Contents |
Eva Melissa Crofford was born on September 20, 1872, in Lancaster County, Nebraska. She was the oldest child of Chester Eri Crofford, a farmer originally from Indiana,[1] and his wife, Cassander Wilson Schamp, a daughter of Rev. Peter Sharp Schamp, who was a noted Methodist preacher and one of the earliest pioneers of Lancaster County.[2] Eva was educated in the local school, where the highest level of education that she completed was the seventh grade.[3]
The Crofford family home was located approximately 15 miles northwest of Lincoln, Nebraska.[4] Four of Eva's siblings were born there: Anna Mae Crofford, Jennie Marthina Crofford, William Charles Crofford, and Nancy Minerva Crofford. However, the Crofford family apparently was not content to remain too long in one location. By 1883, when Eva was nearly eleven years old, the family had moved to a home near Abilene, Kansas, where three more of Eva's siblings were born: Arthur Lewis Crofford, and twin sisters Mary Edith Crofford and Ida Frances Crofford. By 1889, the Crofford family had moved again – this time to a ranch near Custer, South Dakota,[5] where an additional sibling, Pearl Wynnette Crofford, was born. The probable impetus for the move to Custer was that Eva's uncle, Horace Calvin Crofford, had come there a few years earlier, in 1876, during the Black Hills gold rush, and had found the locale to be a good place to set up a business.[6]
![]() |
Custer, South Dakota, in 1890. |
It was while living in Custer that Eva met her future husband, Charles Newton Alexander. Charles had come to South Dakota in approximately 1891 and was employed there as a teamster,[7] hauling lumber for a local sawmill.[8] Eva and Charles were married in Custer on January 8, 1895, by County Judge C. E. Smith.[9] Eva was 22 years old and Charles was 23. The couple continued to live in Custer for about the next 15 years. Charles was employed primarily as a day laborer during this time.[10] While living in Custer, the couple had five children: Clarence Milton Alexander (born in 1895), Chester Franklin (Frank) Alexander (born in 1899), Arthur Leslie Alexander (born in 1901), Laurence Everett Alexander (born in 1904), and Cassie Wynnette Alexander (born in 1907).
![]() |
Charles and Eva Alexander. |
By 1910, the Alexander family had moved from Custer to Belle Fourche, South Dakota,[11] where Charles leased land on a ranch that was owned by Seth Bullock,[12] one of the most famous citizens of South Dakota.[13] The Alexander home was located on Bullock's ranch just east of Belle Fourche, at the confluence of the Belle Fourche River and the Redwater River.
In May 1910, the Alexander household included Eva, Charles, and their five children; Charles' father, Milton Alexander; Eva's mother, Cassander Crofford; Eva's father, Chester Crofford (who was now divorced from Cassander); and Cassander's second husband, Joseph Martin.[14] Also residing in the household were Eva's nephew Frederick J. Wulle, who had been adopted by Cassander and Joseph Martin,[15] as well as three lodgers who were employed as farm laborers.[16] It seems that this living arrangement might have led to some interesting family dynamics.
Before long, misfortune struck the Alexander family. On July 8, 1914, Eva's father-in-law, Milton, was killed in a gruesome farming accident in which his head was impaled on the teeth of a hay rake.[17] Then, on April 23, 1915, the ranch house in which the Alexanders were living was destroyed by a fire that had started near an oil stove in the kitchen while the family was having dinner.[18] The Belle Fourche volunteer fire department was unable to save the ranch house but did manage to salvage the household goods and prevent the barns and sheds from burning. As a result of the damage to the ranch house, the family was forced to live in tents for a few months, before they decided to leave South Dakota.[8]
Following the destruction of Bullock's ranch house, Eva, Charles, and their five children left South Dakota and lived briefly in Sandpoint, Idaho, where Charles had hoped to find employment in the lumber industry. However, he was unable to find work there,[8] so, in 1916, the family relocated to Missoula, Montana,[19] where they lived until the early 1920s.[8] During the years spent in Missoula, Charles was employed as a planer in a sawmill.[20] Sons Chester, Arthur, and Lawrence also worked in the sawmill, loading trucks. Son Clarence, on the other hand, was a brakeman for the Northern Pacific Railway.[21]
In February 1921, Eva, Lawrence, and Cassie left Missoula and headed to Springdale, Arkansas.[8][22] Charles and Frank stayed in Montana to continue working in the sawmill, while Arthur moved to Elko, Nevada, to pursue his own career.[23] In the spring of 1922, Charles and Frank joined Eva in Arkansas. They tried raising strawberries there, but Eva and Charles eventually decided that Arkansas was a poor place to make a living and thought that they would fare better economically in Southern California.[8]
In 1928, Eva and Charles headed west to Ontario, California,[8] where they lived for the remainder of their lives. Four of their children also resided in Southern California during this time. Frank had moved to Southern California a year earlier than Eva and Charles and was living in Long Beach.[8] Lawrence took up residence in Ontario with his wife, Jewel C. Alvis,[24] whom he had married in Arkansas.[25] Cassie was living in Fullerton with a family from Austria, serving as their maid.[26] Arthur joined the family later, moving to Los Angeles in 1939[8] with his wife, Marian L. Case, whom he had married in Elko, Nevada.[27] Only Clarence was living outside Southern California. By 1926, he had moved with his wife, Ruth, and their three children to Puyallup, Washington.[28]
In 1940, Eva and Charles were living in a rented house in Ontario,[29] in the same block as their son Lawrence and his wife.[30] In 1950, Eva and Charles were living with their daughter, Cassie, who had moved from Long Beach to Ontario following a divorce from her husband, Martin Owen Keebler.[31] After the death of Charles on February 9, 1951,[32] Eva continued to live with Cassie in Ontario, together with Cassie's son, Arthur Owen Keebler.[33][34]
Eva Crofford Alexander died on March 27, 1958, in San Bernardino County, California, at the age of 85 years.[35] She was interred in Bellevue Memorial Park, Ontario, California. According to an interactive site locator on the cemetery website,[36] Eva's burial site is Grave 6, Lot 58, in the Cypress Section, next to that of her husband, Charles, who had died 7 years earlier.
![]() |
Grave marker for Eva and Charles Alexander in Bellevue Memorial Park. |
This week's featured connections are Redheads: Eva is 19 degrees from Catherine of Aragón, 17 degrees from Clara Bow, 23 degrees from Julia Gillard, 15 degrees from Nancy Hart, 14 degrees from Rutherford Hayes, 17 degrees from Rita Hayworth, 18 degrees from Leonard Kelly, 20 degrees from Rose Leslie, 21 degrees from Damian Lewis, 19 degrees from Maureen O'Hara, 25 degrees from Jopie Schaft and 35 degrees from Eirik Thorvaldsson on our single family tree. Login to see how you relate to 33 million family members.
C > Crofford | A > Alexander > Eva Melissa (Crofford) Alexander
Categories: Bellevue Memorial Park, Ontario, California