Evan Evans
Born 17 January 1804,
Hirwaun, Glamorganshire, Wales
Died: 15 July 1862, Brigham City, Utah
By Marcia Evans Daugherty
Evan Evans was born January 17, 1804, the second of eight children born to Rachel Morgan
Evans and David Evans in Hirwain, Wales. Evan was a mason by trade, building many
beautiful buildings.
Evan married Jennet (Janet) Jones of Penderyn, Wales, on May 15, 1826. They spent most of
their married life in Merthyr, Tydfil and were the parents of 11 children, three of the children
died while they still lived in Wales.
The Evans family heard of a new religion, Mormonism, and began to investigate this new
religion. The church had already become a stronghold in England from Wilford Woodruff's
first baptism in 1837 and was beginning to stretch its forces into the small country of Wales.
At a conference held January 7, 1845, Dan Jones, who had recently arrived from America,
was appointed President of the Wrexham conference. He was a native Welshman from
Flintshire and had already embraced the gospel and journeyed to Zion. He was now being
brought back to teach his own people in their own language. President Jones was a guiding
influence in bringing thousands of people into the Church and helping them migrate to Utah.
During the first year of his ministry there were 700 members baptized within Wales. The next
year he then assumed leadership in Merthyr Tydfil, which had experience enormous and
economic growth during the past two decades. It was during this time that Evan and Janet
joined the church. Besides Evan and Janet and their 8 children, his brother Edward D., sister
Mary Rowland and her family and a niece Rachel also joined the church. Many of their family
were very upset over their decision and tried to keep them in Wales.
Evan and Janet soon decided that staying in Wales was becoming harder and harder for them.
The Mormons were being persecuted because of their beliefs. Many of the local ministers and
townspeople had threatened to do to them what was done to Joseph Smith. They longed to be
with the Saints in Utah. President Jones's stories of the State of Deseret continued to excite
them and they prepared to leave with the Saints aboard the Buena Vista in February of 1849.
Their brother Edward D. and their niece Rachel Rowland and her family was with them.
The boat with President Jones in charge set sail from Liverpool on the February 26th, 1849,
with 249 enthusiastic, rejoicing Welshmen singing a special farewell song. Left behind were
some of the Saints who were unable to board the Buena Vista" due to lack of room. They had
to wait behind to book passage on the Hartley which sailed one week later.
Some of the Saints were a little apprehensive of the trip. A message in a Baptist periodical
had made the prediction that after receiving enough money to get a ship of ships to voyage to
California, their chief, President Dan Jones, will sail them to Cuba, or some place like it and
sell them as slaves, "every jack one of them". It would "serve them right, every jack of them
for having such little respect for the book of Christ and giving it up for the Book of Mormon".
They had a good laugh about it as they watched the boat pass Cuba and land in New Orleans.
The ship landed in New Orleans on April 18th, and the passengers prepared to make their way
to Utah. Tragedy was waiting the group, for on their trip up the Missouri River, Cholera
struck, 44 of the passengers died including their little two- year old Evan, Evan and Janet's
little son. He was buried on the bank of the Missouri River.
The family lived in Council Buffs for three years and then made their way to Utah in 1852
with the William Morgan Company. Evan started working on the Salt Lake temple in the Fall
of 1852, building a rock fence around the temple grounds. He was chosen to help lay the
cornerstone of the Salt Lake Temple, and worked on the construction of the temple until late
1855. The church got word of Johnson's army coming to Utah they were concerned that their
beloved temple would be destroyed so all construction halted until the danger was over. I
believe that is when they moved to Brigham City.
Evan died July 15, 1862, in Brigham City, Utah. Janet died Nov. 14, 1879, in Brigham City.
They are both buried in the Brigham City cemetery by two of their little grandchildren.
(Rachel Evans Jones children)
Their son, Edward Jones Evans, my great grandfather was one of the first settlers in the
Malad, Idaho valley.
CHILDREN OF EVAN AND JANET:
David Phillip Evans B: 21 July 1826
William Jones Evans B: 18 March 1828
Margaret Evans B: 21 October 1830
Rachel Evans B: 16 January 1833
Morgan Evans B: 1835
Edward Jones Evans B: 30 January 1838
Richard Evans B: 1839
Mary Evans B: 1840
John Evans B: 1842
Mary Evans B: 1844
Evan Evans B: 1847
(Courtesy of Marcia Evans Daugherty)
