Eveline was murdered in her hen-house. She was murdered by someone in the family. She might have been murdered by someone who knew about the mine or she might have been murdered over how she was spending her money.
After her husband was convicted of treason and died during the Civil War (see earlier post for Peter Adams Tyler), Eveline and her children stayed in the area, with the youngest Peter Allen only five years old.
The legends of lost silver mines are Arkansas folk-lore. Family stories describe the Indian silver mine, where some of Eveline’s sons might have helped with the mining, though they were taken blindfolded to the mine. Family stories also describe a pouch of gold nuggets from the mine, carried by Eveline’s daughter, Elizabeth Tyler Craig. Several stories from northwest Arkansas describe counterfeit silver dollars with higher silver content than the federal coins.
In one story, unidentified men came to the Tyler house and inquired of the mine. When the men became dissatisfied with the answer, they strangled Eveline.
More likely, Eveline was murdered by a close relative because she had initiated selling her land to educate grandsons. Eveline had raised Edmund Wallace Wood Jr., after the separation of his parents, Eliza Ann Tyler and Edmund Wallace Wood. She was helping Edmund pay for his medical education.
The murderer was probably afraid she was going to do the same thing for Daniel Tyler (another of her grandsons), reducing the size of the estate she would be leaving to other heirs.
Whatever the motive, Eveline Minerva Price Tyler was strangled in her own hen-house. Her oldest son William Baker Tyler found her body. She was buried in an unmarked grave, on her farm. No suspects were ever apprehended.
Sources
- James Thomas Craig Bible
- “Roots & Tales” a biography by Hoyt Young, Roach, MO.
- Arkansas Census Records
- Historical accounts in Marshall, AR. library.
NOTE: Eveline and Peter Adams’ son was named Peter Adams Tyler, Jr., but at some point he started using Allen as his middle name.
copyright 2013 by Andrea Musgrove Perisho