The Shells of Pigeon Creek Genealogy Web Site
The ancestors, descendants, and cousins of the Shells of Pigeon Creek, Alabama.
Notes for Ezekiel Evans
In writing this narrative I think it proper to commence with a small history of my grandfather and
what was his reason for leaving Ireland together with his troubles, and trials both before the
revolution and what happened to his family and him during the revolution. My grandfather's name as
Ezekiel Evans. He was a person very tall being over six feet high, of a large square frame, not
encumbered with flesh, red haired, in his younger days few men were found to be his equal in
strength. His weight ranged from 200-240 pounds. He was a descendant of one of two or four
brothers who fled from Wales on The United Cause, the Cause being in that day called "United", It
was a conspiracy against the principles of Popery and Monarchy. Being he who bore high
commissions and noted for republican principles and popularity, they were prescribed by England as
being of the number who could not be pardoned. They had no recourse but to submit to certain
death or leave their country. They choose the latter and escaped to Ireland when Ireland was an
independent nation, and settled in either County Entiarn or County Tyrone. I do not remember
which. They there started all the race of people I have ever met who spell their name Evans. We
are therefore Welsh-Irish, and you take for granted when you find a man who spells his name Evans
you have found a relative or one who has sprung from the same stock of people.
And now to give you briefly an account of my grandfather. He was the youngest child of twelve
children, nine daughters, and three sons, and at the age of eighteen years he commenced his career
on the stage of action by volunteering for the freedom of his country in what is well known as the
"Turn Out of the Hearts of Oak". Whether he was in any action or not I do not know. It is certain
they had to surrender, he with a large amount of the Whigs or Rebels as they were termed were put
in prison and a number every day taken out and executed until it pleased The King to bestow a
pardon on all under a certain age. My Grandfather came under that denomination and so escaped.
I know nothing more of his history until the trouble consequent or occasioned by the British
Governments's oppression of her N.A. colonies. Then parties ran high in Ireland and Grandfather,
being of a family who stood high in the Whig ranks and having once himself taken up arms against
the king, was strangely suspected and watched. The least movement or word of his would have
been construed into treason; and then to use his own words, "I had to use every precaution and sell
all my land and property privately and take passage on board The Old Volunteer, a very old and
unworthy ship". This was the last trip he ever made. His family consisted of eight children, four of
which he buried in the sea and four he brought with him and landed at Charleston, South Carolina.
Two of his children were boys and two were girls. My father was then thirteen years of age and the
oldest of the boys. My father's name was James Evans. The other son, my uncle, was named
Samuel Evans. He died at the age of twenty-five years, a bachelor. I was at that time three months
old. The two daughters names were Sally (or Sarah) and Polly. Sarah married a man by the name
of Abraham Howard. They both are dead and their children are living in Tennessee. Polly married
Nathaniel Thacker, they are both dead and their children now live in Tennessee. By this time you
see you have no near relatives by your name as my father is all who propagated the name from his
father. And now I will return to the history of my grandfather and continue it until his death. As I
said he landed at Charleston with nothing but his own means to depend on as he was not permitted
to claim the bounty of land which was then given to all who apply and came under certain order as
he came under the order of those who had rebelled or taken up arms. His proud spirit would never
have condescended to take the oath of allegieance to The King. Consequently you can view him at
Charleston with four children living (four he had buried at sea) in a strange land, and that land from
shore to shore with dark and portentous clouds hanging over it. He made his way for the country
and settled in Abbeville district in the latter part of the year seventy-four. He purchased land two
miles north of where Abbeville Courthouse now stands and lived there until his death.
In two years, after the war commenced, a company of Tories came to his house and surrounded him
and my father to meet at a certain Tory camp or rendezvous in order to be enrolled in a band to fight
for their king on the pain of death. They at the same time drove off all the stock he had as they said
for the use of the King's troops or properly speaking for their own use. (At the time he had eight
head of horses. In those days there were thousands of wild horses and it is reasonable to suppose
they had cost him nothing but a mere trifle if he bought from the Indians, or perhaps he had only
tamed them). He was not long in making up his mind. On the Savannah River in the southwest
corner of Abbeville District there was a fort erected by the Whigs. To this place he fled with his wife
and three children. My father was then fifteen years old and well grown. He begged his father to let
him enroll with General Pickens to which he consented. Now we will leave him until we get through
with the old man. When Grandfather arrived at the fort he had to enlist for one year. He got one
dollar bounty and protection for his family. At the end of that year he returned home and was not
disturbed by the Tories any more as I ever heard of; about that time the Whigs erected a fort where
Abbeville courthouse now stands and it was the headquarters of General Pickens during the war.
The strong guard kept there was the reason for his security. After the war he still lived on his land
as above stated until his death which happened in the year 1807, honored and respected.
Samuel Robinson Evans. Evans History. (Evans of Mississippi)
http://members.aol.com/levans3352/public/srevans.html (September, 1999)
Bolivar County, died and buried in Memphis, TN. They married in 1917.
LaVerne Wray, born in Bolivar Co., MS, died in Fort Smith AR, buried in
Alexandria, LA, December 27 1923- September 22, 1987.
not listed on the transcription. I have seen his grave. He lived from 1920-1977.
husband of Margaret Shell Walker. He moved away from Houston after her
death and is buried in South Mississippi.
Walker
eargin Cemetary, Mauldin, SC.
ried at Yeargin Cem., Mauldin, SC.870 in Greenville County, S.C.870 in Greenville County, S.C., S.C..
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