Edgar Hanks Evans was born Edmund "Eddie" Hanks to Jesse Turner Hanks, a gold mine superintendent, and Mary Jane Olmsted or Olmstead, a suffragist, and later a famous speaker and author on phrenology.
Mary Jane Olmsted had been married previously to Charles Starr King, by whom she had three children. After his death, she married Jesse Turner Hanks and had Edmund Hanks. At the age of four, he was placed in a children's homeinn Connecticut Later his older siblings were reunited with their mother, but he was sent to Indianapolis and placed with a prominent Indiana family who had lost a child.
This was done by indenture. George Thomas Evans and Mary Jane Robertson renamed him and raised him as their own.
After George died in an accident, Mary Jane (Robertson) Evans officially adopted Edgar when he was in his forties. The newspaper reported that people didn't generally know he was adopted.
Shortly before the great stock market crash, Edgar received some money set aside for him after his father passed away. He then reconnected with his three siblings and even presented then with money. He hired two well-known genealogists, Donald Lines Jacobus and Susan Cotton Tufts who traced his family tree. The story about his indenture/adoption is in the book.
Edgar's wife was Ella Laura Malott, and they had three daughters, Eleanor, wife of Irwin Stout, Mary, wife of Samuel R. Harrell and later of Harold Ochsner, and Caroline, who died young.
---
This is a transcription of a letter in the possession of Mary Harrell-Sesniak regarding Eddie Hanks . Meneely Hanks of Mansfield, Connecticut wrote to his mother Mary Olmstead Hanks about his concern for the grandmother taking care of him.
The note on the envelope states:
Letter from Meneely Hanks
to M O Hanks
Mansfield June 23rd 1873
Mary
I write at Mothers request - To know if you are going to send for Eddie soon. You very well know that Mother is not able to look after such a boy -- The town authority will see that he is cared for + he will be bound out to some one soon. You may think you have done a smart thing, playing such a game with mother leaving as you did. it is not looked at in that light-here and you will not make much out of the operation
in haste--
M H Hanks
A note on the back states:
This letter was by Meneely Hanks the eldest brother of my husband in relation to my having left Eddy a short time in his grandmothers home.
You can see by this how cruelly the family treaded us beside cheating us out of our inheritance.
In the same envelope was a clipping from an unidentified newspaper. It states:
In another letter I may give you further particulars of this family. The liberal people of this place are on the watch, and if such a thing as putting the child away before his mother sends for him is attempted, there will be the biggest tempest in the Methodist teapot that has ever been known in this place anyhow. For the credit of Willimantic, it is to be hoped that these people will do justice by their relatives without their being forced to. There is a good deal of feeling about it among the best people here, who have been informed of the circumstances. It is bad enough, they think, to see such dishonesty and inhumanity among sinners, let along red-hot Christians like our neighbours.
JUSTICE.
----
This letter on typed letterhead is also in the possession of Mary Harrell-Sesniak as of March 2022:
GRAY & HAVEN.
Law Office.
No. 530 CALIFORNIA STREET
P.O. Box 2184. Telephone 1746.
JAMES M. HAVEN}
GILES R. GRAY}
San Francisco, Cal. 22 May 1889
Mr George T. Evans,
Dear Sir:
Your letter to Mr Wm Letts Oliver, of date 21 Jany 1889 is in our hands for a reply.
If Edgar H. Evans is the son of Jesse Hanks, deceased, who was in California at the time of the death of Jesse Hanks, then Mr Oliver has in his hands a sum of money which he will pay for his use and benefit
The sum was, originally One thousand dollars, but it has been, and is now in a Savings Bank drawing interest, so that the accumulated interest is now nearly equal to the original principal.
Before Mr Oliver will part with this money, he must be satisfied of the identity of the boy. You are the third applicant; Mrs Hanks, the Mother, has made every effort to obtain the money, the American Female Guardian Society has also claimed the money.
