EAVENSON, GEORGE
Copyright 2011-2018 John N. Lupia, III
George Eavenson (1854-1912), was born the fifth of five children on December 26, 1854 in Franklin Township, Chester County, Pennsylvania, son of Joseph Eavenson (1821-1892), and Sarah Ann Hannum Eavenson (1819-1911).
He worked as the Superintendent of Machinery for the Denver & Rio Grande Railroad at Denver, Colorado.
On June 9, 1886, he married Winfred Richardson (1868-1946), a native of Indiana, at Denver, Colorado. They had three children : Joseph William Eavenson (1887-), Edna Lucille Eavenson (1890-), and Jesse Vernon Eavenson (1895)
He lived at 727 South 11th Street, Denver, Colorado.
He applied in September and joined the ANA in October 1894.
Beginning in September 1894 he became a regular client of the Chapman Brothers and several dozen pieces of correspondence are in the Lupia Numismatic Library, Special Collection, The Chapman Family Correspondence Archive.
Fig. Eavenson correspondence with the Chapman Brothers postmarked registered mail September 1, 1897, franked with a scarce strip of 2 Scott #271. Courtesy Lupia Numismatic Library, Special Collection, The Chapman Family Correspondence Archive.
Fig. Eavenson correspondence with the Chapman Brothers postmarked November 28, 1901. Courtesy Lupia Numismatic Library, Special Collection, The Chapman Family Correspondence Archive.
In 1902 he advertised in February issue of The Numismatist, he was looking to buy Clark, Gruber & Co., gold pieces as well as Mormon pieces.
His coin collection was sold by the Chapman Brothers on Thursday and Friday, April 26-27, 1903. The sale contained an 1856 over 1854 proof no arrows half dime in lot 102 and six proof 1841 Large Cents which came from a prominent Philadelphia collection, that Walter Breen deduced was that of Patterson Dubois (1847-1917). See Walter Breen's Complete Encyclopedia of U. S. and Colonial Coins, page 431. The notion, according to Breen, was that some coins in the Eavenson sale were those of the Dubois' collection that were mixed among them.
Eavenson does not seem to have continued as a coin collector after the sale.
On January 30, 1909 he visited his mother Sarah on her 90th birthday at her home 1042 Pine Street, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, three blocks from Henry Chapman, Jr.
He died on December 4, 1912, just 22 days short of his fifty-eighth birthday. He is buried in Cedaredge Cemetery, Cedaredge, Delta County, Colorado.
Bibliography :
The Numismatist, September (1894) : 216
The Numismatist, February (1902)
Philadelphia Inquirer, January 31, 1909
Last Will and Testament, August 12, 1912