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- EVAN J. EVANS. This name will be readily recognized by those
- familiar with the business personnel of Beloit, Rock county,
as that of an enterprising and successful grocer of that city.
He has won a good patronage, and is on the highway to solid and
lasting prosperity.
- Mr. EVANS was born in the town of Emmett, Dodge Co., Wis.,
- Jan. 28, 1864, and, as his name indicates, is of Welsh extraction.
His great-grandfather, John EVANS, born in 1737 on the Lleged
Enwin farm, near Cardigan, Cardiganshire, Wales, was a farmer.
He had a family of five children.
- John EVANS, grandfather of our subject, born in 1777, on
Tier-
- bach farm, near Mellin Gum, Llangadock Parish, Caermarthenshire,
Wales, died April 12, 1838. He was a prosperous farmer. He married
Ann Stephen THOMAS, of Court farm, Mellin Gum, born in 1790,
died Sept. 27, 1862.
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- To this union were born nine children: Sarah, Mary, Margaret,
Stephen, John, Thomas, David J., and Evan and William (twins),
two of whom, John and David J., came to America. John, born Nov.
10, 1822, came to America in 1870, and until 1873 lived at Scranton,
Penn. He then moved to Watertown, Wis., where he is still living,
bringing his wife and family of five children - Thomas (a reporter
for the Milwaukee Sentinel, now deceased), John, Mary,
David and Margaret.
- David J. EVANS, father of our subject, born Aug. 11, 1831,
at Llethergela, Llangadock,
- Wales, early in life made up his mind to come to America,
and in 1851 boarded a sailing-vessel at Liverpool, England, which
landed him at New York after a tiresome voyage of six weeks and
one day. Thence he went to Pittsburg, Penn., where he found employment
with a coal company at his trade, that of carpenter, and there
worked until 1853, when he got the Western fever. From 1853 to
1854 he spent most of his time and money traveling through the
Northwestern States in search of a fortune. In the summer of
1855 he settled at Watertown, Wis., where he found employment
with the Chicago, Milwaukee & St. Paul Railway Co., working
at his trade until 1859, when he rented a farm of eighty acres,
located on the North road, six miles north of Watertown, Emmett
township. This farm he operated until 1865, when he bought eighty
acres of land, across the road, located on the south line of
the town of Clyman, Dodge Co., Wis., this making a farm of 160
acres, to which he moved, and which he operated very successfully,
living there until March 22, 1880. He then moved to a farm of
200 acres which he bought in the fall of 1879, located in the
town of Emmett, Dodge county, three miles north of Watertown,
on what is known as the North road; this place was formerly owned
by Griff JONES, and is now known as the "Silver Creek Dairy
Farm." Mr. EVANS still resides on this beautiful place,
where his attention has been for the most part turned to stock
raising, dairying and butter making, the butter from his farm
having taken first prize at farmers' institutes, county fairs,
and at the Milwaukee State fair. He also bought and ran the first
self-binder (harvesting machine) in the county, a machine that
bound with wire; later he bought one of the first twine-binders
in this section, and he also bought one of the first steam threshing
machines run in this section.
- On March 31, 1857, Mr. EVANS wedded Ann LLOYD, who was born
March 4, 1839, at
- Gwinvyn, Merionethshire, North Wales, daughter of Evan and
Catherine LLOYD, the former of whom died in Wales, in middle
life. At the age of six years, in 1845, Mrs. EVANS, with her
widowed mother, brother John, and sister Catherine, boarded the
sailing-vessel "Jamestown," at Liverpool, England,
and after a voyage of four weeks they landed at New York City,
where they took canal-boat to Utica, N.Y., living there up to
1855. While in Utica the mother was married to William WILLIAMS,
of that place, and to this union was born one son, Griffith.
From Utica they moved to Watertown, Wis., and on their arrival
there at once bought a farm north of the city, in the town of
Emmett, Dodge county, where they continued to reside up to the
time of Mr. WILLIAMS' death, in 1870. Mrs. WILLIAMS then rented
the farm and moved to the city of Watertown, where she lived
up to about six months before her death, when she was taken to
the home of her daughter, Mrs. David J. EVANS, dying there May
13, 1889. She was born Aug. 13, 1816. Mr. and Mrs. David J. EVANS
became the parents of five sons and three daughters: John, born
May 25, 1858, who died in 1868; Evan J., born Jan. 28, 1864;
David L., born July 8, 1866, a farmer of Pittsville, Wood Co.,
Wis.; Griffith W., born Dec. 19, 1868, a grocer at Waukegan,
Ill.; Anna E., born Feb. 22, 1822, wife of John SLIGHT, a farmer
of Watertown; Catherine, born Aug. 12, 1874, a dressmaker, who
lives at home; and John, born June 3, 1880, and Maud, born Dec.
27, 1883, also at home. The parents are Congregationalists in
religious faith. Mr. EVANS is a Republican in political sentiment.