It is Mr Oliver's suggestion that the interest should be paid to the Guardian Society, and the principal sum should be paid to the boy when of legal age and properly identified. How the identification shall be made is the problem submitted to us as the Attorneys for Mr. Oliver. We would suggest that a friendly suit commenced against Mr Oliver, for the money, and the depositions of his mother, and of some person connected with the Society, and of yourself or wife be taken, and then on that testimony a judgment be rendered against Mr Oliver, directing him how to pay the money. In such a suit the Guardian of the boy must be a plaintiff, or else we must wait until the boy is of age when he can be the plaintiff himself.
Mr Oliver has no disposition to retain the money, and is anxious to dispose of it, but he insists upon knowing that Jesse Hanks' son will receive the benefit of it. If you are the legal guardian we must see certified copies of your Letters of Guardianship. If you and the boy are willing to co-operate with us in the friendly suit you will write to us to that effect and we will give you further instructions as to the mode of procedure.
The expense of our services must be deducted from the money.
Perhaps you would be willing that that boy should write Mr Oliver a letter telling whatever he can remember of his early life, his father, his residence in California, if he remembers anything.
Respectfully,
Gray & Haven [handwritten]
Grey & Haven
580 CALIFORNIA ST, S.F.
Mary Jane Olmsted had been married previously to Charles Starr King, by whom she had three children. After his death, she married Jesse Turner Hanks and had Edmund Hanks. At the age of four, he was placed in a children's homeinn Connecticut Later his older siblings were reunited with their mother, but he was sent to Indianapolis and placed with a prominent Indiana family who had lost a child.
This was done by indenture. George Thomas Evans and Mary Jane Robertson renamed him and raised him as their own.
After George died in an accident, Mary Jane (Robertson) Evans officially adopted Edgar when he was in his forties. The newspaper reported that people didn't generally know he was adopted.
Shortly before the great stock market crash, Edgar received some money set aside for him after his father passed away. He then reconnected with his three siblings and even presented then with money. He hired two well-known genealogists, Donald Lines Jacobus and Susan Cotton Tufts who traced his family tree. The story about his indenture/adoption is in the book.
Edgar's wife was Ella Laura Malott, and they had three daughters, Eleanor, wife of Irwin Stout, Mary, wife of Samuel R. Harrell and later of Harold Ochsner, and Caroline, who died young.
---
This is a transcription of a letter in the possession of Mary Harrell-Sesniak regarding Eddie Hanks . Meneely Hanks of Mansfield, Connecticut wrote to his mother Mary Olmstead Hanks about his concern for the grandmother taking care of him.
The note on the envelope states:
Letter from Meneely Hanks
to M O Hanks
Mansfield June 23rd 1873
Mary
I write at Mothers request - To know if you are going to send for Eddie soon. You very well know that Mother is not able to look after such a boy -- The town authority will see that he is cared for + he will be bound out to some one soon. You may think you have done a smart thing, playing such a game with mother leaving as you did. it is not looked at in that light-here and you will not make much out of the operation
in haste--
M H Hanks
A note on the back states:
This letter was by Meneely Hanks the eldest brother of my husband in relation to my having left Eddy a short time in his grandmothers home.
You can see by this how cruelly the family treaded us beside cheating us out of our inheritance.
In the same envelope was a clipping from an unidentified newspaper. It states:
In another letter I may give you further particulars of this family. The liberal people of this place are on the watch, and if such a thing as putting the child away before his mother sends for him is attempted, there will be the biggest tempest in the Methodist teapot that has ever been known in this place anyhow. For the credit of Willimantic, it is to be hoped that these people will do justice by their relatives without their being forced to. There is a good deal of feeling about it among the best people here, who have been informed of the circumstances. It is bad enough, they think, to see such dishonesty and inhumanity among sinners, let along red-hot Christians like our neighbours.
JUSTICE.
----
This letter on typed letterhead is also in the possession of Mary Harrell-Sesniak as of March 2022:
GRAY & HAVEN.
Law Office.
No. 530 CALIFORNIA STREET
P.O. Box 2184. Telephone 1746.
