SAMUEL B. EVANS

EVANS

Posted By: Deb Barker (email)
Date: 3/27/2003 at 00:59:56

BIOGRAPHY: Evans, Samuel B.
From the A.T. Andreas Illustrated Historical Atlas of the State of Iowa, 1875

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SAMUEL B. EVANS was born at Dandridge, Jefferson County, Tennessee, July 31,
1837. When less than five years of age he removed with his parents to Iowa, settling
within the limits of the present county of Davis, at what is now Springtown, where was
established, about March, 1842, the first post-office in the county. Of this office, then
called Fox, Mr. Evans' father – Samuel Anderson Evans - was the first postmaster. Mr.
Evans received a classic education principally at Fairfield, in Jefferson County, at a then
branch of the State University. In 1854-5-6 he studied "the art preservative of all arts," in
various printing offices in Keokuk County. In 1858, in company with Judge Casey, now of
Fort Madison, he established the Iowa Democrat at Sigourney, in the last named county.
In 1860, Judge Casey was succeeded in this enterprise by Mr. J. B. Shellenbarger.
During the second year of "the war," in august, 1862, Mr. Evans entered the
service of the Union, on the non-commissioned staff of Col. S. A. Rice, of the 33d Iowa
Infantry, as commissary sergeant. Subsequently, in September, 1864, he was
commissioned a lieutenant in the 4th Arkansas Cavalry, a loyal white regiment raised in
Arkansas. Immediately previous to the close of the war, Lieutenant Evans was
recommended for promotion to a captaincy in the same regiment. Also, about the
same time, in order to test for his personal satisfaction his military capabilities, he
submitted himself to a rigid examination by a military commission composed of officers of
the regular army, appointed to examine applicants for promotion. By this commission of
which Major General Solomon was President, Lieutenant Evans was recommended for a
captaincy in the regular army. The war closing upon afterward, however, the
recommendations in both cases failed to accomplish the purposes intended.
In the beginning of the great civil conflict, Mr. Shellenbarger also entered the
army, whereupon the publication of the Iowa Democrat ceased, and the office was
closed. In 1863, during this state of suspended journalistic animation, the war of the
Rebellion was supplemented by "the Skunk River War," originating in the deliberate
shooting to death of a Democratic orator in Keokuk County, while making a Democratic
speech. Pending hostilities at this time between the respective belligerents, a party of
home guards from Washington, in the adjoining County of Washington, valiantly assailed
the Democrat office at Sigourney. While ravaging its contents, their patriotism was
excessively aroused by mistaking a figure of Old Ben. Franklin attached to a hand press
for that of the then - in that vicinity - very unpopular Jeff Davis.
In January, 1862, Mr. Evans, in connection with Mr. E. L. Burton, established in
Wapello County the Ottumwa Mercury, with which he resumed active identification as
editor at the close of the war. In 1868, disposing of his interest in the Mercury to Mr.
Samuel H. Burton, who had meanwhile succeeded his brother above named. Mr. Evans
in company with Messrs. H. M. McCully and M. V. B. Bennett, established at Ottumwa
another paper entitled The Copperhead. In 1870, having purchased the interest of both
his partners, Mr. Evans changed this title to that of The Ottumwa Democrat, which title it
still remains. The Ottumwa Democrat is one of the leading newspaper exponents of
Democratic politics in the state. It is published daily and weekly, and is ably conducted
by Mr. Evans, who has remained its sole editor and proprietor from 1870 till the present
time.
Politically, Mr. Evans has ever been a firm and consistent professor of the
Democratic faith. In November, 1866, he was nominated by President Johnson for
postmaster of Ottumwa, but the United States Senate, then politically opposed to the
president, refused to confirm the nomination. In 1872, he represented as a delegate the
sixth district of Iowa in the Democratic National Convention at Baltimore, which
unanimously endorsed the nomination of the Hon. Horace Greeley for president. On
various occasions he has officially and actively participated in state and local
conventions of the same party in Iowa, and exerted a potent influence in its councils and
proceedings.
To Mr. Evans' pressing efforts it mainly attributable the passage by the Legislature,
in 1874, of an act creating a board of three commissioners, of which Mr. Evans is
president, who are charged with the duty of stocking the many streams of the state with
edible fish.
Socially, Mr. Evans, now in the prime of life, is very affable and courteous
gentleman, besides which, he is richly endowed with that energy and mental ability that
never fails to achieve the greatest success.