CHARLES C. EVANS

EVANS, BROWN, HISTE, MILLER, HENRY, HAVENS, LOVELY

Posted By: Norma Nielson (email)
Date: 5/15/2004 at 20:23:16

"Charles C. Evans, a retired agriculturist and honored Civil war veteran of Adair county, has lived in Summerset township for the past half century and his present farm, which comprises one hundred and sixty acres on section 17, has been his home for about forty-seven years. His birth occurred in Evans Mills, New York, on the 29th of June, 1827, his parents being Amos and Sarah (Brown) Evans, the former a native of Pennsylvania and the latter of New York. Both passed away in the Empire state. To them were born seven children, two of whom survive.

Charles C. Evans attended the common schools in the acquirement of an education and remained at home until twenty-eight years of age. He then removed westward to Livingston county, Illinois, and there carried on farming until the time of his enlistment for service in the Union army as a member of Company K, Fifty-ninth Illinois Volunteer Infantry, with which command he remained for two years. He participated in the battles of Franklin and Nashville, Tennessee, and though often in the thickest of the fight, was fortunate in that he escaped even the slightest of injury. He was mustered out at Nashville on the 17th of June, 1865, and then came to Adair county, Iowa, purchasing the tract of one hundred and sixty acres in Summerset township on which he has resided continuously since. He developed the raw prairie into productive and valuable farm, erected thereon substantial and commodious buildings and planted a fine grove of maple trees some of which are now three feet in diameter. Mr. Evans taps the trees and makes an excellent quality of maple syrup. The active work of the fields, however, has been relegated to others and he is now practically spending the evening of his life in well earned ease, enjoying the competence which has come through the wise and able direction of his interests in former years.

In 1867, Mr. Evans was united in marriage to Miss Sarah A. Miller, a native of Ohio and a daughter of George and Maria (Histe) Miller, who were also born in the Buckeye state. They came to Iowa in August, 1858, purchasing land in Summerset township, Adair county, where they continued to reside during the remainder of their lives. To Mr. and Mrs. Evans have been born six children, namely: Etna, deceased; Clara, who is the wife of D. N. Henry and resides in South Dakota; Lura, who gave her hand in marriage to William Havens, of this county; Albert, a resident of Fontanelle, Iowa; Alta, the wife of Frank Lovely, of Greenfield, this state; and Lyle, who operates the old homestead farm.

Mr. Evans was reared in the political faith of the whig party and cast his first vote for Zachary Taylor in 1848 but since the organization of the republican party has continuously supported its men and measures. The honors and Emoluments of office, however, have never had any attraction for him, as he has preferred to concentrate his energies upon his business affairs, in the careful management of which he has won a gratifying measure of success. He and his wife attend the services of the Methodist Episcopal church and are widely recognized as people of genuine personal worth and commendable characteristics. Mr. Evans has now passed the eighty-eighth milestone on life's journey and enjoys the respect and venerations which should ever be accorded one who has traveled thus far on this earthly pilgrimage and whose career has been at all times upright and honorable."

Source: The "History of Adair County Iowa and its People," Volume II. (Chicago, The Pioneer Publishing Company) 1915.