David Evans
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Descendants
Ancestors
Bishop David Evans
A View of His Character
Presented June 22, 2001 by John A. Nielsen johnn@davidevans.org.
[Portrait of David Evans] Gordon B. Hinckley, President of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints said, “It is good to look to the past to gain appreciation for the present and perspective for the future. It is good to look upon the virtues of those who have gone before, to gain strength for whatever lies ahead. It is good to reflect upon the work of those who labored so hard and gained so little in this world, but out of whose dreams and early plans, so well nurtured, has come a great harvest of which we are the beneficiaries. Their tremendous example can become a compelling motivation for us all, for each of us is a pioneer in his own life.” The life of David Evans gives us, as his descendants, an ocean of events upon which to reflect and appreciate his dreams, labors and virtues.
[Immigrant Ship on Atlantic Ocean] The ancestry of David Evans is that of early Welsh and Scot-Irish colonists. Family tradition holds that his father Israel Evans was born on the Atlantic when Israel’s parents immigrated to the American colonies about 1770. It is not known were the family settled, but the lands along the Susquehanna and its tributaries in Pennsylvania were a common destination for many of the Welsh who sought the religious freedoms incorporated in the “great law” of Pennsylvania’s constitution.
[1795 Cecil Co. Map] The family of David’s mother, Abigail Alexander, lived on a 128-acre homestead east of the Big Elk River in Cecil Co., Maryland shown on this map in the upper right. Abigail’s great-grandfather, Joseph Alexander had emigrated with his siblings from Ulster, Ireland in 1683 to this homestead, which was part of the larger tract known as New Munster. [New Munster Signpost] They came to worship in the colonies without the encumbrances of British edict or Irish confinement as the Alexander’s were part of the Scot-Irish Presbyterians who had earlier emigrated from southwestern Scotland at the request of the British King to Ulster, Ireland where they were persecuted by Irish Nationalists during the religious upheaval of the protestant reformation in the 1600’s.
[Rock Presbyterian Church] Israel Evans and Abigail Alexander were married at New Munster, 4 October 1802, possibly at this Rock Presbyterian Church, which had earlier been built by the Alexander’s and still stands near Appleton, Maryland. [Water Powered Mill] Israel and Abigail lived on the Alexander homestead, where Josiah Alexander, Abigail’s father, operated a mill. David and his older sister Eliza were born on the homestead here and were no doubt imbued with the independent spirit of their heritage.
[Susquehanna and Juanita Rivers] About 1810, David’s parents followed the Susquehanna and Juanita Rivers to Spruce Creek in Huntingdon Co., Pennsylvania, 180 miles northwest at the edge of the Appalachian Mountains as show on the map. This move provided fresh farming ground and new economic opportunity, as the Spruce Creek valley was a corridor for settlers headed to the lands of the Ohio River and its tributaries. Israel built a large log tavern here, a few miles up Spruce Creek, where David’s younger siblings, Jesse (1811), Nancy (1814) and Israel, Jr. (1823) were born.
[Juanita River at Spruce Creek Bridge] David and his siblings are sure to have had a principled upbringing here; experiencing the tavern enterprise of their father and possibly the many iron furnaces and forges of the area. They also saw their father’s civic mindedness, as he served as Constable of Franklin Twp. in 1824; and likely gained a meager but valuable education of reading and writing during the winters. Association with their mother’s relatives who had earlier moved to Centre Hall, Centre Co. over the mountain in the northern part of the larger valley is certain to have endowed them with a sense of belonging and family.
[Columbiana Co. Map] David courted Mary Beck, whose family were early settlers in Huntingdon Co., and married her 25 July 1826. Soon after, they followed the trail of many others they had seen before, travelling across the Appalachian Mountains to the Ohio River and into Columbiana Co., Ohio, settling in Hanover Twp. near the Big Sandy River shown by the yellow line here. [Israel Evans, Jr. Portrait] About the same time David’s parents moved to Chatham, Ontario, Canada, 50 miles east of Detroit, Michigan where Israel, Jr. achieved prominence.
