Photo #26 Charles and Mattie

img045, a photo by midgefrazel on Flickr.

Photo # 26 Charles and Mattie

When I was a little girl, these two photos were encased in a hinged metal box that had a clasp to hold it shut. I have no idea why my mother removed them. But, when she did she discovered that they couldn't be seen until she put white paper on the back. She put them in an envelope after writing Grandmother and Grandfather Evans on the back. She was lucky that it didn't destroy the image, which I think is a tintype.

Mom told me that Grandmother Evans was a step-mother to her grandmother Ada Evans, wife of Charles Stewart and that Grandfather Evans' first wife died.

Charles Turner Evans was a printer or publisher his whole life. He was a Civil War veteran and served for Massachusetts. [Company H, 27th Infantry Regiment Massachusetts] His first wife's first name was Ann Janet (or Angionette/Janette) Chesebrough, a descendant of William Chesebrough. She died of consumption leaving her one year old daughter behind. Ann Janet was part of a different branch of the Cheseborough family from my Stonington family. Her ancestors should be called the New York branch of the tree.

Charles's parents are listed in the Aylesworth genealogy. His mother's line of Aylesworth family were Quakers. The only proof I have other than that compiled genealogy is having them listed on their son's death record. Sylvester/Silvester Evans was born about 1808 in Adams, Massachusetts, son of John but may have lived in New York. Both parents died quite young and before the Civil War. Ada Ann Aylesworth, wife of Sylvester Evans had two more husbands and died at the home of her son in Adrian, Michigan (a known Friends community) Charles was living with them, his uncle, in 1860 before his first marriage. In 1870, I find him living as a boarder in Adams, MA but his baby daughter is not living with him! By 1880, he is married again to Mattie.

Mattie's name was Martha Davis. She is misidentified in the Chesebrough genealogy. Her father was Larson Davis and her mother was Sabrina Haley. Mattie was born in Williamstown in the Berkshires of Massachusetts but her parents were from Pownal, VT. She continued to live in North Adams after her husband died of hepatitis. Her parents names are on her death record as well as the location of her burial.

Wayne Howland, a Find a Grave volunteer located the gravestone and photographed it for me. It is granite, doesn't have the family surname on the reverse side and looks like it was placed there after all their deaths. I suspect my great grandfather, Charles Stewart arranged this. Charles and Mattie didn't have children together.

In my Stewart family Bible is one last piece of information. I call it the unsolved mystery. It is a newspaper article about the surname Evans. I have researched some of it and can make no connection to this Evans family. I think this means that Ada didn't know much about her family. Does this mean that I will never find out?

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