Peter Christmas Evans

[maidmarion]

Hi Everyone,
I am looking for some (any ) information on Peter Christmas Evans, a teacher. He was born Dec 1/4 1854 Wrexham, Denbighshire to Peter & Rebecca. I have him on the UK census 1861/71.

This is most likely his marriage
West Derby, Lancashire Sep 1/4 1879 Peter Christmas Evans to Louisa Kent.

He is mentioned in a Wrexham local history book as becoming a Mayor 5  3 times in the USA.

Thank you
maidmarion

Modified to correct error.

[shellyesq]

The California Death Index (available for free on www.rootsweb.com) has a Peter Christmas Evans born 25 Dec. 1854 and died 23 Feb. 1947 in Los Angeles.

[maidmarion]

Hi shellyesq,
Thank you very much for the information and link. Looks as though he lived to a grand old age.

maidmarion

[jorose]

Direct link to the CA death index:
http://vitals.rootsweb.ancestry.com/ca/death/search.cgi

http://pilot.familysearch.org/recordsearch/start.html
 - seems to show in the 1920 census a Peter C. Evans b. 1854 Wales, living in California with wife Louisa, and in 1900 in Syracuse, NY a Peter C. Evans b. Dec 1885 "England", emigrated 1880, b. England parents b. Wales.

The 1900 image is on that site - he is a grocer at that time.
There's a picture of him  here on page 220:
http://www.archive.org/details/notablemenofcent00stod

Also on the familysearch site there's a death listed in Arizona for his son Edwin H. Evans.  Edwin appears to be in the 1920 census in Arizona with wife Alice and three kids - http://genealogy.az.gov/ is another site for Arizona genealogy.
His wife, Alice Marshall Evans, died in 1936.
Two births on the az.gov site - Harriet Jessie Evans in 1916, Alice Elizabeth in 1928 (both Pima), and a death for one of their children - Harriet in 1955.
There is some family tragedy here - Alice Marshall died from a self-inflected gunshot wound in 1936, and on Harriet's death certificate it suggests that she died partially due to having been injured in the same incident in 1936, although she did go on to marry and lived for a further 19 years. Their son, Marshall Kent Evans, appears to have died in California.

[maidmarion]

Hi jorose

Sorry if I was slow to say thankyou but I have been going through the wealth of information you have supplied.

The link to the "noblemen"  book containing a photo of Peter is wonderful and I cannot thank you enough.

Although he is only a small twig on my tree, he has ventured further than anyone else and research within the USA is therefore new territory

Kind regards,
maidmarion

[maidmarion]

Hi 
I would love to prove if he did indeed became a Mayor. Can anyone suggest where I may need to look for further info please?

Thank you

[shellyesq]

I found a bunch of articles in Syracuse newspapers from the late 1890's that refer to an Alderman Evans, one of which specifies that his first name is Peter.  One of the articles says that another alderman suggested Alderman Evans sell his account to his partner Mr. Mann, so that seems to match up with the information under the picture that jorose found. 

So maybe alderman got misconstrued as mayor?

[merjones]

It looks as though Peter Evans lived in Syracuse, New York for quite some time.  Here is a list of the mayors of that city.

Mayors of Syracuse New York

Irving G. Vann 1879-1880
William Burns Kirk III 1890
Jacob Amos 1892-1896
Edward Schoeneck (R) 1910-1913
Walter R. Stone (R) 1916
Harry H. Farmer   1921
Charles Hanna (R) 1926-1929

[shellyesq]

In the Boyd's Duplex Directory of Syracuse, New York from 1899-1900, there is a picture of the aldermen of Syracuse.  One of the pictures is of Peter C. Evans of the 18th Ward & he looks to be the same guy from the other picture.  There's also a listing in there that says:  Evans, Peter C., Alderman Eighteenth Ward, also John H. Mann & Co. fine groceries, 107 S. Warren, tel 601, and 351 S. Salina, h 118 W. Castle.