Will County IL Archives Biographies.....Evarts, John I ************************************************ Copyright. All rights reserved. http://www.usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm http://www.usgwarchives.net/il/ilfiles.htm ************************************************ File contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by: Deb Haines ddhaines@gmail.com September 3, 2007, 1:41 am Author: Genealogical/Biographical Publishing Co JOHN I. EVARTS, cashier and owner of the Plainfield Bank, was born in Yorkville, Kendall County, Ill., February 18, 1866. His father, Jeremiah, a native of Georgia, Vt., born in 1836, received his education in the academy of his home town. When twenty-one years of age he came west, which he believed offered greater opportunities for a young man than did his own state. He secured a position as teacher in Kendall County and his work was so satisfactory that he was soon given a more important place, becoming principal of the Plano school. At the outbreak of the war he resigned as principal and went to the front as lieutenant of a company of volunteers, serving for two years, when illness obliged him to resign his commission. His service was one that reflected credit upon his loyalty to the country, as well as his personal bravery. A year after his return he was elected clerk of Kendall County, and this office he held for twenty-four years, meantime making Yorkville his home. He was so prominent and influential that many desired him to become a candidate for congress and he therefore allowed his name to be presented before the Republican convention, where he came within four or five votes of receiving the nomination. In 1888 he moved to Plainfield and established the Plainfield Bank, which he conducted until his death, February 3, 1893. His success was entirely the result of his own industry and wise judgment. While his residence in Plainfield covered only a few years, yet he became well known, and took a leading part in enterprises calculated to advance the welfare of the people. Through his honorable methods of transacting business he gained the confidence of the community. In Yorkville, where for so long a time he made his home, he was a very influential citizen. For a quarter of a century he was connected with the Masonic blue lodge there and he also held membership with the Grand Army post there. His father, Tod Evarts, traced his ancestry to one of two brothers, surveyors, who assisted in surveying much of Vermont and in return were given by the government a large grant of land in that state. Hon. William M. Evarts, United States senator from New York, was a cousin of Jeremiah Evarts. The marriage of Jeremiah Evarts united him with Emma Custin, who was born in Unionville, Ohio, and now makes her home with her only child. In religion she is of the Congregational belief. The subject of this sketch received his education in the Yorkville schools and the Aurora high school, supplemented by a course in the Illinois University at Champaign, where he was a student for two years. He was eighteen when he received an appointment in the United States railway mail service, and during the seven years he retained the position he had a run from Chicago to Burlington, on the Chicago, Burlington & Quincy Railroad, being on the fast mail train. He accompanied his father to Plainfield and entered the bank in 1892. On the death of his father he and his mother were planning to sell the bank, when a petition was brought to him, signed by one hundred and fifty leading citizens of this section, asking him to continue the business. Feeling that, with so strong a support, he could not but succeed, he decided to continue, and the results have proved the decision was a wise one. He is a bright, capable young business man, and his business career, though yet but begun, is a credit to him. He is trusted and honored, and the confidence reposed in him has never been betrayed. Fraternally he is connected with the Woodmen, the Sons of Veterans, and Plainfield Lodge No. 536, A. F. & A. M., the chapter, coMmandery and council of the Masonic order at Joliet. Additional Comments: Genealogical and Biographical Record of Will County Illinois Containing Biographies of Well Known Citizens of the Past and Present Biographical Publishing Company; Chicago 1900 File at: http://files.usgwarchives.net/il/will/bios/evarts1626nbs.txt This file has been created by a form at http://www.genrecords.net/ilfiles/ File size: 4.5 Kb