BIOGRAPHY: Evans, Samuel B.
From the A.T. Andreas Illustrated Historical Atlas of the State of Iowa, 1875

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SAMUEL B. EVANS was born at Dandridge, Jefferson County, Tennessee, July 31, 
1837.  When less than five years of age he removed with his parents to Iowa, settling 
within the limits of the present county of Davis, at what is now Springtown, where was 
established, about March, 1842, the first post-office in the county.  Of this office, then 
called Fox, Mr. Evans' father – Samuel Anderson Evans  - was the first postmaster.  Mr. 
Evans received a classic education principally at Fairfield, in Jefferson County, at a then 
branch of the State University.  In 1854-5-6 he studied "the art preservative of all arts," in 
various printing offices in Keokuk County.  In 1858, in company with Judge Casey, now of 
Fort Madison, he established the Iowa Democrat at Sigourney, in the last named county.  
In 1860, Judge Casey was succeeded in this enterprise by Mr. J. B. Shellenbarger.
During the second year of "the war," in august, 1862, Mr. Evans entered the 
service of the Union, on the non-commissioned staff of Col. S. A. Rice, of the 33d Iowa 
Infantry, as commissary sergeant.  Subsequently, in September, 1864, he was 
commissioned a lieutenant in the 4th Arkansas Cavalry, a loyal white regiment raised in 
Arkansas.  Immediately previous to the close of the war, Lieutenant Evans was 
recommended for promotion to a captaincy in the same regiment.  Also, about the 
same time, in order to test for his personal satisfaction his military capabilities, he 
submitted himself to a rigid examination by a military commission composed of officers of 
the regular army, appointed to examine applicants for promotion.  By this commission of 
which Major General Solomon was President, Lieutenant Evans was recommended for a 
captaincy in the regular army.  The war closing upon afterward, however, the 
recommendations in both cases failed to accomplish the purposes intended.
In the beginning of the great civil conflict, Mr. Shellenbarger also entered the 
army, whereupon the publication of the Iowa Democrat ceased, and the office was 
closed.  In 1863, during this state of suspended journalistic animation, the war of the 
Rebellion was supplemented by "the Skunk River War," originating in the deliberate 
shooting to death of a Democratic orator in Keokuk County, while making a Democratic 
speech.  Pending hostilities at this time between the respective belligerents, a party of 
home guards from Washington, in the adjoining County of Washington, valiantly assailed 
the Democrat office at Sigourney.  While ravaging its contents, their patriotism was 
excessively aroused by mistaking a figure of Old Ben. Franklin attached to a hand press 
for that of the then - in that vicinity - very unpopular Jeff Davis.
In January, 1862, Mr. Evans, in connection with Mr. E. L. Burton, established in 
Wapello County the Ottumwa Mercury, with which he resumed active identification as 
editor at the close of the war.  In 1868, disposing of his interest in the Mercury to Mr. 
Samuel H. Burton, who had meanwhile succeeded his brother above named.  Mr. Evans 
in company with Messrs. H. M. McCully and M. V. B. Bennett, established at Ottumwa 
another paper entitled The Copperhead.  In 1870, having purchased the interest of both 
his partners, Mr. Evans changed this title to that of The Ottumwa Democrat, which title it 
still remains.  The Ottumwa Democrat is one of the leading newspaper exponents of 
Democratic politics in the state.  It is published daily and weekly, and is ably conducted 
by Mr. Evans, who has remained its sole editor and proprietor from 1870 till the present 
time.
Politically, Mr. Evans has ever been a firm and consistent professor of the 
Democratic faith.  In November, 1866, he was nominated by President Johnson for 
postmaster of Ottumwa, but the United States Senate, then politically opposed to the 
president, refused to confirm the nomination.  In 1872, he represented as a delegate the 
sixth district of Iowa in the Democratic National Convention at Baltimore, which 
unanimously endorsed the nomination of the Hon. Horace Greeley for president.  On 
various occasions he has officially and actively participated in state and local 
conventions of the same party in Iowa, and exerted a potent influence in its councils and 
proceedings.
To Mr. Evans' pressing efforts it mainly attributable the passage by the Legislature, 
in 1874, of an act creating a board of three commissioners, of which Mr. Evans is 
president, who are charged with the duty of stocking the many streams of the state with 
edible fish.
Socially, Mr. Evans, now in the prime of life, is very affable and courteous 
gentleman, besides which, he is richly endowed with that energy and mental ability that 
never fails to achieve the greatest success.