Edward D.Evans/Alice Richards Family Story
Edward D. Evans was a mason, bricklayer,
tiler, and plasterer in Wales. During the 1840s he met the Latter-day Saint
missionary Dan Jones. Convinced that Jones's message was true, Edward, age 36,
became passenger #179 on the Buena Vista. After 248 other emigrating members
and he gathered in Swansea, they then traveled to Liverpool, England, from
which the Buena Vista sailed on Feb. 26, 1849, arriving in New Orleans on April
19, 1849.
Dan Jones wrote of their departure: "On
Monday, the 26th of February, about two o'clock in the afternoon we set sail
from the port, and all the saints, accompanied by the harp, sang 'The Saints'
Farewell' as we left the dock. Their sweet voices resounded throughout the
city, attracting the attention of and causing amazement to thousands of
spectators who followed us along the shore...."
Edward was not the only sibling in his
family to believe the good news brought by the missionaries from America. His
younger brother Daniel was baptized and served as president of the Hirwaun
Branch of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints from January 1848 to
December 1850. He remained in Wales and passed away there in 1857. In addition
Edward’s older brother
Evan Morgan Evans and his wife Janet Jones Evans were passengers #199 and #200
with him on the Buena Vista. Their children David, William, Margaret, Rachel,
Morgan, Edward, Mary, and Evan were also aboard. Finally Edward’s niece Rachel, daughter of his oldest brother
David and his wife Mary Jones Evans, joined the Church when she was 15. Her
husband William Rowland and she were also passengers on the Buena Vista.
During the voyage Edward Evans met Alice
Richards. Alice was born in Merthyr Tydfil, Wales. Merthyr Tydfil and Edward’s birthplace of Hirwaun are within eight miles
of each other. Alice was passenger #8
when she sailed on the Buena Vista at age 22 with her father David Richards,
age 50, and her younger sister Ann, who at age 18 was passenger #49.
Once in New Orleans, the Welsh saints took a
steamboat to St. Louis and then went on to Council Bluffs. William Morgan,
branch president over the Welsh Branch in Council Bluffs, performed the
marriage of Alice Richards to Edward Evans Nov. 6, 1849, but the new couple did
not leave immediately for the Salt Lake Valley. Between 1849 and 1863 they
found work in Missouri and Nebraska, states in which five of their seven
children were born. Daniel, David, and Mary Jane were born in Missouri while
Edward and William joined the family in Nebraska. In 1863, when Daniel was 13,
David was 10, Mary Jane was 8, Edward was 6, and William was 3, the family
traveled by ox-driven wagon to Logan in the territory of Deseret. From there in
1868 they moved to Malad Valley in what would become the state of Idaho.
In
Malad the Evans’s oldest son Daniel Richards Evans met his wife
Ann Elizabeth Colton, and they courted for five years. They were married on
Oct. 25, 1878, in Salt Lake City. Daniel was baptized into the LDS Church in
1877, the same day as were his twin sisters Alice and Ann, both born in Logan
in 1865. Willing to serve, he accepted a call to be first counselor to Bishop
James P. Harrison of the St. John Ward in Malad Valley and served in this
capacity for 22 years.
This
Evans clan lived in the same neighborhood. Daniel and Ann lived in the house
just east of his parents Edward and Alice. They in turn lived on the corner
across the street from his sister Mary Jane, whose home was a block south of
the original First Ward chapel. When Daniel and Ann bought a lot three blocks
north on the same side of the street as the chapel, they sold their first home
to his younger brother Will.
Daniel
was a carpenter, contractor, and undertaker. He bought his first shop on
Bannock Street, east of Hugh Evans’s blacksmith shop. Later he had a shop in town by the new Peck
Hotel. Daniel and his brother-in-law Hyrum Sawyer went into business together
as contractors and called their business Sawyer and Evans. They built a brick
building on the south side of the shop and rented it to the Studebaker Company.
Daniel passed away on Aug. 20, 1932, and is buried in the St. John Cemetery.
Edward
and Alice’s second son David Richards Evans went to
Montana at the age of 15 to work for a freighting company. Later he formed his
own freighting business. He met the trains at Corinne in the territory of Utah
and hauled freight to Montana and Eagle Rock (now Idaho Falls).
