Individual Details

Evoline Greer

(10 Aug 1840 - 19 Mar 1918)

Evoline (Greer) McCarter was born in 1840 in Grayson County, Virginia to Shadrack and Sarah (Baker) Greer. She grew up on the family farm near Grant with her five older and five younger siblings: Noah, John, Martha, Eli, Isaac, Andrew, Nancy, James, Jane, and Shadrack. As a child she learned to read and write and clearly signed her name as Evoline just as it appears on her headstone.

On 3 Feb 1860, at the age of 19, she married Joel O. Hackler, 26, who had a 380 ace farm at Elk Creek. Joel died soon after they were married. The 1863 Grayson County Tax Records show his farm as the Joel Hackler, Est. He doesn&t appear in any Civil War service records, so his death may have been prior to or unrelated to the war. Evoline and Joel had no living children. There are no records showing who inherited Joel&s estate.

On 11 Feb 1866 Evoline married Civil War veteran Levi Hickman McCarter in Grant with J.P. Alexander Young officiating. Levi was also a widower having lost his wife Nancy (Hale) McCarter not long after the birth of their son, William, in 1864. He brought his 18-month-old son to their union.

At the time of their marriage Levi was living with his parents in Helton, North Carolina, so this is probably where the couple lived until Levi inherited 52 acres near Mouth of Wilson after his father&s death in February 1870.

Evoline and Levi were enumerated on Wilson Creek a few months later. They had two children – Martha Sedalia “Mattie” and Shadrack Philander “Shady” named after their two fathers. Also living with them were farm laborer Perry Franklin, 16, and housekeeper Hannah Clark, 17. At the end of 1870 Evoline gave birth to their daughter Sarah Ennis.

(Levi&s son William from his first marriage had died of a fever in late 1868 at the age of four. He and Evoline also lost another son, name and age unknown.)

Two years later the family moved to a farm in the Rye Valley in Smyth County. The 1880 Agricultural Census shows their 250 acre farm valued at $2,000. In 1879 they had produced 150 bu. oats, 100 bu. corn, 70 bu. wheat, 35 bu. apples, 18 bu. potatoes, 13 gal. molasses, 40 lbs.honey, 100 lbs. butter, 40 lbs. fleece, and 130 eggs. They had the usual assortment of farm animals including 5 horses, 5 &milch& cows,2 steers, 12 sheep, 14 swine, and 12 chickens.

By 1880 the last of their six children had been born. They were Thurza Belle, Robert Franklin, and Clayborn Baker. Clayborn was just a baby, but all five of the older children had attended school in the previous year and were able to read and write.

The 1890 census was lost to fire so, aside from death records, there is little documentation of the family over the next 20 years. What is known is that in 1887 they lost their 14-year old daughter Thurza Belle.

In 1894 Levi&s mother, Thurza, came to live with the family after selling her farm in Ashe County, North Carolina. Thurza had been managing her farm for 25 years since the death of her husband Philander. She died at Evoline and Levi&s home four years later at the age of 89.

Then on 13 Mar 1900 Evoline and Levi lost their 31-year-old son Shady two weeks before he was to become a father for the first time. Engraved on the back of his headstone is this verse from a 16th century hymn:

Let me not murmur or repine,
Under these trying strokes of thine,
But while I walk the mournful road,
Be still and know that thou art God.

When the census was taken a month later, Evoline&s grieving household was made up of herself and Levi, sons Robert and Clayborn, daughter-in-law Anna and two-week-old grandson William Shady, recently widowed brother-in-law William McCarter, and their servant Celia Haga who would marry Clayborn the following year.

On 3 Feb 1908 Evoline lost Levi, 71, to &chronic valvular heart disease&suggesting that he&d probably had rheumatic fever when he was young and was unwell in his later years.

In 1910 the McCarter household included Evoline, her son Robert, grandson William Shady, and servant Laura Pierce. Her daughter-in-law Anna had married a widower with five children in 1907, but seven-year-old William Shady remained with his grandma.

Five years later, at the age of 75, Evoline applied for a Confederate Pension based on Levi&s war record. Levi had never claimed a pension and this was the first time she had applied. According to the record she was living with her son Robert and had no real property or real estate. This likely means Levi died intestate and Evoline only had dower&s rights. No records show if she received the pension, but it is unlikely because Levi had not completed his term of service.

On 19 Mar 1918 Evoline died of pneumonia at her home near Sugar Grove and, according to her death certificate, was buried in “the family cemetery on the farm.” She was 77-years-old.

Events

Birth	10 Aug 1840	Grant, Grayson, Virginia
Residence	1850	Grayson County, Virginia
Residence	1860	Grayson County, Virginia
Marriage	3 Feb 1860	Grayson County, Virginia - Joel O. Hackler
Marriage	11 Feb 1866	Grant, Grayson, Virginia - Levi Hickman McCarter
Residence	1870	Mouth of Wilson, Grayson, Virginia
Residence	1880	Saint Clair Bottom, Smyth, Virginia
Residence	1900	Gave birth to seven children, but only four were living. Shady and Bell and third child may have been her stepson William. - Saint Clair Bottom, Smyth, Virginia
Residence	1910	She could read and write. - Saint Clair Bottom, Smyth, Virginia
Residence	24 Aug 1915	Applying for confederate widow pension. She was living with her son Robert. She had no personal property or income and this was the first time she had applied for a pension. Levi had no pension. - Smyth County, Virginia
Burial	1918	Sugar Grove, Smyth, Virginia
Death	19 Mar 1918	She died of pneumonia with heart failure as a contributing factor. - Sugar Grove, Smyth, Virginia
Residence		Mouth of Wilson, Grayson, Virginia

Families

Spouse	Levi Hickman McCarter (1836 - 1908)
Child	Martha "Mattie" Sedalia McCarter (1867 - 1951)
Child	Shadrack Philander McCarter (1868 - 1900)
Child	Sarah Ennis McCarter (1870 - 1939)
Child	Thurza Bell McCarter (1873 - 1887)
Child	Robert Franklin McCarter (1876 - 1929)
Child	Clayborn Baker "Clabe" McCarter (1879 - 1944)
Child	Dollie McCarter (1879 - 1879)

Spouse

Joel O. Hackler (1834 - 1863)

Father	Shadrack Marshall Greer Jr. (1801 - 1876)
Mother	Sarah "Sallie" Baker (1813 - 1875)
Sibling	Noah Greer (1830 - )
Sibling	John Calvin Greer (1830 - 1916)
Sibling	Martha "Patsey" Greer (1833 - 1903)
Sibling	Eli Washington Greear (1835 - 1901)
Sibling	Isaac Mathison Greer (1838 - 1898)
Sibling	Andrew Jackson Greer (1843 - 1920)
Sibling	Nancy Caroline Greear (1845 - 1846)
Sibling	James Monroe Greer (1847 - 1847)
Sibling	Rausa Jane Greer (1848 - 1850)
Sibling	Shadrach Marshall Greer III (1851 - 1922)

Individual Details

Evoline Greer

Events

Families

Endnotes