Hattie gave birth to two sons and two daughters in the house on the edge of Mt. Willard. For each birth, a special train was dispatched from Bartlett to bring the doctor to the section house.
Shortly after the birth of their fourth child, Loring was struck and killed by a locomotive at Crawfords while he was clearing ice from the rails. Hattie stayed on to manage the section house and feed the crew. The four children grew up beside the tracks. During the school year, they were scooped up (one at a time) by a conductor from the rear platform of the train, so that the train would not have to stop on the steep up-hill grade.
For more information about the Evans family, see "Life by the Tracks" in the reference section.
