John
David Evans
(1871-1924)
John David Evans was born in about 1871 in Pittsburgh, Allegheny County, PA, the son of William J. and Eva (McKinney) Evans Sr. He was a railroader who met a painful and tragic death while at work.
As a young man, John's father died. When John was in his late teens, in about 1890, his mother married George H. Minerd, a laborer with the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad.
On Nov. 20, 1901, in Youngstown, Mahoning County, OH, John
married Margaret Elizabeth Casey (1882-1980), a native of Whitehaven, England.
They had 10 children -- Raymond Joseph Evans, Isabelle Eva Gaus, Herbert J.
Evans, Robley Evans, Margaret E. Evans, Alice Mae Evans, Regina Grace Nermyr,
John Patrick Evans and unnamed twins who died as infants. Sadly, son Herbert
died at age 7 months in 1907.
John worked as an locomotive engineer for the B&O, and he was a member of the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers, an early union.
John (closer to front) and an unidentified fireman are seen here, perched on a B&O locomotive, at a date unknown.
Circa 1924, the Evanses resided at 4545 Friendship Avenue in the Bloomfield section of Pittsburgh. His duties involved work in the Allison Park suburb of the city, near what today is Route 8.
On the fateful evening of Jan. 26, 1924, John was caught in a freak accident at work, and was terribly burned. Suffering from second and third degree burns of his left thigh and left hand, he was hospitalized. Tragically, he did not recover, and passed away on Feb. 5, 1924. The Pittsburgh Post reported that:
The
last cold spell was the indirect cause of another death recorded at the
coroner's office last night... John Evans, 51 years old, ... died in the St.
Francis hospital from burns of the body. Evans' overalls ignited at Allison Park
... when a sudden gust of wind blew the flames toward him from a bundle of oily
waste burning on a shovel which he was holding. Evans ... was endeavoring to
thaw a frozen pipe on his engine when the accident occurred.
After a funeral held in the Evans home, a requiem high mass was sung at St. Mary's Church at 46th Street in Pittsburgh. Members of the Locomotive Trainmen union, as well as the B.&O. Veterans Relief Association, were "respectfully invited to attend." John's remains were buried at Calvary Cemetery.
In the days before wire news services, and when families requested it, newspapers often asked certain out-of-town newspapers to reprint obituaries for the benefit of relatives living far away. In the Evans' case, the Pittsburgh Post requested that newspapers in Louisville, KY and Pittsburg, KS publish John's obituary. It's not known who in these distant cities would have known John well enough to receive this courtesy.
Margaret outlived her husband by more than half a century. She died in Pittsburgh at age 98 on June 23, 1980. She was laid to rest at Calvary Cemetery.
For more information on this branch, contact grandson William Gaus.
Copyright © 2003 Mark A. Miner