History of Evan Stephens
Written by his grand niece Rosalie Cole Talbot
I am Evan Stephen's niece and I knew him well and spent many hours with him.
The information I will tell you I did not get from any history book, but from
my personal recollection.
My grandmother, Ann Stephens came to America from Wales as a young girl. She
worked in Brigham Young's home as a seamstress to earn enough money to send for
her family from Wales. When enough was earned she sent for her parents and two
brothers, one of which was Evan, who was 12.
The first time Evan entered the tabernacle he had no shoes to put on, so he
painted his feet with black shoe polish so no one would notice. He marveled at
its beauty, little knowing his whole life would be centered around that
building.
The family settled in Willard. Evan got a job tending sheep. He spent his
time filling bottles to different levels of water and playing tunes on them.
Many of the sheep got lost and he told the owner of the sheep he'd have to
obtain more sheep if he wanted him to tend them. The owner took Evan's wages
to buy more sheep.
In 1890 he became the conductor of the Tabernacle Choir. At that time there
were 125 voices. He later raised the volume to more than 600 voices. It was
Evan Stephens who made the Tabernacle Choir famous. Prior to that time it was
a simple church choir.
In 1893 he took the choir to the Chicago World Fair and entered it in the World
Fair Choral Contest. The choir took 2nd place, but he told me it would have
taken 1st place if they hadn't have been Mormons.
He took the choir to New York's Madison Square Gardens, tours around the United
States, and sang in the White House for President Taft.
When I was a child I can remember his coming to Malad to visit. He would play
and sing songs for the children at my grandmother's house. We would all sit on
the carpet behind the stove and listen. It was great when Uncle Evan came to
Malad. His parents and brothers and sisters all lived there. They did a lot
of speaking in Welsh when they all got together.
One time they asked him to lead the singing for Practice Time in Sunday School.
He used up all the rest of the Sunday School time, and there were no classes
that day.
I remember many times going to Salt Lake and visiting in his home. It was
beautiful. There were several flowing wells on the grounds so he had built
lakes with fish in them. He used to sit on his balcony and catch fish for his
breakfast. He also had an island and caves. He used to let me sit in one of
the Tabernacle Choir seats during conference, sort of over at the side.
He has his studio next to his bedroom so if a tune came to his mind he'd get
right up and write it down.
He had two round houses a little ways from his main house where he would eat in
the summer. They were screened.
A relative of ours from Wales, Sarah Daniels, lived with him all those years
and was his housekeeper. Evan Stephens never married. My mother used to ask
him why he never married. He used to say that there were so many nice women
and he liked them all, so how could he decide whom to marry.
He wrote many songs and anthems, many of which are in our hymnbook or choir
books. The one I especially liked was an anthem called A Song of the Redeemed.
He was offered money for it, but he gave it to the church.
Some people acclaim "True to the Faith" as his best. He wrote it while
wandering through City Creek. He stubbed his toe and had to go back to where
he started his walk to regain the melody.
After 26 years he resigned as conductor of the Tabernacle Choir in 1916. He
was given a big farewell party.
He only had 10 months of formal music training, and that was in the New England
Conservatory of Music in Boston.
He died in 1930 and his funeral was in the Tabernacle and it was filled to
capacity. He left everything he owned to Sarah Daniels with the stipulation
that at her death it would all go to the church.
Sarah Daniels later had herself sealed to Evan Stephens.