[Israel Evans Portrait] David took up farming at his new home and soon his first two children, Eliza Jane (1827) and Israel (1828) were born. [Alexander Campbell] It may have been here that David began to consider his religious beliefs, as he learned about and possibly joined the Campbellites whose goal, in the language of founder Alexander Campbell, was to co-operate together for “the restoration of pure primitive apostolic Christianity…”
[Richland Co. Map] Another move for the young family came in 1830, when David purchased 80 acres of public land in Worthington Twp., Richland Co., Ohio, 100 miles west of their home in Hanover Twp. [Henry and Mary Ann Evans Portraits] Henry (1830) and Mary Ann (1832) were born here where David cleared the land gave the fresh ground its first plowing.
[Ohio Farm Landscape] Here, they met Thomas Tripp, a missionary of the recently (1830) formed Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. [Joseph Smith Portrait] Thomas told David and Mary of Joseph Smith and a restoration of the primitive church and with additional teaching, David and Mary came to the belief that a restoration had indeed occurred, for he and Mary were baptized members of this new Church, 6 April 1833 by Thomas Tripp.
David soon found that his new religion required great sacrifice from his family and commitment as he was ordained a Priest and soon after an Elder by Thomas Tripp and called to spread the news of the restoration to his neighbors. David sold his farm to finance his missionary activities, and while his family likely resided in Perry Twp., David, in his own words, “proclaim[ed] the gladsome news of the everlasting gospel,” later writing that he had baptized 74 people in 1833 and 30 in one day. For the next eight years, David spent a large part of his time preaching to the citizens of northeast Ohio, northwest Missouri and western Illinois with fair success, but not without faith, persistence and peril to his safety.
[Missionary Preaching] While visiting Georgetown in Columbiana Co. in 1835 David wrote, “I was sent by a landlord to a Methodist Preacher…I desired of him to let me preach. He replied, he would not, at the same time making many objections—such as deceivers, false prophets, etc. However he challenged me for a debate; and finding that I could not get any other way to preach to the people of that place—I thought proper to accept the challenge—feeling confident that after the debate I would get an invitation. We met…and held the debate upon the principles of religion. After the debate was over, I was invited to preach, and made an appointment the same evening…compar[ing] the Methodist Episcopal discipline with the sacred scriptures. Since then I have been informed, that all the citizens of that place decided in my favor, with the exception of two individuals.”
[Tarring and Feathering] On another occasion, after arriving in Illinois in 1839, David Evans was preaching in the home of Charles Jameson, whose family he had converted in Ohio in 1834. At the close of this meeting, ten men intruded with the intent of tarring and feathering David. At this point, Charles stepped between his good friend and the mob saying, “The first man that lays a hand on David Evans will have to walk over the body of Charles Jameson.” The mob then retreated fearfully.
[Mormon Panorama Five/Zion’s Camp] In the midst of these evangelistic efforts, David, in 1834, marched 1000 miles to Jackson Co., Missouri with a group known as Zion’s Camp led by Joseph Smith. This groups purpose was to restore fellow Church members to their properties, which they had been forced to abandon, but the group suffered sickness, bad weather, and lack of proper food and shelter, ultimately returning to Ohio without achieving their desired goal.
[Seventy’s Wall Chart] When the Church was further organized in 1835, Joseph Smith turned to those in Zion’s Camp who had been faithful during the long march, calling some to the Quorum of Twelve and others including David Evans to the Quorum of Seventy as listed in this handbill produced years later. This new calling brought with it responsibility as a presiding Elder in the communities David lived.
[Newell K. Whitney Store] During the winter of 1835, when his daughter Margaret was born, David sought further education, attending the School of the Prophets in Kirtland, Ohio, which, had the prior year been held in the upper room of the Newell K. Whitney Store. He heard the Lectures on Faith from Joseph Smith and learned penmanship, grammar, arithmetic and other subjects from Sidney Rigdon, Frederick G. Williams and William E. McLellan.
[Haun’s Mill Stones] After two winters of schooling in 1836, David resolved to follow the request of Joseph Smith for a number of families to relocate to newly formed Caldwell Co. in Missouri. When spring arrived, David, as Presiding Elder, led a group of families, many of them his converts, from the Perry Twp. area 800 miles west to a location on Shoal Creek were Jacob Haun had established a mill the previous fall. The two grinding stones from this mill are located today in the Breckenridge City Park and Independence LDS Visitors Center.