JAMES M. HAVEN}
GILES R. GRAY}
San Francisco, Cal. 22 May 1889
Mr George T. Evans,
Dear Sir:
Your letter to Mr Wm Letts Oliver, of date 21 Jany 1889 is in our hands for a reply.
If Edgar H. Evans is the son of Jesse Hanks, deceased, who was in California at the time of the death of Jesse Hanks, then Mr Oliver has in his hands a sum of money which he will pay for his use and benefit
The sum was, originally One thousand dollars, but it has been, and is now in a Savings Bank drawing interest, so that the accumulated interest is now nearly equal to the original principal.
Before Mr Oliver will part with this money, he must be satisfied of the identity of the boy. You are the third applicant; Mrs Hanks, the Mother, has made every effort to obtain the money, the American Female Guardian Society has also claimed the money.
It is Mr Oliver's suggestion that the interest should be paid to the Guardian Society, and the principal sum should be paid to the boy when of legal age and properly identified. How the identification shall be made is the problem submitted to us as the Attorneys for Mr. Oliver. We would suggest that a friendly suit commenced against Mr Oliver, for the money, and the depositions of his mother, and of some person connected with the Society, and of yourself or wife be taken, and then on that testimony a judgment be rendered against Mr Oliver, directing him how to pay the money. In such a suit the Guardian of the boy must be a plaintiff, or else we must wait until the boy is of age when he can be the plaintiff himself.
Mr Oliver has no disposition to retain the money, and is anxious to dispose of it, but he insists upon knowing that Jesse Hanks' son will receive the benefit of it. If you are the legal guardian we must see certified copies of your Letters of Guardianship. If you and the boy are willing to co-operate with us in the friendly suit you will write to us to that effect and we will give you further instructions as to the mode of procedure.
The expense of our services must be deducted from the money.
Perhaps you would be willing that that boy should write Mr Oliver a letter telling whatever he can remember of his early life, his father, his residence in California, if he remembers anything.
Respectfully,
Gray & Haven [handwritten]
Grey & Haven
580 CALIFORNIA ST, S.F.
Edgar Hanks Evans was born Edmund "Eddie" Hanks to Jesse Turner Hanks, a gold mine superintendent, and Mary Jane Olmsted or Olmstead, a suffragist, and later a famous speaker and author on phrenology.
Mary Jane Olmsted had been married previously to Charles Starr King, by whom she had three children. After his death, she married Jesse Turner Hanks and had Edmund Hanks. At the age of four, he was placed in a children's homeinn Connecticut Later his older siblings were reunited with their mother, but he was sent to Indianapolis and placed with a prominent Indiana family who had lost a child.
This was done by indenture. George Thomas Evans and Mary Jane Robertson renamed him and raised him as their own.
After George died in an accident, Mary Jane (Robertson) Evans officially adopted Edgar when he was in his forties. The newspaper reported that people didn't generally know he was adopted.
Shortly before the great stock market crash, Edgar received some money set aside for him after his father passed away. He then reconnected with his three siblings and even presented then with money. He hired two well-known genealogists, Donald Lines Jacobus and Susan Cotton Tufts who traced his family tree. The story about his indenture/adoption is in the book.
Edgar's wife was Ella Laura Malott, and they had three daughters, Eleanor, wife of Irwin Stout, Mary, wife of Samuel R. Harrell and later of Harold Ochsner, and Caroline, who died young.
---
This is a transcription of a letter in the possession of Mary Harrell-Sesniak regarding Eddie Hanks . Meneely Hanks of Mansfield, Connecticut wrote to his mother Mary Olmstead Hanks about his concern for the grandmother taking care of him.
The note on the envelope states:
Letter from Meneely Hanks
to M O Hanks
Mansfield June 23rd 1873
Mary
I write at Mothers request - To know if you are going to send for Eddie soon. You very well know that Mother is not able to look after such a boy -- The town authority will see that he is cared for + he will be bound out to some one soon. You may think you have done a smart thing, playing such a game with mother leaving as you did. it is not looked at in that light-here and you will not make much out of the operation
in haste--
M H Hanks
A note on the back states:
This letter was by Meneely Hanks the eldest brother of my husband in relation to my having left Eddy a short time in his grandmothers home.
