Thomas Reynolds Evans
Thomas Reynolds Evans was born in Pennsylvania in 1830. About 1853 he married Mary Jane Lawrence, a Philadelphia girl. They had three children: Anne Maria, called Annie, born in 1854; Harry L., born about 1855; and Catharine, born in 1860.
His working life is laid out year by year in the Philadelphia city directories, as summarized by a Lawrence family researcher. Before 1875 he was listed in turn as a collector, a lamp maker, a gas fitter, a clerk in the Post Office and a plumber. From 1875 to 1890 he was a customs clerk for the United States government. In 1891 and 1892 he was the chief clerk, and in 1893 the Special Deputy Surveyor of Customs, at the Custom House in Philadelphia.
The census of 1880 found him at fifty, living in Philadelphia with Mary Jane, forty five, and their three grown children, Annie, twenty five, Harry, twenty four, and Kate, twenty two. The enumerator wrote his work as "Clerk in C. House". He gave both his parents' birthplaces as New Jersey.
The Custom House collected the federal duties on every cargo landed at the port of Philadelphia, then one of the busiest in the country. The surveyor's office inspected and measured the goods coming off the ships, and the special deputy was the surveyor's senior working officer.
In December 1891 his son Harry died suddenly in the family house at 1812 Fairmount Avenue, at thirty six. Thomas buried him in the family lot at Mount Vernon Cemetery under a stone that reads "Our Son".
Sixteen months later Thomas died the same way. He collapsed in the same house on 27 April 1893 and died of apoplexy, a stroke, at sixty three. The return gives his occupation as clerk. The Philadelphia Inquirer notice read:
"EVANS. Suddenly, on April 27, 1893, of apoplexy, Thomas R. Evans. Relatives and friends are respectfully invited to attend the funeral, from his late residence, 1812 Fairmount avenue, on Monday afternoon, May 1, at 3 o'clock. Interment at Mount Vernon Cemetery."
He was buried on 1 May 1893 at Mount Vernon Cemetery, lot A312. Mary Jane outlived him by twenty two years and was buried with him. Their stone reads "In memory of Thomas R. Evans, 1830 1893". His grandson, born in 1882, carried his full name.
Children
Sources
If Thomas Reynolds Evans is in your family, start your own tree.
Cite: Heirology, "Thomas Reynolds Evans (1830-1893)", https://heirology.com/ancestors/thomas-reynolds-evans-1830-1893-d4b302.