yesterdaysprint:

Eva Onderdonk, Ottawa, Ontario, ca. 1893

The second picture shows Eva in the Wilkes-Barre Times Leader in December 1891, in an article titled Fair Chicago Maidens, an article that ran in many different newspapers across the country.

The third picture shows Eva in the Inter Ocean, a Chicago newspaper, in 1894, shortly before her wedding.

The fourth picture shows a clipping from the The Decatur Herald on February 11, 1892, in an article describing Chicago debutantes who were interested in charity work, another girl showcased was Florence Pullman, heiress of George M Pullman.

The fifth picture, again from the the Inter Ocean, shows Eva after her marriage, published on June 3, 1894.

The sixth photo, taken around 1885, shows a private passenger train car named after Eva, used to show visiting dignitaries and other VIPs the railroad while it was being constructed.

Eva was a daughter of Andrew Onderdonk, an American contractor who had a hand in building the seawall in San Francisco and the Canadian Pacific Railway in British Columbia. His role in the construction of the CPR is rather controversial, he “imported” thousands of Chinese workers from China and California for work on the railroad, giving them substandard shelter, pay and medical care while they did highly dangerous work, and then left them without help to either settle in Canada or move home, some living in caves with little food or water, when the railroad was complete.

Eva, at 19, married Percy Leroy Fearn on May 29, 1894, in Chicago, where her family had settled soon after the completion of the CPR railroad in BC. Her society debut took place in 1893, amid much fanfare. At the time of their marriage, Fearn’s father was a judge on the International Commission in Cairo. As far as I can tell, Eva and Percy had no children. He died in Texas in 1916.

Though Eva had no children of her own, her younger sister Gladys, who was only 5 when Eva married but acted as maid of honor, married in 1908 and had one child, a daughter, Sarita. Like her mother and her aunt, Sarita was a very popular debutante. Here she is the year before she married in the The Brooklyn Daily Eagle, January 6, 1932:

(via yesterdaysprint)