[Haun’s Mill Scenery] David and Mary lived in a home about a mile and a half north of the mill, giving them this view of Shoal Creek at the edge of the trees. While living here they endured the death of their 19-month-old daughter Margaret, as well as the birth and death in 1838 of newborn daughter Araminta. Resentment and intolerance to the Mormon’s beliefs and way of life was building and David with others sought to make peace with the neighboring militia’s in the counties north and east of Haun’s Mill, but feelings overflowed among the Missourians creating the subsequent tragic events of 1838.
[Mormon Panorama Eight/Haun’s Mill] Much later in life, as C. C. A. Christensen presented his scroll of canvas paintings in the Lehi Meetinghouse, David was asked to describe the events that followed as he viewed this painting. David with emotion as he relived the happenings of those events, took a long pointer and “gave the direction from which 249 members of the State Militia on the afternoon of 30 October 1838, charged the little village of 30 families on Shoal Creek at Haun’s Mill…He met the mob crying ‘Peace, peace,’ but there was no peace. He pointed to where a woman [was] wounded and [having] fainted fell by the side of a log that afterwards was peppered with bullets.” After detailing the murders of seventeen fellow citizens and how the mob “proceeded to carry away all that was loose and within reach,” his pointer marked on the painting the partially dug well where he later gathered with others to hastily bury the dead.
[Mormon Panorama Eleven/Leaving Missouri] The imposed resolution of this conflict was for the Mormons to leave the state of Missouri, which David and the saints at Haun’s Mill ill-prepared as they were, were obliged to do early in 1839 arriving in [Quincy Bridge/Emma] Quincy, Adams Co., Illinois to a populace more sympathetic to their plight. David and his family possibly found refuge with the family of Ezekiel and Charlotte Downs, twelve miles south of Quincy near Payson, Illinois. Soon David and Mary were living in a makeshift log cabin and sleeping in the wagon box where Mary’s last child Emma was born in 1840, but the toll on [Old Payson Cemetery] Mary from the exposure of the past years exacted its price and Mary died in 1841 possibly near this cemetery in Payson, Illinois.
These trials gave David substantial opportunity to abandon his convictions, and move on to more comfortable paths, but his character, conviction and faith caused him to persevere in the path he had already chosen, for he continued his missionary teaching in western Illinois with Jacob Foutz as a companion, baptizing the Downs family, Abraham Hunsaker and others. [Barbara Ann Ewell Portrait] He also found a mother for his young children, marrying twenty-year-old Barbara Ann Ewell, 23 November 1841, whose family he had baptized in 1837 while in Missouri.
[David Evans Nauvoo Farm picture] A move south of Nauvoo this 10-acre farm purchased from Abraham Hunsaker, still being farmed today, came when David was appointed as Bishop of the Nauvoo Eleventh Ward in 1842. David helped to establish a community field where the poorer saints without means could cultivate gardens to provide food for their families. [Martha, Amanda and Abigail] His charity to those in need was evident from this and other activities, while living on the farm where Martha, Amanda and Abigail were born. [Building the Nauvoo Temple] David also encouraged and collected goods, as an agent of the Church, as the saints sacrificed to build the Nauvoo Temple pictured here about 1846.
[Leaving Nauvoo] The relative peace of the years in Illinois did not last long, as intolerance of the Mormons built in Illinois, eventually leading to the murder of Church founder Joseph Smith and preparations to leave Nauvoo in 1846. David chose to follow the counsel of Brigham Young, who now led the Church, in providing wagons, tools, wheat and other supplies to the advance parties, which left David and his own group without sufficient means to leave Nauvoo. [On the Trail near Farmington] As Barbara Ann recounts, “The brethren united together and made wagons for those that had none [and] by that means all had wagons, but not teams, and we were obliged to get away, as the mob was howling around…so my husband…concluded to take the teams they had and move as many as they could. We made a start with what teams we had, crossed the Mississippi River, went a day’s journey” traveling on trail shown here, “and set the families down on the prairie. The next day they took the teams and brought the rest.”