You can see by this how cruelly the family treaded us beside cheating us out of our inheritance.
In the same envelope was a clipping from an unidentified newspaper. It states:
In another letter I may give you further particulars of this family. The liberal people of this place are on the watch, and if such a thing as putting the child away before his mother sends for him is attempted, there will be the biggest tempest in the Methodist teapot that has ever been known in this place anyhow. For the credit of Willimantic, it is to be hoped that these people will do justice by their relatives without their being forced to. There is a good deal of feeling about it among the best people here, who have been informed of the circumstances. It is bad enough, they think, to see such dishonesty and inhumanity among sinners, let along red-hot Christians like our neighbours.
JUSTICE.
----
This letter on typed letterhead is also in the possession of Mary Harrell-Sesniak as of March 2022:
GRAY & HAVEN.
Law Office.
No. 530 CALIFORNIA STREET
P.O. Box 2184. Telephone 1746.
JAMES M. HAVEN}
GILES R. GRAY}
San Francisco, Cal. 22 May 1889
Mr George T. Evans,
Dear Sir:
Your letter to Mr Wm Letts Oliver, of date 21 Jany 1889 is in our hands for a reply.
If Edgar H. Evans is the son of Jesse Hanks, deceased, who was in California at the time of the death of Jesse Hanks, then Mr Oliver has in his hands a sum of money which he will pay for his use and benefit
The sum was, originally One thousand dollars, but it has been, and is now in a Savings Bank drawing interest, so that the accumulated interest is now nearly equal to the original principal.
Before Mr Oliver will part with this money, he must be satisfied of the identity of the boy. You are the third applicant; Mrs Hanks, the Mother, has made every effort to obtain the money, the American Female Guardian Society has also claimed the money.
It is Mr Oliver's suggestion that the interest should be paid to the Guardian Society, and the principal sum should be paid to the boy when of legal age and properly identified. How the identification shall be made is the problem submitted to us as the Attorneys for Mr. Oliver. We would suggest that a friendly suit commenced against Mr Oliver, for the money, and the depositions of his mother, and of some person connected with the Society, and of yourself or wife be taken, and then on that testimony a judgment be rendered against Mr Oliver, directing him how to pay the money. In such a suit the Guardian of the boy must be a plaintiff, or else we must wait until the boy is of age when he can be the plaintiff himself.
Mr Oliver has no disposition to retain the money, and is anxious to dispose of it, but he insists upon knowing that Jesse Hanks' son will receive the benefit of it. If you are the legal guardian we must see certified copies of your Letters of Guardianship. If you and the boy are willing to co-operate with us in the friendly suit you will write to us to that effect and we will give you further instructions as to the mode of procedure.
The expense of our services must be deducted from the money.
Perhaps you would be willing that that boy should write Mr Oliver a letter telling whatever he can remember of his early life, his father, his residence in California, if he remembers anything.
Respectfully,
Gray & Haven [handwritten]
Grey & Haven
580 CALIFORNIA ST, S.F.
Mary Jane Olmsted had been married previously to Charles Starr King, by whom she had three children. After his death, she married Jesse Turner Hanks and had Edmund Hanks. At the age of four, he was placed in a children's homeinn Connecticut Later his older siblings were reunited with their mother, but he was sent to Indianapolis and placed with a prominent Indiana family who had lost a child.
This was done by indenture. George Thomas Evans and Mary Jane Robertson renamed him and raised him as their own.
After George died in an accident, Mary Jane (Robertson) Evans officially adopted Edgar when he was in his forties. The newspaper reported that people didn't generally know he was adopted.
Shortly before the great stock market crash, Edgar received some money set aside for him after his father passed away. He then reconnected with his three siblings and even presented then with money. He hired two well-known genealogists, Donald Lines Jacobus and Susan Cotton Tufts who traced his family tree. The story about his indenture/adoption is in the book.
