Ada County ID Archives Biographies.....Evans, John M. 1862 - 1916
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Joy Fisher http://www.genrecords.net/emailregistry/vols/00001.html#0000031 January 22, 2012, 11:28 pm

Source: See below
Author: S. J. Clarke, Publisher

    JOHN M. EVANS, deceased, a broad-minded business man and citizen of marked
initiative whose labors constituted an important element in the development and
growth of the district in which he lived, as well as a source of individual
success, came to Idaho from Illinois, his birth having occurred at Woburn, Bond
county. May 7, 1862. His father, Morris Jones Evans, was a native of Indiana and
when a youth of seventeen years accompanied his parents on their removal to
Illinois where he afterward engaged in buying stock and in farming. During the
period of the Civil war he purchased horses for the government. He was of
English lineage. His father, Edward Evans, was a native of Wales. He lived in
Indiana for some years and afterward removed to Illinois, where he and his wife
spent their last days. The mother of John M. Evans was prior to her marriage
Artimissa Jette, of Illinois. To Mr. and Mrs. Morris Jones Evans were born two
children, the daughter being Mary E., who became the wife of Sephus Elam, and
after his death married Robert Glenn, by whom she had one child, Evert. It was
in the year 1881 that Morris Jones Evans removed with his family to South
Dakota, first settling at Aberdeen and later going west to the unsurveyed
country near Ipswich, where they exercised their homestead, preemption and tree
claim rights to the extent of each securing four hundred and eighty acres of land.

    John M. Evans had been reared to farm life, early becoming familiar with all
the duties and labors incident to the cultivation and development of the fields,
and after the removal to South Dakota he with the others became owner of four
hundred and eighty acres of land. On the 13th of December, 1885, he married
Clara S. Houghton, a native of Lyons, Walworth county, Wisconsin, and a daughter
of Stephen and Anna (Randall) Houghton. Her father was born in Brattleboro,
Vermont, November 18, 1803, and in 1840 went to Wisconsin, where he secured a
homestead, devoting his remaining days to its cultivation and improvement. He
there passed away April 14, 1864. His wife, a native of Boston Spa, New York,
went to Wisconsin with her parents in 1844 and there on the 5th of January,
1847, became the wife of Mr. Houghton. They had a family of six children:
George, Maria L., Albert, Lou A., Edgar and Clara S. The ancestry of the
Houghton family is traced back to James and Henry Houghton, who came to the
United States from England in the early part of the eighteenth century and
settled in Connecticut, Henry becoming the founder of the branch of the family
to which Mrs. Evans belongs. In young womanhood Mrs. Evans and her sister Lou
went to South Dakota, where the latter acted as housekeeper for their brothers,
while Clara S. Houghton engaged in teaching school until the time of her
marriage to John M. Evans. 

    Following the marriage Mr. Evans engaged in buying and selling cattle and in
farming for thirteen years, his wife proving a most able assistant to him. He
then left South Dakota for Grass Valley, Oregon, where he arrived on the 21st of
June, 1895. His means were exhausted by the time he reached his destination and
for the first time in his life he found it necessary to work for someone else.
He received but twenty dollars per month for his labor and there was only one
person in that section who could afford to pay even that sum. Mr. Evans was
joined by his wife about a month after he reached Oregon. She arrived at Grants
at two o'clock in the morning and the wind was blowing such a gale and the dust
was so dense that it was impossible to cross the road. At eight in the morning
she accompanied her husband across the prairie sand a distance of forty-five
miles, where he had already located on a claim of one hundred and sixty acres
and had there built a cabin. Their capital was just one hundred and
seventy-three dollars and all around them was a desolate country. They at that
time had two children. Mr. Evans had dug a well, but unfortunately it went dry,
leaving them without water. Previous to this time Mr. Evans had had an
opportunity of buying thirteen yearlings, a cow and a calf and a hog. He asked
his wife if she could care for the stock while he worked for the twenty dollars
per month previously referred to, and when the well went dry she found it
necessary to ride a distance of more than five miles and draw water from wells
with a rope. She took one of the children behind her on the horse and in order
to get water had to lower her boy, Emmett, down to the bottom of the well that
he might dip up the last drop of water which it was possible to get. Her labor,
however, saved the stock, which in time were fattened and sold by Mr. Evans. At
night she would drive the cattle behind the cabin and watch them until they laid
down for the night. When dawn broke, she arose, cooked breakfast and was away
after the cattle to keep them from straying. When three years had passed Mr. and
Mrs. Evans sold their place in Oregon and by that time had not only a thousand
dollars in gold but also a fine team, a covered wagon and two ponies for the
boys. Thus equipped they started for Idaho. They had driven their cattle to The
Dalles, Oregon, where they received their money in gold. They were shadowed
night and day from the time they left The Dalles until they reached Notus,
Idaho. There were a number of cattle rustlers who delegated one of their party
to accompany Mr. Evans and his family to Idaho as a friend who wanted to see the
state, and the only way the family escaped being robbed and probably murdered,
was by convincing this man that they had left their money in the bank at The
Dalles. The coin, however, was in a trunk on their wagon. They experienced great
difficulty in driving their cattle to The Dalles and on going through the
Deschutes canyon the roads were so bad that one of the cows fell off the grade
and rolled two hundred feet down an embankment, from which position it was
rescued after two hours of strenuous effort. Mrs. Evans saved the whole herd
from stampeding by throwing rocks at them when on one of these grades and on
that occasion she would probably have been trampled to death had the cattle
stampeded. It was on one such grade that the horses took fright at a large white
rock in the river and were checked in their mad run with great difficulty. 

