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Note: the Richland County Birth Records, according to the Birth Index for1860-1920.
BIOGRAPHY: Pearl Evans met his bride when he was a young telegraphoperator at Linton, IN. Pearl was somewhat gruff. He always worriedabout the safety of his children and grandchildren. He did not liketo be in crowds, according to his daughter, Bernice Evans Bales.Nevertheless, he set off fireworks in the backyard when his daughterswere growing up and he permitted his daughter, Bernice, to drive hisnew auto to Niagara Falls with her friends. He was something of adrinker, according to his son-in-law, Leslie Bales. During thedepression the Illinois Central sent him to work in Clinton, IL. Helived there alone for about a year beause his wife, Mary, stayed attheir home at 2713 Prairie Ave., Mattoon, IL, because their daughter,Lucille, was dying of leukemia. During her illness Lucille and herhusband, Opal Priest, and Lucille's sister, Bernice, all livedtogether there. Mary and Pearl Evans built porches on two sides ofthe house, the one to the east being quite wide. The house had twobedrooms, a long, narrow bathroom near the kitchen, which was on theeast, and a long living/dining room combination. There was a clotheschute from a closet in the bathroom
down to a table in the basement. Karen Hamby fell down this chute onetime. In the basement was a big round furnace and a wringer washer.Barbara Bales Eggemeyer, a granddaughter, had her arm caught in thiswasher once and her mother just reversed the wringer and ran her armout the other way. Barbara does not remember this as beingparticularly terrible. One time Viola Bales fell all the way down thestairs in this house, but she didn't seem to be hurt by it.
Pearl entered the service of the Illinois Central Railroad on Dec. 5,1906 and was promoted to dispatcher of the Indiana Division atMattoon, IL, on Sept. 10, 1912. In November, 1924, he was working asextra chief dispatcher.
Pearl was a Commander of Knights Templar, the Masonic Temple. He wasalso a Worthy Patron of the Eastern Star. In his retirement he oftenwent to the temple and played cards. He also repaired toys withfiremen one year (to be given away at Christmas). In 1926 he was thecommander of Godfrey de Bouillon commandery of Mattoon, the highestoffice in the commandery and was, therefore, the titular head of theAscension Day parade and festivities in Mattoon that Sunday. Anewspaper clipping quotes a local citizen, "I never saw so manyautomobiles in Mattoon at one time." It continued, "An attempt wasmade by some one [sic] to estimate the number of automobiles but itwas hard to arrive at an accurate figure, because of the ever movingabout of hundreds of machines. A fair estimate, however, was madewhich placed the number at about 3, 500. Wherever one looked therewere cars parked--in alleys, back yards, boulevards and in empty lotsall over the city." The article's headline states, "City Is ThrongedWith Visitors, Attendance Estimated 10,000."
He grew vegetables.
He was named after John Green, a railroad engineer who boarded withhis parents for some 20 years. John Green gave Pearl Evans some landnear Noble, Illinois. According to Mary Bernice Evans, his daughter,Mary and Pearl Evans built her parents a small home on this land andthey lived there a few years, but then her parents moved to Chicago intheir old age. Mary Evans had just gone through the death of herdaughter Lucille and didn't think she could take taking care of herparents or being responsible for them at that time. Pearl Evans latersold the land but kept the mineral rights, which provided him andMary, and, upon their deaths, Bernice Evans Bales with oil royalties.
Pearl worked as a train dispatcher for the Illinois Central Railroad,although in his youth he began working as a telegrapher. BarbaraEggemeyer believes that he worked for the railroad in some capacity inNebraska. She remembers Mary, his wife, telling her that in the earlypart of their marriage they lived above a train station in Nebraskaand the wind was so fierce and the windows so poor that the snow blewin. (It's possible that this work was, instead, in Nevada, Missouri,and that he was working for the Missouri Pacific Railroad. James N.Milton, also from Noble but older, would have been working there,too.)
Pearl became mentally disoriented in his old age and even recognizedthat he was losing his mind. One day he asked Byron Eggemeyer, "Doyou think I'm losing my mind?" Byron and Barbara Eggemeyer did notthink so at the time, but it was true apparently. Pearl at one timebeat Mary on the ears with a cane, which left bruises which remainedfor a long time. Becoming a victim of dementia, he didn't recognizeher and reportedly said, "What are you doing in my house, old lady?"Barbara Eggemeyer thinks she was told that around the same time healso smashed the TV screen with a hammer. Mary Bernice Evans Baleswas advised to put her father in a mental institution, which she did,and he died there of a heart attack within two weeks at the age of 84.The tranquilizers he was given seemed to "jack him up." Mary Baleshad been advised not to accompany him to the institution by a localdoctor but was criticized at the mental institution later for notdoing so.
CENSUS. Richland County, Illinois. 1880. Village of Noble. PearlEvans is an infant in dwelling 215, family 219.
On p. 107/p. 72 of Gleanings From Old Newspapers--Clay & RichlandCounties, copyright by L. B. Taylor in 1975, it says an Olney paperlisted under "Letters in the Post Office," that Pearl Evans had one onFeb. 24, 1890. However, there was another Pearl Evans, a femaleliving in Richland County, and P. G. Evans would have only been tenyears old at that time.
Note: BIRTH. Pearl Green Evans' birth is recorded in Book 1, page 080, of
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