Denver County, History of Colorado, BIOS: EVANS, John (published 1918)
***********************************************************************
USGENWEB NOTICE: These electronic pages may NOT be reproduced in any
format for profit or presentation by other organization or persons.
Persons or organizations desiring to use this material, must obtain
the written consent of the contributor, or the legal representative
of the submitter, and contact the listed USGenWeb archivist with proof
of this consent.  The submitter has given permission to the USGenWeb 
Archives to store the file permanently for free access.
***********************************************************************
File contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by
Maggie Stewart-Zimmerman
http://www.genrecords.net/emailregistry/vols/00015.html#0003643
August 28, 1999
***********************************************************************

"History of Colorado", edited by Wilbur Fisk Stone, published by The S. J. 
Clarke Publishing Co. (1918)  Vol. II

p. 52, 54-55
photo p. 53

HON. JOHN EVANS.

	No history of Colorado would be complete without extended 
reference to the Hon. John Evans, who was the second territorial 
governor and whose efforts in behalf of public progress and upbuilding 
were far-reaching, important and effective. With notably keen vision he 
saw into the future, recognized the possibilities of the state and 
worked toward desired ends, and even yet movements which he instituted 
and measures which he secured have not reached their full fruition but 
remain as factors for good in the state's development.

	Mr. Evans was born in Waynesville, Ohio, on the 9th of March, 
1814, his parents being David and Rachel Evans. He was descended from 
an old Quaker family of Philadelphia, where his great-grandfather 
engaged in the manufacture of tools. His sons, Benjamin and Owen, 
afterward carried on the same business on Chestnut street and the 
latter became the inventor of the screw auger. David Evans, father of 
John Evans, was the representative of the family who left Pennsylvania 
and penetrated into the Ohio wilderness, where through the wise conduct 
of his business affairs he accumulated a large measure of wealth. John 
was reared upon the homestead farm and had the opportunity at intervals 
of attending the district school, but his educational privileges were 
quite limited. However, upon attaining his majority he went to 
Philadelphia and pursued a course of study in the Clermont Academy 
which awakened in him the ambition to become a member of a profession. 
Accordingly he decided upon the study of medicine and won his M. D. 
degree upon graduation with the class of 1838. He began practice upon 
the frontier of Illinois and in 1839 returned to Ohio, where he was 
united in marriage to Miss Hannah Canby, a daughter of Joseph Canby, 
who was an eminent physician of that state and an uncle of General R. 
S. Canby of the United States army. They established their home in 
Attica, Indiana, where Dr. Evans soon won wide and well merited 
reputation as a leading physician and surgeon and as a farsighted and 
successful business man. He became deeply interested in the deplorable 
condition of the insane wards of the state and his interest matured in 
well defined plans for the improvement of such conditions. His labors 
resulted in the enactment of a legislative measure in 1841 which 
provided for the building of an insane asylum, and on its completion he 
was appointed the first superintendent. In 1845 he was elected to a 
chair in Rush Medical College of Chicago and occupied that 
professorship for eleven years. While a resident of that city he became 
prominently identified with the Illinois State and the American Medical 
Associations and had much influence in those organizations, his sound 
judgment and advanced views being recognized by his colleagues and 
contemporaries in the profession. During the cholera epidemic of 1848 
and 1849, Dr. Evans published a monograph maintaining that the disease 
was contagious and demonstrated it by the lines of march of the disease 
as along the lines of travel, therefore advocating rigid quarantine. He 
also urged congress to establish a national quarantine. For a number of 
years he was the editor of the Medical and Surgical Journal and was the 
founder of the Illinois General Hospital of the Lakes, which was 
subsequently transferred to the Sisters of Mercy and was named Mercy 
Hospital. He was likewise largely instrumental in establishing the 
Methodist Book Concern and the Northwestern Christian Advocate, a 
publication of the Methodist church issued in Chicago. In tact he 
became one of the original promoters of the Methodist Church block and 
was among those who formulated the plans for its erection and aided in 
raising the funds. He was also among the promoters of the Chicago & 
Fort Wayne Railroad and for many years acted as managing director of 
the line. By adroit financiering he secured the right of way into the 
city and valuable lands for its terminals where the Union depot now 
stands. It was through his wise investments and successful operations 
in real estate that Dr. Evans laid the foundation for his very large 
fortune. He seemed to possess unerring judgment and insight concerning 
investments and in all of his business projects prospered. In 1862 and 
1853 he served as a member of the city council of Chicago and 
introduced the ordinance providing for the appointment of a 
superintendent of the first high school there.