[Des Moines River at Farmington, Iowa] Most of the company of poorer saints remained on the prairie near Farmington, Iowa pictured here and worked for oxen and the needed supplies, while some proceeded on to the [Garden Grove] Garden Grove way station. Israel and others in the group likely volunteered at Garden Grove for the Mormon Battalion and traveled on to [Mormon Battalion mustering] Council Bluffs where they were mustered in. Barnet Manzer, while at Council Bluffs, asked for direction from Brigham Young on behalf of the group back at Farmington and was told they should try to reach Mt. Pisgah, open farms and prepare for later travel. [Nodaway River] The remainder of the group at Farmington, with this direction and David as their captain, reached the Nodaway River near the location pictured here, west of Mt. Pisgah late in the fall of 1846, where they set up winter camp, building log huts and putting up hay. As winter set in and supplies ran short, the group decided to head south to the northern Missouri settlements, but lost their way in the snow.
[Winter Camp / Joseph J. Smith Portrait] David, with Joseph J. Smith and a man by the name of Shaw in desperation sought help, but found “The people were so prejudiced against the Mormons, they were almost to return without anything. [David] told the people he would return and die with the rest of the people. One gentleman spoke and said, ‘Can't you do something for these men; they seem to be honest?’ The men began to volunteer, and he soon had all the provisions and teams he wanted.” [Maryville Scenery/Courthouse] David then brought the group to Maryville, Missouri, which was the seat of the recently created Nodaway County. [Joseph, Sarah and Susannah] Joseph, Sarah and Susannah were born here. They repaid the benevolence of the people and prepared to complete the trek west to the Salt Lake Valley where the saints were gathering.
[Hyde Park/Council Bluffs Scenery] As the group traveled to Hyde Park near Council Bluffs, also known as Kanesville in 1850 and thence for the Salt lake Valley, David’s eldest daughter [Crosland Sculpture] Eliza Jane died of cholera and another child, Emma, injured by a fall from the wagon was carried by David most of the way to ease the pain of the injury. [Parley’s Canyon] These trials seemed to push David on and they arrived as one of the first groups to use the new trail through Parley’s Canyon in September 1850.
[Early Lehi Survey Map] Seasoned by the events of his earlier life, David was prepared to direct the establishing of a community on Dry Creek, north of Utah Lake in the center of this map, where he arrived in the spring of 1851 with some who had surveyed the area the previous fall and others who had come with him across the plains. He was soon made Bishop of the Dry Creek Ward and later of the Lehi Ward. [Diversion Weir] His leadership and foresight was soon apparent as water was secured from Dry Creek and a seven-mile ditch from American Fork Canyon (in the background of the picture) to Dry Creek (in the middle of picture) under the initiative of David Evans. [Dry Creek Ditch] “One rod, [about sixteen and on-half feet,] was considered a good days work for a man. Tools were scare and of poor quality, while the sun baked soil was full of cobblestones and otherwise hard to dig. Under such hardships, the men…would undoubtedly have abandoned the enterprise, but for the influence of the Bishop. His good humor and witticisms never failed, and with rare tact and diplomacy he kept the men from brooding over their troubles and inspired them with new hope and courage.”
[Log School] Bishop Evans directed other enterprises in early Lehi, such as the building of the log schoolhouse (1851) and later [Lehi Meetinghouse] the adobe meetinghouse (1855) that were used for church meetings, school and community gatherings. [Harwood Fort Wall Painting] In 1854, he surveyed the original sixteen-block city plat and directed the construction of a fort wall surrounding the plat. [Legislative Council House] David also took on other early leadership roles as representative in the first Legislative Assembly of the Utah Territory (1851) (serving at the Council House now located south of the Capitol building in Salt Lake City), Mayor of Lehi and Colonel in the Territorial Militia.