Edgar's wife was Ella Laura Malott, and they had three daughters, Eleanor, wife of Irwin Stout, Mary, wife of Samuel R. Harrell and later of Harold Ochsner, and Caroline, who died young.
---
This is a transcription of a letter in the possession of Mary Harrell-Sesniak regarding Eddie Hanks . Meneely Hanks of Mansfield, Connecticut wrote to his mother Mary Olmstead Hanks about his concern for the grandmother taking care of him.
The note on the envelope states:
Letter from Meneely Hanks
to M O Hanks
Mansfield June 23rd 1873
Mary
I write at Mothers request - To know if you are going to send for Eddie soon. You very well know that Mother is not able to look after such a boy -- The town authority will see that he is cared for + he will be bound out to some one soon. You may think you have done a smart thing, playing such a game with mother leaving as you did. it is not looked at in that light-here and you will not make much out of the operation
in haste--
M H Hanks
A note on the back states:
This letter was by Meneely Hanks the eldest brother of my husband in relation to my having left Eddy a short time in his grandmothers home.
You can see by this how cruelly the family treaded us beside cheating us out of our inheritance.
In the same envelope was a clipping from an unidentified newspaper. It states:
In another letter I may give you further particulars of this family. The liberal people of this place are on the watch, and if such a thing as putting the child away before his mother sends for him is attempted, there will be the biggest tempest in the Methodist teapot that has ever been known in this place anyhow. For the credit of Willimantic, it is to be hoped that these people will do justice by their relatives without their being forced to. There is a good deal of feeling about it among the best people here, who have been informed of the circumstances. It is bad enough, they think, to see such dishonesty and inhumanity among sinners, let along red-hot Christians like our neighbours.
JUSTICE.
----
This letter on typed letterhead is also in the possession of Mary Harrell-Sesniak as of March 2022:
GRAY & HAVEN.
Law Office.
No. 530 CALIFORNIA STREET
P.O. Box 2184. Telephone 1746.
JAMES M. HAVEN}
GILES R. GRAY}
San Francisco, Cal. 22 May 1889
Mr George T. Evans,
Dear Sir:
Your letter to Mr Wm Letts Oliver, of date 21 Jany 1889 is in our hands for a reply.
If Edgar H. Evans is the son of Jesse Hanks, deceased, who was in California at the time of the death of Jesse Hanks, then Mr Oliver has in his hands a sum of money which he will pay for his use and benefit
The sum was, originally One thousand dollars, but it has been, and is now in a Savings Bank drawing interest, so that the accumulated interest is now nearly equal to the original principal.
Before Mr Oliver will part with this money, he must be satisfied of the identity of the boy. You are the third applicant; Mrs Hanks, the Mother, has made every effort to obtain the money, the American Female Guardian Society has also claimed the money.
It is Mr Oliver's suggestion that the interest should be paid to the Guardian Society, and the principal sum should be paid to the boy when of legal age and properly identified. How the identification shall be made is the problem submitted to us as the Attorneys for Mr. Oliver. We would suggest that a friendly suit commenced against Mr Oliver, for the money, and the depositions of his mother, and of some person connected with the Society, and of yourself or wife be taken, and then on that testimony a judgment be rendered against Mr Oliver, directing him how to pay the money. In such a suit the Guardian of the boy must be a plaintiff, or else we must wait until the boy is of age when he can be the plaintiff himself.
Mr Oliver has no disposition to retain the money, and is anxious to dispose of it, but he insists upon knowing that Jesse Hanks' son will receive the benefit of it. If you are the legal guardian we must see certified copies of your Letters of Guardianship. If you and the boy are willing to co-operate with us in the friendly suit you will write to us to that effect and we will give you further instructions as to the mode of procedure.
The expense of our services must be deducted from the money.
Perhaps you would be willing that that boy should write Mr Oliver a letter telling whatever he can remember of his early life, his father, his residence in California, if he remembers anything.
Respectfully,
Gray & Haven [handwritten]
Grey & Haven
580 CALIFORNIA ST, S.F.
Inscription
EDGAR H. EVANS 1870-1954