In 1880
David married Charlotte Parry in Malad. After the railroad arrived in southeast
Idaho, David’s freighting business became obsolete so he then
worked in the pool hall in Malad and helped his entrepreneur wife Charlotte,
who opened her own restaurant next to the Davis Drug Store. He loved to dance
and listen to music. Even after Charlotte died, their granddaughters could
sometimes see him dancing through his parlor window.
When
David died in 1943, his obituary in the Idaho Enterprise stated: “As
one of the early pioneers in the Malad Valley, he endured many of the hardships
incident to the settlement of this valley and took an active part in the early
development of Malad.”
Edward
and Alice’s first daughter Mary Jane Richards Evans
married John Lewis Thomas in 1878 in Malad. He worked as a freighter and was
then sheriff of Malad. She died in 1934.
Edward
and Alice’s third son Edward Richards Evans married Sarah
Bush in 1899. He passed away in 1939.
Edward
and Alice’s fourth son William Richards Evans was a
freight wagon driver as a young man, traveling from Corinne to Butte, Montana.
He drove teams with his future brother-in-law John L. Thomas and with Thomas
Parry, Jedd Jones, Jess L. Thomas, and Ben Jones. Unfortunately a fall from a
horse left Will lame in one leg. Eventually he used a crutch and later worked
as a carpenter with his brother Daniel.
Will
met Margaret Price in school and married her in the home of Justice of the
Peace James E. Jones on May 12, 1881. They first lived in a one-room log house
until the summer of 1883, when they bought his brother Daniel’s
home at 270 West 300 North. It had only one room, but Will and his brother Dan
built another room on the back. There the family had a pump organ.
When he
could no longer walk without a crutch because of his bad leg, Will won the
office of county treasurer for one term. He then became clerk of School District
#1, a position he held for many years. He also served as secretary of the Malad
Valley Irrigation Company. On Jan. 18, 1899, he became cashier of J.N. Ireland
Bank, holding that position for 25 years. William passed away on Feb. 14, 1924,
in Malad.
Evans
twins Alice and Annie were only three when the family moved from Logan to
Malad. Alice married Richard Morris Evans, and Annie married VeurLam Dives in
the same year, 1883.
There
are many descendants of the Edward David and Alice Richards Evans family still
living in Malad Valley today. They include the families of Susan Wittman, Myra
Jean John, and Carolyn Ward, all descendants of Daniel Richards Evans. The
families of Dave Evans, Dennis Evans, and Wayne Jones descend from David
Richards Evans. The Sharon Hess family descends from Mary Jane Richards Evans.
The families of Paul Evans, LaRee Sperry, Betty Richards, Jared Crowther, and
Bob Crowther all descend from William Richards Evans. The Larry Dives family
descends from Annie Evans.
Sources:
"Are You
Afraid to Die?", Best-loved Stories of the LDS People, pp. 73-74.
Biography of
Daniel Richards Evans, Charlotte Evans and Ardelle Williams, Malad Valley
History: Early Settlers of Malad Valley, Pre-1880, vol. 2, pp. 31-33.
Biography of David Richard Evans, Marilyn Jones,
Malad Valley History: Early Settlers of Malad Valley, Pre-1880, vol. 2, pp.
34-36.
Biography of Evan Evans, Marcia Evans Daugherty,
www.welshmormonhistory.org.
Evans family histories by Betty Richards.
History of the Latter-day Saints, Captain Dan
Jones, translation by Ronald D. Dennis.
"Malad Valley's Welsh Tradition Began in
Samaria" by Jean Thomas, special Malad Welsh Festival edition of The
Oneida Enterprise, June 30 - July 1, 2006.
Our Heritage, a Brief History of The Church of
Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, p. 63.
Records of Ren
Dives of Malad, Idaho.
“St.
John, Oneida County, Idaho: a Collection of Personal Histories From the Time of
the First Settlers to the Present Day,”
Charlotte Evans, p. 112.
The Call of Zion, Ronald D. Dennis, pp. 70-71.
The Call of Zion, Ronald D. Dennis, appendix B.
