thomas evans, jr.
1904-1995
Life Story
Early Life and Family Origins
Thomas Evans, Jr. was born in late April 1904—records variously give his birth date as April 24 or April 25—in Newton County, Mississippi. He was the son of Tom Jefferson Evans, Sr. and Lillie Cooper Evans, both lifelong residents of the Lawrence community whose family roots stretched back to the first generation of African Americans born after emancipation.
Thomas grew up on his parents’ farm in Beat 4 of Newton County, surrounded by a large household of brothers and sisters that included William, Easmond, Albert, Luella, Alberta, Vasterlee, Bertha, Elmo, Fannie, Dessie, and Northa. Like many children raised in rural Mississippi during the early twentieth century, he learned the demands of farm life at an early age. By 1920, sixteen-year-old Thomas was working as a farm laborer on the family farm while attending school. Census records indicate that he was able to read and write, an educational opportunity not always available to the generation immediately following slavery.
Marriage and Building a Family
Around 1922, Thomas married Armanda (“Mandy”) Harris, beginning a partnership that would span more than six decades.
Thomas and Mandy built a large family in rural Mississippi. Census records and later family records have identified fifteen children who survived long enough to appear in the family’s broader documentary history. A newly identified death certificate, however, reveals that they had at least one additional child whose life fell entirely between federal censuses.
Their son Charlie Lewis Evans was born on October 25, 1925, in Mississippi. He lived only four months and five days, dying at Lawrence, Newton County, on March 1, 1926. His death certificate identified his parents as Thomas Evans and Mandy Harris Evans and recorded his cause of death as influenza. Charlie was buried the following day in Lawrence.¹
Because Charlie was born after the 1920 census and died four years before the 1930 census, he never appeared in a federal census. Without his death certificate, his brief life could easily have been lost from the reconstructed history of Thomas and Mandy’s family.
The discovery of Charlie means that Thomas and Mandy are now documented as the parents of at least sixteen known children, rather than fifteen.
Their known children included:
Daughters: Willie Maude, Lela Mae (later Lewis), Lillie Mae, Jerlene (later Robinson), and Emma Lou (later McTizic).
Sons: Robert Wesley, A.C., Dewey, Nathan, A. Ether (sometimes recorded as V. Ethel), Charlie W., Joe Lewis, R.C., Larry, and Roger (also known as Hubert).
The death of Charlie Lewis also raises an interesting naming point. Years after the infant Charlie died, Thomas and Mandy gave another son the name Charlie W. Evans.
Like many farming families of the era, the Evans household depended upon the labor of every family member. As their children grew, they helped cultivate crops and sustain the family’s livelihood, continuing a tradition of cooperative agricultural labor that had characterized Black farm families throughout rural Mississippi for generations.
A Life Shaped by Agriculture
By 1930, Thomas and Mandy were renting a farm in Beat 4 of Newton County, where Thomas worked as an independent general farmer.
Sometime during the 1930s, the family relocated east into neighboring Neshoba County, settling in the Mogulusha community. The move reflected a pattern common among farming families who frequently relocated in search of better land, improved tenancy arrangements, or greater economic opportunity while remaining close to extended family networks.
The 1940 census shows Thomas continuing to operate a rented farm while supporting his growing household.
When the United States entered World War II, Thomas registered for the Fourth Registration (“Old Man’s Draft”) on February 16, 1942, in Union, Mississippi. His registration described him as 5 feet 8 inches tall, weighing 165 pounds, with black hair and brown eyes. He was employed by A. C. Richardson, and, notably, he identified his mother, Lillie Evans, as his next of kin—a reminder of the close family ties that continued even after he had established his own household.
Returning Home
By 1950, Thomas and his family had returned to Newton County, settling along the Little Rock–Union Highway.
There he continued the work that had defined nearly his entire life.
The census recorded him working approximately sixty hours each week as a farmer, reflecting both the physical demands of agriculture and his enduring commitment to providing for his family.
Although the postwar decades witnessed increasing migration of African Americans from Mississippi to northern and western cities, Thomas chose to remain rooted in the land that had sustained generations of the Evans family. Nevertheless, many of his children eventually established homes across the country, extending the family’s presence into Illinois, Michigan, Nebraska, Florida, and other states.
Later Years and Legacy
Thomas and Mandy shared more than sixty years of marriage before Mandy’s death.
Together they became the parents of at least sixteen known children, although Charlie Lewis died in infancy. Their family continued to expand through subsequent generations, eventually including dozens of grandchildren and great-grandchildren.
At the time of Thomas’s death, his obituary credited the family with forty-five grandchildren and numerous great-grandchildren.
Thomas Jefferson Evans, Jr. passed away on June 10, 1995, at the age of ninety-one.
He was laid to rest beside generations of his family at Union Chapel Methodist Church Cemetery in the Lawrence community of Newton County, Mississippi.
His life bridged nearly the entire twentieth century—from the years when mule-powered agriculture dominated rural Mississippi to an era when many of his children and grandchildren had established lives far beyond Newton County. Yet Thomas himself remained closely connected to the agricultural world in which he had been raised. From his teenage years working on his father’s farm to the sixty-hour workweek recorded for him as a farmer in 1950, agriculture formed one of the clearest continuities in his documented life.
Through Thomas and Mandy’s at least sixteen known children, the family expanded far beyond Lawrence. Some remained in Mississippi, while others carried the Evans family into communities across the country. Charlie Lewis, although he lived for only four months, belongs within that family history as surely as the brothers and sisters who survived into adulthood.
Resting Place
Union Chapel United Methodist Church Cemetery
Photos/Albums
Sources
- 1900 U.S. Census, Newton County, Mississippi, Beat 4, population schedule, Tom Evans household; National Archives microfilm publication T623.
- 1910 U.S. Census, Newton County, Mississippi, Beat 4, population schedule, Tom Evans household; National Archives microfilm publication T624.
- 1920 U.S. Census, Newton County, Mississippi, Beat 4, population schedule, Tom Evans household; National Archives microfilm publication T625.
- 1930 U.S. Census, Newton County, Mississippi, Beat 4, population schedule, Thomas Evans household; National Archives microfilm publication T626.
- 1940 U.S. Census, Neshoba County, Mississippi, Mogulusha community, population schedule, Thomas Evans household; National Archives microfilm publication T627.
- U.S. World War II Draft Registration Card (“Old Man’s Draft”), Thomas Evans, February 16, 1942, Local Board, Union, Neshoba County, Mississippi; Records of the Selective Service System, Record Group 147, National Archives.
- 1950 U.S. Census, Newton County, Mississippi, Little Rock–Union Highway district, population schedule, Thomas Evans household; National Archives.
- Obituary of Armanda (“Mandy”) Harris Evans, The Newton Record (Newton, Miss.), November 1986. The obituary identifies Thomas Evans as her husband and lists their surviving children, forty-five grandchildren, and numerous great-grandchildren.
- Mississippi Death Index, Thomas Evans, died June 10, 1995.
- Find a Grave, memorial for Thomas Evans (1904–1995), Union Chapel Methodist Church Cemetery, Lawrence, Newton County, Mississippi, including gravestone photograph and burial information.
- Mississippi State Board of Health, Bureau of Vital Statistics, certificate of death for Charlie Lewis Evans, Newton County, Mississippi, file no. 229, registration no. 9163, certificate no. 3028; born October 25, 1925, Mississippi; died March 1, 1926, Lawrence, Newton County, Mississippi, age four months and five days; father Thomas Evans, born Mississippi; mother Mandie Harris, born Mississippi; cause of death influenza; burial March 2, 1926.
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