- John LLOYD, Mrs. EVANS' brother, born in 1837, died in 1894.
He was one of the volunteers
- who enlisted in Company B, 29th Wis. V. I., at Watertown,
Wis., to do his part in the Civil war, and served his full time
of four years, during which he was engaged in quite a few battles.
In 1874 he was elected assemblyman from his district to Madison,
Wis. He was a Republican and a popular man in his town. From
the close of the Civil war to about 1876 he conducted a farm
in the town of Clyman, Dodge Co., Wis. In 1876 he sold the farm
and moved to Randolph, Wis., where he bought a farm, and continued
to live there up to the time of his death.
- Evan J. EVANS grew to manhood on his father's farm near Watertown,
and had fair educational
- advantages. He worked hard during his boyhood, attending
school only four or five months a year, during the winter terms,
and while living at home on the farm in Clyman he had two and
a quarter miles to walk each way, carrying his dinner with him.
However, he made such good use of his time at the district school
that when he was fifteen his parents decided to let him board
with his grandmother WILLIAMS, in Watertown, and attend high
school there, and he passed through both the high school and
the Northwestern University of that place. It took hard study
to keep up with his classes, as he was out of school during the
spring and part of the fall term, working on the farm. When he
was sixteen his father engaged an expert engineer to teach him
how to run the threshing engine, of which he took charge for
from two to four months each year for eight or nine falls - a
farmer in spring, engineer in fall, student and later teacher
in winter, for after completing his schooling he taught some
eight or nine terms, proving very capable. But a business career
had attractions for him he could not resist, and on April 19,
1890, he came to Beloit, opening a grocery store June 6, 1890.
He has followed this business to the present time, and it is
not saying too much to say that he has made it a decided success.
- The wedding ceremonies of Evan J. EVANS and Miss Meta KRUEGER
were celebrated Sept.
- 24, 1890, at Watertown, Wis., and they have had four children:
Vera, born Jan. 13, 1893; Everett, Nov. 25, 1894; Aneta, March
5, 1896; and Elvin John, April 5, 1899. Everett died at the age
of three months. Mr. and Mrs. EVANS belong to the Safety Fund
Insurance Society, Syracuse, N.Y., and to the Equitable Fraternal
Union. Their bright and cheery home is at No. 133 Garfield avenue.
Mr. EVANS is a Republican in politics.
- Mrs. Meta (KRUGER) EVANS was born June 29, 1868, in Emmett,
Dodge Co., Wis., on the
- old family homestead. Her grandfather, Fritz KRUEGER, was
born in 1789, and died in 1876, passing his entire life in Germany.
He was a goldsmith, and a dealer in merchandise. Adolph KRUEGER,
Mrs. EVANS' father, was born in Domitz, Mecklenburg-Schwerin,
Germany, Sept. 3, 1819, and was a goldsmith by trade. In June,
1849, he sailed from Hamburg, Germany, and landed at New York
six weeks later. Thence he journeyed to Milwaukee, and in the
fall of 1849 to Watertown, Wis., where he worked at his trade,
and owned and ran a furniture factory until March 10, 1863, when
he moved to a farm on the North road, three miles from Watertown,
in Emmett township, Dodge Co., Wis. That place has ever since
been his home. On Aug. 8, 1850, Mr. KRUEGER married Miss Anna
BRUESCH, and on Aug. 8, 1900, they celebrated their Golden Wedding.
To this union were born four children: Ernest, born June 26,
1857, resides on the farm; Emma, born Sept. 27, 1859, is the
wife of E. LIPMAN, a dry-goods merchant of Beloit, Wis.; Ida,
born April 21, 1862, is the wife of A. F. BAUMANN, a contractor
of Watertown, Wis.; Meta, born June 29, 1868, is the wife of
Evan J. EVANS our subject.
- Nicholas BRUESCH, father of Mrs. Anna (BRUESCH) KRUEGER,
was born in 1809, at
- Chur, Graubunden, Switzerland. He was a merchant and hotel-keeper.
In 1827 he married, and he and his wife had five children, two
of whom died in Switzerland. In 1846 Mr. and Mrs. BRUESCH, with
their three children, boarded an American ship at Havre, France,
and sailed across the Atlantic, reaching New York after a period
of forty-two days. There they took a steamship for Buffalo, N.Y.,
journeyed from Buffalo to Chicago by rail, and then by boat from
Chicago to Milwaukee, Wis., thence to Watertown, where they resided
until 1853, in which year Mr. and Mrs. BRUESCH both died, of
cholera. Anna BRUESCH, born Oct. 19, 1832, at Chur, Switzerland,
became the wife of Adolph KRUEGER.
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-
- Taken from "Commemorative Biographical Record of
the Counties of Rock, Green, Grant, Iowa and Lafayette Wisconsin"
(c)1901, pp. 320-322; lithograph from same book.
-
- Courtesy of Carol
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