[Sarah Thornton Coleman Portrait] David Evans entered polygamy marrying Sarah Thornton Coleman, a widow with children in 1852; [Clymenia Shaw and Edna Hinchcliff Portraits] and in 1854 Clymenia Shaw and Edna Hinchcliff. [David, Jr., Hyrum, Barbara Ann and Rozilla Portraits] During this period, David, Jr., Hyrum, Barbara Ann and Rozilla were born to David and Barbara Ann. Some of the older children were now married and starting families of there own. [James and Edwin] James and Edwin were also born at this time when Johnston’s Army had entered Utah and many of the Saints had moved south into Utah Valley. Polygamy would bring David some heartache, but it also gave him a large family and posterity. [Fruit Tree Orchard] David must have had some amusement when he returned home one day and finding one of his children playing unacceptably in a fruit tree behind the home, called out, “Get out of that fruit tree!” and not one, but several of his children dropped like apples from the branches of the trees in the orchard.
[Rebecca Coleman Portrait] David married Rebecca Coleman in 1856 before problems came to a head with Edna in 1857. Apparently some of David’s children did not get along well with Edna and with the loss of two babies and David’s busy activities, Edna divorced David and moved to Riverdale. About this time, David wrote to his family after hearing Brigham Young preach of the Reformation to strengthen the Saints. [David Evans Younger Portrait] Expressing his love and concern he said, “I think of my family, and pray for you daily that the Reformation may sink deep into each of your hearts, and the Lord bless you all with understanding hearts that you may understand some of the things that are coming upon the earth, and also upon the Saints if they repent not. When I come home I shall endeavor to proceed further in setting my family in order that the fire of the Lord may be kindled in every heart in my house and round about it…”
David was involved in a number of business interests: wool processing machinery, a threshing machine, a tannery and the [Lehi Union Exchange Buildings] Lehi Union Exchange. Others did not always agree with his methods or tactics in these enterprises and some were vocal in expressing their feelings. [Younger David Evans] David once said, “I am a man of turbulent disposition and have continual Warfare with myself.” He was once counseled by Daniel H. Wells, “you are a little like myself in some respects, rather hasty, have an irascible temper, which it would be better to control… Be this as it may we should sustain ourselves free and unbiased…and seek to conciliate the good feelings of all good men and still pursue the even tenor of our way…”
[Margaret Christine Holm Portrait] David married his last polygamous wife Margaret Christine Holm in 1861 and his family was completed. [Barbara Ann Last Children] Barbara Ann bore Eleazer, Mosiah, Mary and Jacob. [Rebecca Last Children] Rebecca bore Harriet, Sarah, Emma Jane, Martha and Ella. [Christine Children] Christine bore John, Margaret, Jane, Hannah, Rachel and Clara. All of his wives and children were engaged in home industry, much of it related to wool in washing, cording, spinning, coloring and weaving it in cloth and clothing. [Spinning Wheel] Some of his daughters later wrote of cherished memories of “the pleasant evenings they enjoyed together busy at handiwork while one of them read aloud to the others.” Education was also important and tradition recounts that “determined that his children should learn to read and write, [he] wrote the alphabet and simple words, by hand, which they copied. As their abilities increased with practice they were given other things to learn.”
[David Evans Homes] David retired from the Militia in 1865, the Legislature in 1874, the Exchange in 1880 and as Bishop in 1879 and with each change; more time was spent with family. Lieutenant Jesse Gove once remarked, “The Bishop is a corpulent and quite sociable old man. A multitude of children were running about the house; they were very well behaved, made no noise, kept out of the way and bore a very retiring disposition; they took care of each other, the elder ones acting as matrons to their younger relatives…” Occasionally though, a daughter related that in disciplining, David would “take a little pinch of skin between his thumb and finger and twist it. If he was a little too rough, the little bruise on their arm reminded them to behave.”
[Older David Evans Portrait] David Evans death came 23 October 1883, at age 79, after a stroke had left him partially paralyzed. Many attended his funeral and a large procession followed to his burial. Elder Wilford Woodruff made special mention of David Evans when he recorded in his 1883 journal “his testimony to the character of men who died devoted to the Church, true to their covenants and faithful to the last.” As descendants of David Evans, we are now the beneficiaries of his life’s labors, his dreams and his plans. We can appreciate his independence, perseverance, leadership, charity, faith and conviction. We can gain strength from his virtues and motivation as we pioneer our own lives, just as did our pioneer grandfather, David Evans.
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