Thursday, August 21, 2008

Joseph Evered

Joseph Evered was born 1843 in Monroe, Orange County, New York.

Sometime probably in the late 1850s Joseph left New York and moved west, eventually settling in western Michigan. By 1860 he was employed as a jeweler’s apprentice to Heinz Brinsmaid in Grand Rapids’ Fifth Ward.

Joseph stood 5’5” with gray eyes, brown hair and a light complexion, and was 18 years old and residing in Grand Rapids when he enlisted with the consent of the Justice of the Peace in Company A on May 13, 1861. George Miller, also of Company A and a tentmate in the winter of 1861-62, described Evered as “a pretty good fellow but being stubborn in his opinion.” He was a witness for the prosecution in the court martial of Henry Parker who was absent without leave from the regiment during the battle of Chancellorsville.

According to Captain Dan Root, then commanding Company A, during the battle of Chancellorsville, Virginia, on May 3, 1863, Joseph was a Sergeant in Company A. Root credited Joseph with capturing three rebels single-handedly.

Joseph was present on duty with the company on July 3, 1863, when the Regiment participated in the last day battle of Gettysburg. Dan Crotty of Company F wrote some years after the war that Evered, along with two other members of the Third infantry, carried confederate General Kemper off the field immediately after the failure of Pickett’s assault on cemetery ridge on the last day of the battle of Gettysburg.

Joseph reenlisted on December 24, 1863 at Brandy Station, Virginia, crediting Grand Rapids, was presumably absent on veteran’s furlough, probably in Michigan, in January of 1864 and probably returned to the Regiment on or about the first of February when he was reported absent sick. By April he was in the hospital and he was probably still absent sick when he was transferred to Company A, Fifth Michigan infantry as a Sergeant upon consolidation of the Third and Fifth Michigan Regiments on June 10, 1864. He remained absent sick until October when he was transferred as a First Sergeant to the One hundredth company, Second Battalion, Veterans’ Reserve Corps at Alexandria, Virginia. He was discharged on August 4, 1865 at Alexandria.

Following his discharge from the army Joseph returned to Grand Rapids and by 1868-69 had gone into partnership with his former employer, forming “Brinsmaid & Evered”, watch-makers and jewelers, located at 29 Monroe Street, and boarding at the Rathbun House. In 1870 He was still boarding at the Rathbun House in Grand Rapids’ First Ward, and was apparently still living and working as a jeweler in Grand Rapids in 1872, although the Democrat of March 2, 1876, reported that Evered “has left the city for the sunny south.” Whether permanently or on vacation is unclear.

He was married to New York native Alma S (b. 1851) and they had at least two children: Susan (b. 1872) and Charles K. (b 1876.). (This was most likely Alma Brinsmaid, daughter of retired jeweler Henry Brinsmaid. She was living with her family in Grand Rapids’ Third Ward in 1870.)

Joseph was living in Michigan in 1872 and 1876, but by 1880 Joseph was working as a watchmaker and living with his wife and two children in Camden, Camden County, New Jersey.

Around 1892 he was married his second wife, Pennsylvania native Annie R. and they had at least three children: one unknown, Carl R. (b. 1894), and Frederick (b. 1901).

From 1887 until at least 1891 Joseph was working as a showcase-maker at 1711 Broadway in Camden, New Jersey.

By 1910 Joseph was working as a paper carrier (he listed his place of birth and that of his parents as New Jersey) and living with his second wife and two sons in Camden’s Eighth Ward, New Jersey.

He was a member of the Old Third Michigan Infantry Association and was still living in New Jersey in 1906 when he applied for and received a pension (no. 1120068).

Joseph died on March 12, 1911, in Camden, New Jersey, and was buried in Evergreen cemetery, Camden, New Jersey.

His widow Annie applied for and received a pension (no. 832501). Subsequently a pension was filed on behalf of at least one minor child and granted (no. 727205).

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