James Burton Evans – A Murder Story Halfway Told – 52 Ancestors 2015 #26

This is the halfway point for the 2015 edition of 52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks.  I am proud that I have kept up with my posts so far this year.  I did have a little help from guest bloggers Gary Barlow and Ingemar Nåsell and for that I offer them a big “thank you!”  Since the theme this week is “Halfway,” I decided to look at a story that I was pretty sure was only halfway complete when I last looked at it.  It involves a murder in my husband’s family.

James Burton Evans was the middle son of Abner Jesse Evans and Mary E. Brown Evans. He was the younger brother of my husband’s second great-grandfather, Frank E. Evans. In 1881, the family resided at 415 McIlwain Street, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. McIlwain Street has since been renamed Titan and is on the south side of Philadelphia, just a few blocks from Jefferson Square. Abner was listed in the city directory as an engineer, but we should not assume that he was a railroad engineer. From the news story that follows, we should probably conclude that he was an engineer in a factory, likely dealing with the mechanical infrastructure of the workplace.  Here is an 1876 map of Philadelphia showing the neighborhood in which the story unfolds. McIlwain Street is at the center of the map with Wharton Street just below and Redwood above.

I found the death record for James B. Evans at age 15. He died on 3 January 1881 of a hemorrhage from a knife wound. This sounded newsworthy, so I went in search of the story. It was easy to find, as it was on the front page of the Philadelphia Inquirer on Tuesday, January 4.  The headline read: “A Sad Case. A Lad of Fourteen Stabs a Young Acquaintance.”  The news report indicates that James had just returned from work at a factory where he was employed with his father. He was, then, sent on an errand to pick up from bread from a nearby bake shop. Upon exiting the store, four boys of James’ acquaintance saw him and one called out “there goes a tough one.” James made some retort and a fight ensued. James was out-numbered four to one but his demise was that one of the boys had a knife. Although a man from the neighborhood tried to separate the boys, he was unable to prevent a tragedy. James called out, “I’m stabbed!”  The knife found it’s mark just under the right collar bone, severing an artery and puncturing a lung. He was carried to a drugstore at 4th and Wharton Streets, but he died within minutes.

The police charged 14-year-old Martin Dorp with the murder. Supposedly he threw up his hands immediately following the stabbing and exclaimed, “I didn’t stab him, for I have no knife!” Another boy in the group, however, placed the blame on Dorp. Here is the complete first report:

A subsequent inquest was detailed in the news two days later. Martin Dorp maintained his innocence throughout, but the testimony of the other boys pointed to him and no one else. He was held and bail was set at $5,000.

This is where I stopped when I first found this story; but, something bothered me about it from the beginning. Martin was described as a small youth of good character, who had never been in trouble before. His father was a sea captain named Victor Dorp. I couldn’t put my finger on it, but I decided that I needed to investigate further. I broadened my search to see if I could learn more about what happened to young Martin Dorp.  I focused my search on Dorp rather than James Evans.

The next mention of Martin Dorp was this odd tidbit on 10 January, 1881. It seems that Martin had has an accident aboard the ship Overland and was seriously injured. How did that come about?

Yet, on 29 January Martin Dorp was indicted for homicide in the James Evans slaying and held for trial. It appears that trials were much speedier in 1881, because on 3 February the trial took place. There was so much disparity in the testimony of the witnesses that I was surprised the jury convicted the young man. You can read the trial account here:

A motion was made for a new trial and young Martin was admitted to bail, pending the decision. On 17 February, arguments for a new trial were made. The following day, the judge granted Martin Dorp a new trial based on testimony that had not been heard previously.

Unfortunately, that is the last I can find for the trial of Martin Dorp.  A Martin W. Dorp was admitted to high school on 29 June 1881. Is this the same boy? At any rate, it is easy to conclude our research when we find the first few news articles on a legal matter, but if I had stopped with the mention of James B. Evans, the story would have been halfway told.