Fortune: Ira Lee Evans

 52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks: Week 10 (March 15-21)

Prompt: Fortune
#52ancestors

The American Heritage Dictionary has one definition of fortune as the turns of luck in the course of one's life. As I research our families, it is not uncommon to see that turn of luck.

Ira Lee Evans had a turn of luck during the great depression.  Before the great depression, he was a successful logging camp owner with several camps, mule teams and trucks which hauled logs to the sawmill near Sumner, Mississippi.  Below is a picture of some of the mule teams with a driver named "Cushfoot".  That was a nickname, but he was remembered with fondness by Ira's son, John.  John remembered him as being kind to him as a young boy who was probably in the way most of the time. 

By the time the depression was over, Ira had to sell the logging camps but there was little money left after paying his employees and bills. He moved his family to Holmes County where he worked as a logger again.  A turn of luck again and he was able to buy some land with a house and a store on it in Sharkey County.  It was a fun time as other family members lived near by and they worked and played together. After the hay bales were picked up from the railroad platform, they often had dances on the platform with adults and kids alike having fun.

They had not lived in Sharkey County too long when there was a big flood. The family loaded up in Uncle Bill’s old truck and headed for higher ground. For seven days they stayed in a train on a railroad siding before they could go back to the big house. The flood caused the next turn of luck as they lost everything in the house and started over with repairing the house.

In his later years, Mr. Ira began running a ferry across the Sunflower River not too far from Anguilla. There were no bridges near there for years. The ferry ran on cables across the river and his grandchildren remember going with him across the river as he transported cars across. It didn’t seem like work since he fished with them between cars.  After he retired, his grandson still operated the ferry when visiting because the new operator, Mr. Hall, lived just across the river and let him use the levers to move the ferry across the river. Between trips they still fished and built a 2 x 4 wired cage that rested in the river. When they caught a catfish, it would go in the cage, where Ira fed them with dog food. When it was time to eat, there was always fresh catfish to be had when the cage was pulled out of the river. 

A turn of luck, fortune, moved through out Mr. Ira’s life, changing his and his family’s life for bad and good.  Through out it all, he moved forward providing a stable rock for his family.