrence even as Sam remained there.
Death and Recognition of His Military Service
Sam Evans died on August 20, 1970, after a life that had remained closely connected to Newton County.⁷
He was buried at Union Chapel Cemetery in Lawrence, not far from the community where he had been born and raised.
After his death, his sister Nancy Evans Scott applied to the federal government for a military marker for his grave.⁷ The application documented Sam’s World War I service and requested a flat marble marker commemorating his service as a veteran.
Nancy’s involvement is particularly meaningful in light of the family’s history. She and Sam had grown up together in Robert and Betsy’s household, and decades later it was Nancy who made certain that her brother’s military service would be permanently identified at his grave.
From a Rented Farm to a Farm of His Own
Sam Evans’s life followed a path that in some respects paralleled his father’s while also belonging distinctly to his own generation.
He was born into a household farming rented land in Beat 4.
He grew up working alongside his parents and siblings.
He learned to read and attended school while agriculture remained an unavoidable part of daily life.
He lost his mother while still a young man.
Then World War I temporarily pulled him away from that rural world and placed him in the United States Army.
When his military service ended, Sam returned to Mississippi and to farming.
He and Lillian raised eleven known children, creating another generation of the Evans family whose lives would eventually extend beyond the boundaries of Newton County.
Over the decades, Sam progressed from the rented agricultural world of his childhood to operating and eventually owning his own farm.
Yet he never completely left the community that had shaped him.
When Sam died in 1970, he was buried at Union Chapel Cemetery in Lawrence, where other members of the Evans family were also laid to rest.
His government marker preserved one part of his story in stone: his service during World War I.
The census records preserve another: decades spent farming, raising children, and maintaining a household in rural Mississippi.
Together they document a life spanning three-quarters of a century—from the world of late nineteenth-century Black farm families to the social transformations of the 1960s and 1970s.
Sam Evans lived through those changes while remaining rooted in Lawrence, the Newton County community where his story began.
Resting Place
Union Chapel United Methodist Church Cemetery
Photos/Albums
Sources
- 1. 1900 U.S. census, Newton County, Mississippi, Beat 4, population schedule, enumeration district 52, p. 16, dwelling 304, family 305, household of Robert Evans; Sam Evans enumerated as a son of Robert and Bessy Evans, with birth reported as June 1895; digital image, Ancestry.com, accessed 2026. Later records give Sam’s birth as January 7, 1896.
- 2. 1900 U.S. census, Newton County, Mississippi, Beat 4, household of Robert Evans; Robert and Bessy Evans with sons Dee, Sam, and Jay; farm recorded as rented; digital image, Ancestry.com, accessed 2026.
- 3. 1910 U.S. census, Newton County, Mississippi, Beat 4, population schedule, enumeration district 93, p. 21A, household of Robert Evans; household included children Dee, Sam, Jay, Jody, Sally, Nina, Birta, and Nancy Evans; digital image, Ancestry.com, accessed 2026.
- 4. 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; birthplace Newton County; father Jake Curry; mother Sallie Logan; informant Rob Evans, Lawrence, Mississippi; burial Lawrence Cemetery; filed July 18, 1916.
- 5. U.S. World War I Draft Registration Cards, 1917–1918, registration for Sam Evans, Warren County, Mississippi; digital image, Ancestry.com, accessed 2026.
- 6. U.S. military service records and application for government headstone or marker for Sam Evans; service in the U.S. Army, Company B, 416th Reserve Labor Battalion; entered service June 22, 1918; honorably discharged April 25, 1919.
- 7. U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs/government headstone or marker records, application for military marker for Sam Evans, died August 20, 1970; application submitted by his sister, Mrs. Nancy Scott, for placement at Union Chapel Cemetery, Lawrence, Mississippi.
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