	It was while a resident of Chicago that Dr. Evans was called upon 
to mourn the loss of his first wife, who bore the maiden name of Hannah 
Canby. He afterward wedded Margaret P. Gray, a daughter of the Hon. 
Samuel Gray, of Bowdoinham, Maine, who was a leading and prosperous 
attorney of that city. In religious faith Dr. Evans was a Methodist. He 
had united with the church while in Attica, Indiana, as a result of the 
teachings and eloquence of the renowned Bishop Simpson, with whom he 
became well acquainted. In 1853 he urged the necessity of founding a 
Methodist educational institution, believing that it was an opportune 
time for such a movement, and in connection with others selected a 
suburb of Chicago as the site for the school, and this suburb was 
afterward named Evanston in his honor. Within two years the university 
was established and his great sagacity in providing for the institution 
is shown In the fact that in connection with others he bought for the 
school property that is now in the heart of Chicago-and among the 
holdings of the University is the land which is today occupied by the 
Illinois Trust and Savings Bank and which with others, is still owned 
by the university. Dr. Evans endowed the chairs of Latin and also of 
mental and moral philosophy with fifty thousand dollars and 
subsequently increased the endowment to one hundred thousand dollars. 
He became the first president of the board of trustees of Northwestern 
University and occupied that position for forty-two years. He always 
seemed to take an advanced stand upon any vital public question and 
ever looked beyond the exigencies of the moment to the opportunities 
and the needs of the future. In 1861, in a public controversy with 
Judge Scates of the supreme court of Illinois, he persistently 
advocated the emancipation of the slaves and their enlistment in the 
Union army as one of the most effective measures that could be adopted 
for crushing out the rebellion. While a resident of Chicago he became a 
candidate for congress and was one of the most prominent speakers at 
the first republican convention, which was held in Aurora, Illinois. He 
was defeated, however, by the know-nothing or American party candidate. 
He was a warm personal friend of Abraham Lincoln and was a delegate to 
the state convention which nominated him as the state's candidate for 
the presidency. In 1861, President Lincoln offered Dr. Evans the 
governorship of Washington territory but this he declined. In 1862, 
however, he accepted the appointment of territorial governor of 
Colorado to succeed William Gilpin, and in this connection a 
contemporary writer has said: "Great as his work had been in Indiana 
and Illinois, the full consummation of his beneficent efforts appears 
in more than three decades of usefulness to the people of Colorado. The 
interested reader will find the impress of his genius for the 
organization and completion of great works on every page of our local 
history. He has but to look over the streets of Denver, out upon the 
broad plains and toward the snow-crested ranges of our everlasting 
hills to discover the vast schemes of well directed progress which he 
devised and put in operation. He was the first citizen of the territory 
and afterward of the state, the leader of men, of cities and of 
universal development. What he has builded lends renown to the 
commonwealth and covers his name with imperishable glory." He had 
reached the age of eighty-three when the weary wheels of life at length 
stood still and Denver mourned the death of its foremost citizen-a man 
whose name ever reflected credit and honor upon the city that honored 
him. His work, however, was not limited by the confines of one city or 
of one state but was nation-wide in its scope and influence, and who 
can measure the beneficial results of his labors?