    On the 6th of July, 1898, Mr. and Mrs. Evans and their children reached
Notus, Idaho, and rented the ranch belonging to his brother-in-law, R. E. Glenn.
Mr. Evans' father, who was then an invalid, also became a member of their
household and remained with them until his death. On the 9th of February, 1900,
the Evans family took up their abode upon their present place of one hundred and
thirty acres. Here Mr. Evans built a fine home and carried on general farming
and also bought and fattened cattle for the market. When he took over this land
it was enclosed with just two wires for a fence and the sod was unbroken, but he
converted it into a most valuable and attractive place. Moreover, he not only
successfully conducted important business interests but did much to develop and
improve the region in which he lived. He was one of the three men most active in
promoting the Enterprise school district No. 12 and bringing about the building
of the schoolhouse, which later was found too small to accommodate the
increasing number of pupils, and he put up a hard fight for the erection of the
present school building, which is one of the finest in the state. Mr. Evans
likewise built a mile and three quarters of road west from Eagle for half price.
In this he was assisted by the farmers, who charged only two dollars and a half
per day for themselves and their teams. This was accomplished while Mr. Evans
was serving as road commissioner. Ever an untiring worker for clean morals, it
was through his efforts that Eagle was made one of the cleanest towns morally in
the state. 

    With the material development of the community Mr. Evans was also actively
associated. He was the pioneer in the cattle feeding industry in the Boise
valley. He began feeding cattle in 1904, when hay was selling at three dollars
per ton. He met with a great deal of opposition from the sheepmen, who
practically had things their own way up to that time, but he was successful in
this enterprise and became prominent in the cattle-feeding industry, which was
the beginning of the Boise Valley Packing Company. He was connected with Frank
Gardner in establishing the Bank of Eagle, of which he became a stockholder. He
also promoted the Eagle Creamery, now the Eagle Cheese Factory, and was
instrumental in organizing the Boise Valley Packing Company, under United States
inspection and now turning out some of the best products in their line in the
state. The enterprise has assumed extensive proportions and has been a most
valuable adjunct to the business interests of the valley. The company was
capitalized for fifty thousand dollars, all of its stockholders being landowners
of this part of the state. They began the curing and packing of meat, purchasing
from the farmers on an average of one hundred hogs each week and beef in
proportionate quantity. This stock was killed and packed by the company and
found a ready market, so that the business of the company rapidly increased and
the industry became a boon to the stock raisers of Ada county. The plant has
been developed along the most progressive and complete lines, with every modern
facility for the conduct of the business, and the products placed upon the
market are equal to any. Mr. Evans was the largest stock-holder in the business
at the time of his death, which occurred September 7, 1916, and he was also the
president of the company. Another feature of his public-spirited devotion to Ada
county was found in his intercession with Senator Borah at Washington that the
postoffice and rural route headquarters should be maintained at Eagle instead of
being transferred to Star. 

    Mr. and Mrs. Evans became the parents of three sons. Emmett A., thirty-two
years of age, a prominent farmer and cattle man, is the president of the Boise
Valley Packing Company and one of its largest stockholders. Stephen E., who died
at the age of twenty-eight years, left a widow and one child, Ruth. John C. H.,
seventeen years of age, is living with his mother. 

    The death of Mr. Evans was the occasion of the most deep and widespread
regret. He was killed in a collision of the interurban cars with his automobile
at Yost station, living but five hours after the accident occurred. His remains
were interred in Morris Hill cemetery at Boise and the high regard in which he
was uniformly held was indicated in his funeral, which was one of the largest
ever held in the capital city. In politics he was always an earnest republican
and had been approached by both parties as a candidate for governor but had
steadily refused. He fought untiringly for clean politics but never sought or
desired office, yet there was no position within the gift of his fellow townsmen
in Idaho that he could not have had for the asking. Throughout Idaho he is
spoken of in terms of admiration and respect. His life was so varied in its
activity, so honorable in its purpose, so far-reaching and beneficial in its
effects that it became an integral part of the history of Ada county and of the
annals of the state. In no sense a man in public life, he nevertheless exerted
an immeasurable influence on the place of his residence — in business life as a
promoter of extensive, industrial, commercial and agricultural interests; in
social circles by reason of a charming personality and unfeigned cordiality; and
in politics by reason of his public spirit and devotion to the general good as
well as by his comprehensive understanding of the questions affecting state and
national welfare. It is the enterprise and character of the citizen that enrich
and ennoble the commonwealth, and this the life of Mr. Evans did for Idaho. His
career was marked by the achievement of honorable purposes and the
accomplishment of important projects for the benefit of the commonwealth as well
as for the promotion of his individual fortunes. 


Additional Comments:

Extracted from:

IDAHO
DELUXE SUPPLEMENT
CHICAGO
THE S. J. CLARKE PUBLISHING COMPANY

1920



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