Clara Evelyn Rawson

1870s–1880s

Born 30 August 1872 on Stead Street, Halifax, West Yorkshire, to James Rawson and Mary Ellen Widdop. In 1881 the family lived at Rawson Court in St. Mary's parish.

1890s

A worsted weaver in Halifax in 1891. Married James Edward Greenwood; son Arthur was born in 1894. Emigrated in 1896; daughter Ida was born in South Chester, Pennsylvania, in 1897.

1900s

Settled in Philadelphia, where daughters Florence (1900) and Evelyn were born; Evelyn died in 1905.

1910s–1930s

Kept house on Mascher Street, where her sister Sarah joined the family from England around 1910, and from the 1920s on East Thayer Street.

1940s

Died of breast cancer at home on East Thayer Street on 13 October 1941.

A Halifax Weaver

Clara Evelyn Rawson was born on August 30, 1872, on Stead Street in Halifax, West Yorkshire, the daughter of James Rawson and Mary Ellen Widdop. She had a younger sister, Sarah Ann, and a brother, James. In 1881 the family lived at 2 Rawson Court in St. Mary's parish, with a boarder named Grace Brassey, and by 1891 they were at 4 Chaffers Court in St. Augustine's parish. Clara finished the eighth grade and went into the mills; at eighteen she was a worsted weaver.

In the same parish lived James Edward Greenwood, a worsted weaving overlooker. They married in the early 1890s (the records give 1892, 1893, or 1894), and their son Arthur was born in March 1894.

A New Life in Philadelphia

In 1896 Clara and James emigrated to America. By 1897 they were living at 405 Flower Street in South Chester, Pennsylvania, where their daughter Ida was born in February 1897. By 1900 they had moved into Philadelphia, where Florence was born that March and Evelyn about 1903. In March 1905 Evelyn died of meningitis, at about two.

James worked as a loom fixer in the Philadelphia mills while Clara ran the household, at West Ontario Street, then from 1910 at 3444 Mascher Street, and later at 306 East Thayer Street, which James owned by 1930. Around 1910 her sister Sarah came over from England and lived with them for a while. Clara saw her children grow up: Arthur married in 1916, Florence in 1921, and Ida in 1924, and grandchildren followed, among them Ida's daughter Dolores.

Last Years

In July 1940 Clara had surgery for breast cancer, and she died of the disease at home on East Thayer Street at ten minutes past nine on the morning of October 13, 1941, at sixty-nine. She was buried at Greenmount Cemetery in Philadelphia, where James was buried seven years later.