The World of Hannah Chribbs Evans

In a small picturesque cemetery near the center of Osage County, Missouri, a gravestone reads:

HANNAH M.
Wife of George W. Evans
Died Dec. 3, 1882
Aged 82 Ys, 6 Ms, 20 Ds

Hannah was born and grew up on the very edge of the American frontier. She lived near the Van Buren cemetery where she is buried only in the last years of her life. (See the page Van Buren: Town and Cemetery.) She was raised in Illinois before it became a state and was married in Missouri before it became a state.

As is true of most women of her time, there are few remaining records that refer to her. Hannah was, however, closely related to several other noteworthy individuals whose activities on the American frontier are richly documented:

• William Chribbs, her father;
• Jesse Evans, her father-in-law; and
• William Becknell, her brother-in-law.

These pages are devoted to telling their stories and, indirectly, Hannah’s story.

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Copyright 2012-2014 Gregory Hancks

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 United States License.