Evans, George

EVANS, VALENTINE, DE LONG, ROSE, STONEHAWKER, STAMPER, CARROLL

Posted By: Volunteer Transcriber
Date: 8/22/2009 at 13:49:16

Evans, George and Joanna Valentine

The name of this estimable lady is a familiar sound to the people in Washington and surrounding Townships, and the brief record of her life outlined in the following paragraphs will doubtless be read with interest by many friends and acquaintances who have learned to prize her for her beautiful character and useful life, which has been as an open book in which there are no pages marred or soiled by conduct unbecoming true womanhood, and whose influence has always made for the good of the large circle of friends with whom she has associated.

Mrs. Evans was born on January 28, 1839, in Warren County, Pennsylvania, the daughter of Edmund and Hannah Valentine, her father a native of Pennsylvania and her mother of New York. Mr. Valentine grew up in Pennsylvania and there engaged in the lumber business, working in the timber many years, cutting, rafting and sawing. He is now deceased.

The daughter Joanna grew up and was educated in Pennsylvania and she was married in Warren County, that state, on June 3, 1855 at Enterprise, to George Evans, who was born March 21, 1828, in Franklin County, Pennsylvania, and there he grew to manhood and when young followed teaming in the town of Franklin. The week after his marriage he and his bride moved to Henry County, Illinois, locating in the town of Cambridge and there farmed in the edge of town for three years; then Mr. Evans managed a hotel in the town of Atkinson, Illinois, for several years. Later he teamed for different companies in Geneseo, that state. He hauled telegraph poles for the Rock Island Railroad Company when they built through Iowa. In 1875 he and his wife came to Polk County, Iowa, and conducted a hotel in the town of Mitchellville for a year, and also followed teaming there. The next year he bought one hundred and fifty-three acres in Washington Township, Jasper County, and moved to the same. Although he had to pay seventeen per cent interest on the money with which he paid for the land and met with various drawbacks, he persevered and succeeded, living on the place ten years. Then he bought three hundred and twenty acres in Washington Township, just west of the city of Colfax, for which he paid twenty-six dollars per acre. It is now worth one hundred and fifty dollars per acre. He met with increasing success as a general farmer and stock raiser. He always kept a great number of dairy cows and made large quantities of butter. He established a pleasant home and left a comfortable competency.

Mr. Evans was a Democrat, but he was not an aspirant for public office. He was a man whom everybody liked, being sociable, honorable and neighborly. His death occurred on March 4, 1905.

Seven children were born to Mr. and Mrs. George Evans, named as follows: Mrs. Mary De Long, Mrs. Georgia Rose, Mrs. Mattie Rose, Mrs. Lou Stonehawker, Mrs. Ida Stamper, John and Fred. The youngest son, Fred, lives with his mother on the home place and has the active management of the entire farm, successfully carrying out the plans inaugurated there by his father. They have gone extensively into butter making during the past few years. During the year 1910 they made two tons and eight hundred pounds from their cows. They have a separator and churn run by gasoline engine, in fact, have every modern convenience about the place.

Fred Evans is a progressive, energetic and capable young farmer, for whom the future promises much. He attended school in Colfax, but has been managing the home place since 1912. He is a Democrat, a member of the Eagles Lodge and the Improved Order of Red Men. He was married on May 24, 1905, to Mary Carroll, who was born at Council Bluffs, Iowa, the daughter of John Carroll, a railroader. Past and Present of Jasper County Iowa B. F. Bowden & Company, Indianapolis, IN, 1912 Page 741.