Mariah Evans

[ Photo of Mariah, about 1930 ] Mariah Evans was born in Piqua, Ohio in 1861. (At this point we think her name was Evans, but it could have been Jones, which would be at least a coincidence since she married a Jones.)

Mariah ("Maria") first married Harry A. Jones, by whom she had at least one child, Harry Ellsworth Jones. (Harry married Charlotte, by whom he had two daughters, Dorothy and Alice.) Mariah and her husband, Harry A., divorced and he left her raising young Harry, who was born in 1883 in Lima, OH.

She married Sylvester Walker Barnhart, a recent widower later that same year, in October of 1888. Sylvester had only been widowed in June, so the timing was highly improper, and a preacher's son marrying a divorcee was doubly taboo. For whatever reasons,they decided to move west and homestead near Egypt, WA, north of Davenport. As near as we can tell, they were married and left almost immediately, probably on the train. (Sylvester was the youngest in his family and we presume that family pressures made life miserable for the couple. Life had not treated Sylvester kindly, as he had recently lost his wife and both children to illnesses; and Mariah was probably shunned, being a divorcee.)

Mariah had several more children by Sylvester, starting with Jay in 1889, and about every two years until about 1905. One died in infancy. Jay drowned in the Spokane River in 1908. On this occasion, Sylvester and Mariah were presented with a large "family" Bible, now in the possession of grandson Richard. (There is no family data in the Bible, since the youngest child, Lloyd, had already been born at the time.) Harry left home and went "back East", probably to Pennsylvania, where he got a job in industry. At some point, Harry came back to Washington State, married and settled down in Marysville, about 40 miles north of Seattle near Puget Sound.

Sylvester had to work off the "farm" to support the family. He was killed in a gruesome railroad accident in 1911. The railroad paid for the funeral and apparently bought the family some clothing and other necessities. However, this was not sufficient to keep the family fed, so the children pitched in. Two of the daughters worked as cooks for threshing crews. Dee, the eldest son at home, did odd jobs until 1913 when he got a job on the Northern Pacific Railroad at $45.00 a month. This job undoubtedly saved them from starving, as they had sold the farm and moved to Davenport, and the money from the sale would not last forever.

Dee went to the Puget Sound area in 1916, apparently still working for the railroad and sending money to Mariah. Dee lived with Harry and his family until Mariah brought the rest of the family to Marysville, WA, in 1917. There is a postcard from her saying that they had arrived, postmarked 1917. The picture shows the large tree stump on Highway 99 outside Marysville. (A tunnel had been cut in the stump, and according to the old-timers, one lane of the highway passed through the stump.)

Harry was killed in a very gruesome industrial accident that same year. After losing Jay by drowning and Sylvester in an equally gruesome accident, it must have been wrenching when Harry, working as a bridge tender in Marysville, WA, was crushed in the machinery. He apparently was electrocuted and fell into the mechanism of the drawbridge. He left a wife and two daughters. Mariah could help very little, of course, since she was a poor widow.

Mariah's eldest daughter, Aurelia ("Rilla") married Oscar Schmitt and had two children, Blanche and Howard. Rilla died in the 'flu epidemic in 1918, at which time Blanche moved in with Mariah; just as there were fewer mouths to feed, the grandchildren became dependent. Dee was still working to support Mariah and whoever else was living at the house. When Oscar remarried, his new wife, Alta, did not get along with Howard, so Howard ran away. One day he showed up on Grandma Mariah's doorstep, both to see a friendly face and to be with his sister Blanche, one more child to raise.

Mariah apparently had a stroke sometime in the 1920s. She was unable to walk, so Dee took the rockers off her rocking chair (the one in the picture) and put some sort of wheels on it and she scooted around to do the cooking. She would stand up at the stove; the family was always afraid she would fall onto the hot stove, but she never did. She had varicose veins so bad that her legs would actually bleed. She took strychnine for her heart condition in doses large enough to kill the average person. In spite of all these problems, she always cooked meals high in fat, using cream, eggs and sugar extensively.

Mariah had religious faith of some sort. A lady from the church would come by every week and give Mariah a bulletin, which she read thoroughly. There were probably two major reasons she did not attend church, the major one being that she had been shunned by "proper" church members after her divorce and remarriage, and a lesser, but good, reason is that she had difficulty in walking.

Mariah had a severe stroke in 1934 and lived only about a week afterward. The grandchildren who were old enough to know her remember her fondly. She always tried to have something good for them. Her custard pie was a favorite; her saying was, "It's just got good milk and eggs!"