West Liberty History 1838-1938

Source: One Hundred Years of History
* Commemorating a Century of Progress in the West Liberty Community * WEST LIBERTY, IOWA
P. R. EVANS

Peter Ransom Evans was in business in West Liberty for 40 years. He was a native of Delaware County, New York, but moved to Huntsburg, Ohio, where he married Martha Jane Howell. In 1859 their home burned, so with their two children, Frank and Jennie, they came to Iowa, residing first at Iowa City and coming to West Liberty in 1861.

He engaged in the grocery business for two years and then changed to the grain and implement business which he followed until his death. At one time he was a member of the firm " Evans and Barnes," then " Evans, Childs and Nichols," later associated with J. D. Potter in the coal and ice business. His son, Frank A. Evans, assisted him in the elevator and implement business from 1884 until it was sold to the Jackson Grain Company.

P. R. Evans was one of the early mayors of West Liberty, belonged to the Christian church, the Masonic order, was a Knight Templar, and an Odd Fellow.

For sixty years, Frank A. Evans was a member of Mt. Calvary Lodge No. 95 and was one of the first who received a Fifty Year Certificate of Membership.

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