My Genealogy Hound

GILMAN EVANS. Prominent among the early settlers, and successful and enterprising men of Lincoln township, is the subject of this sketch. He was born in Jefferson county, N. Y., Aug. 11, 1839, and was reared and educated in Jefferson county. Is the son of Albert and Margaret Evans, his father being a native of New Hampshire and his mother born in New York. Of ten children our subject was the second child. He worked on a farm and attended school until October, 1852, and then taught his first school. He worked on a farm the next summer and again the following winter. May 25, 1861, he enlisted in Company I, Thirty-fifth Illinois Infantry, and was mustered in at Elmira, N, Y., and went to Washington City and joined the Army of the Potomac. The principal battles he engaged in were Fredericksburg and Atlanta, and was mustered out in June, 1863, as sergeant, Nov. 28, 1863, he re-enlisted in Company L, Eighteenth Illinois Cavalry, and was detailed as commissary-sergeant, under General Sheridan. Went to New Orleans and operated in Louisiana and Texas, and was mustered out May 31, 1866, in Victoria, Texas. Then returned to New York and engaged in teaching school and farming. Came to Jasper county and bought his present farm May 12, 1867, there being only four families in the township at that time. He was married to Miss Rebecca John, Feb. 16, 1871, she being born in Woodford county, Ill., Aug. 20, 1852, daughter of George and Elizabeth John, her father a native of Pennsylvania and her mother a native of Ohio. Mrs. Evans was the youngest of ten children. Her father died when she was small, and she moved to Dade county in 1866. Mr. Evans located on his present farm of 386 acres in February, 1871, which is all under cultivation and pasturage, except ten acres of timber-land; it is well watered with four living springs and three wells; has a good frame dwelling, one and a half stories high; has a good barn and granary, and a good orchard. Mr. Evans is one of the substantial farmers, and in politics is a Republican. He has one child, named George A., and himself and family stand high in the community.