Margaret and Bill Evans Community Peacemakers on Barren Island Brooklyn 1911-1917

Barren Island in Jamaica Bay Brooklyn was magical place for the 1600 people who lived there in 1911. It was a mysterious, scary place to everyone else. No bridges connected the island to the rest of Brooklyn, the only way to get there was by boat.? Many times, storms, ice, or muddy low tide, cut the island off from the rest of the city, even by boat.? On foggy days and moonless nights, the island disappeared from view. ?On those nights Barren Island at the end of Flatbush Avenue out in Jamaica Bay, seemed as far away from Brooklyn as Europe. ?The African, Polish, Irish and German Americans who lived there needed someone who they could call in an emergency.? The New York City police asked all of their police officers to consider living on Barren Island.? Only two police officers volunteered: Margaret and Bill Evans.

Bill, born in England and a veteran of the US Navy was 53 years old. Margaret an new immigrant from Ireland and recently married, was 31.? They arrived on Barren Island with their two-year-old son William Junior.? Together they planned on raising their son and working as police officers on Barren Island.?

The people of Barren Island were probably nervous about their new police officer neighbors.? Barren Island families enjoyed a carefree life.? They lived in small wooden homes surrounded by gardens, cows, pigs and chickens.

? Children occasionally went to school at the new school building on the island, but mostly spent their days searching for gold and jewels on the Klondike Pile (more on that in a bit) or roaming the beaches and marshes of the island.? ?Each day mothers joined their children on the Klondike Pile, or ran small grocery stores or shops on the island.?? Fathers worked in the factories on the island, sorting, pressing and boiling New York City’s garbage: turning old food and dead animals into, soap, fertilizer and gunpowder.

At the edge of the factory was a large pile of brown fluffy waste that the locals called “The Klondike.”? New Yorkers would accidentally drop gold rings, diamonds, jewelry or silverware into their trash cans. ?The garbage all wound at Barren Island’s trash factories. ?If New York’s gold, silver and diamonds were not spotted by factory managers among the trash, it would be spit out by machines in the factory and wind up in the “Klondike” trash pile of brown fluff.? At the time thousands of people were headed to the Klondike, an area of Alaska and Canada rich in gold.? As a joke, but an accurate one, the locals named their source of gold and jewels the “Klondike.” ??Each day mothers and children searched the pile, hoping to find gold or jewels and strike it rich.? Would Margaret and Bill Evans try and put an end to the Klondike?

From the start, Margaret and Bill let it be known that while they were crime fighters who would not tolerate violence, they were also good neighbors. But could they be trusted? ?William Junior was a very cute two-year-old and Margaret and Bill let the people of Barren Island get to know him.? Margaret spent hours in the homes of Black and Polish families getting to know them and letting them get to know and trust her.?

Before the Evans family arrived, fights were common between families.? Bill Evans met with each family on the island and assured them that he would not arrest people if they got angry or upset.? He asked that if they got into an argument that they come to him and let him help settle the disagreement peacefully. ?Bill Evans let them know he would not interfere with the Klondike pile or their carefree life. These words sounded good to the people of Barren Island, but a few people decided to put these words to the test.? On April 15, 1912, a man and woman were accused of seriously injuring a neighbor in a fight.? The woman was quickly found, but Bill Evans was unable to find the male suspect.? Margaret went from cottage to cottage gathering information about the violence until she was able to locate her suspect.? In October, four women on Barren Island attacked and robbed a junk dealer when he took out his large wad of cash to purchase a chicken. Two of the women were arrested and brought to the jail cell at the Evans home/police station.? While Bill Evans was off searching for the other two suspects, a large mob of three hundred angry people gathered at the Evan’s home, demanding that the women be released.? Margaret Evans held off the mob of screaming men and women with a revolver, speaking calmly with everyone until they finally left and Bill brought the suspects were brought to jail.

?A month later, two men vowed to bring one friend to a fight over the right to marry a local woman.? Instead, forty men showed up for the battle in a Barren Island saloon.? When sounds of the struggle reached the Evans family, both Margaret and Bill burst into the saloon holding revolvers and nightsticks.? As they whirled their nightsticks in the air and broke up the fighting, Margaret and Bill let most of the men escape the saloon, with a lesson learned.? When peace was restored, both crime fighters had arrested three men each. “The word was quietly passed around that Barren Island was a poor place to start trouble.” One newspaper reporter wrote.? “They respected ‘Mist Evans’ learned to revere his wife, and almost worship his baby boy.”? Barren Island became a peaceful place, rarely mentioned in the newspapers except as an amazing place to visit. ?

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Whenever they were asked by reporters to comment on the people of Barren Island, Bill and Margaret stood up for the residents, “Everything is peaceful.” They said.? “There are a lot of different nationalities, but people keep to themselves.? These people get a little excited at times – that’s all…we don’t have any more trouble down here than they have in New York.”