Oliver Evans Biography

From: O'Brien and Osceola Counties, Iowa, published 1914
Forty-five years have come and gone since Oliver Evans, a retired farmer of Hartley, came into O’Brien county, Iowa. These forty-five years have seen this county grow from a broad, barren prairie to its present prosperous condition, covered with cities and villages and hundreds of prosperous farms. According to the 1910 census there are eleven towns in O’Brien county, three of which are over one thousand in population. The residents of O’Brien county who have lived in this county for nearly two score and a half years have had the opportunity to witness the great change which has come about, not only in this county, but in this whole section of the state. In 1870 there were no railroads in this county, not an improved road, and but one school house had been built. Today there are over three hundred school buildings, several hundred miles of improved highways, as well as five railroads running through the county. From the date of the first election in this county, when nineteen votes were cast, down to 1910, there are several men living in the county who can remember the whole history of the county.

Oliver Evans, one of the earliest of the pioneers of this county, was born December 3, 1841, in Utica, New York, and is the son of Edward and Margaret (Jones) Evans. Edward Evans was born in Wales in 1812 and his wife was born two years earlier in the same country. They were reared and educated in the land of their birth and married before they came to this country. He landed in New York City in 1837, where he worked for a short time as a laborer. In 1840 they moved to Utica, New York, where they lived a few years. In 1848 they moved to Martinsburg, New York, where they purchased fifty acres of land and lived there the remainder of their lives. Edward Evans proved to be a successful farmer and at the time of his death, in 1898, he owned two hundred and fifty acres of land and died in 1880 (copied as printed). To their marriage were born four children: John of Lowville, New York, and a soldier of the Rebellion and later a homesteader of O’Brien county, Iowa; Mrs. Margaret Boshart, deceased; Henry, deceased, and Oliver, with whom this narrative deals.

Oliver Evans received his education in the schools of New York state and remained at home until he was twenty years of age. He then left home and worked out among the neighborhood farmers by the day for three years and a half, after which he traveled for some time seeking a location. He came to O’Brien county, Iowa, November 9, 1869, and immediately homesteaded eighty acres, the east one-half of southwest quarter of section 24, in Center township, patent No 9640. The year following he had no improvements of crops after the terrible fire of 1870 swept across the whole county. In a short time there was not a tree, not a house and no improvements whatever which were left after that terrible disaster. Later he hauled wood and fuel from near O’Brien, which is situated on the Sioux river. The postoffice was O’Brien, where he received mail once a week. In order to provide himself with fuel for the coming years, as well as lumber, he planted what was then the largest grove of forest trees in the county; he put out fifteen acres of forest trees and for the past twenty years has had plenty for fuel. He also planted two acres of orchard trees - - in fact, he has put at least ten thousand dollars worth of improvements upon his farm of three hundred and sixty acres of land. He also has other farms, making a total of seven hundred and forty-nine acres in the state. The improvements on all his land is estimated at between twenty-five and thirty thousand dollars. In addition to raising all of the crops which are peculiar to this section of the country, he has been a large breeder of thoroughbred stock, including Shorthorn cattle and Poland China pigs. He started to farm with a team of oxen, and during the first summer all they had to eat was pancakes made with course flour and creek water. In giving the data for this history, Mr. Evans remarked that the food which they had to eat during this year was hardly fit for a dog to eat, and yet they lived upon it and thrived and as the years came and went Mr. Evans acquired more of this world’s goods so that today he can look back upon that period of deprivation and misfortune through which he went during the early years of his life in this county. In addition to his large land interests, he also has an interest in the Hartley Lumber Company and in the Moneta Savings Bank. He has been president and vice-president of the First National Bank of Hartley, Iowa. Some years ago he sold all his interest in this bank. He owns nine acres of land and a residence adjoining the corporation of Hartley, where he has set out an acre of trees.

Mr. Evans was married in 1871, in Harrisburg, New York, to Marietta English, who was born in Martinsburg, New York, in 1849. To their marriage have been born four children: Harry J., a graduate of Ames College in the dairyman course; he then taught in the dairy school of Ames, Iowa; he is now residing in Lovejoy, Montana, where he is raising stock and homesteading; Jesemine, the wife of J. M. Hawley, a farmer of Canada, is a graduate from the Hartley high school and taught school ten years in O’Brien county. Evelyn, the third child of Mr. and Mrs. Evans, is the wife of George P. Powers, a farmer of Moneta, Iowa. She graduated from the Hartley high school and taught three years. Edward O. is a farmer and auctioneer in Omega township in this county. He attended Ames College one year and then graduated from the Jones Auctioneer College at Chicago, Illinois.

In politics, Mr. Evans is independent, reserving the right to cast his ballot at all times for the man he feels best qualified to hold the office. Religiously, he is affiliated with the Methodist Episcopal church, as are the other members of his family. He is a member of the Ancient Free and Accepted Masons and takes an intelligent interest in the work of that order. He has always been a man who was interested in public affairs and has served as trustee of Center township in this county.