My Genealogy Hound

DR. ROBERT F. EVANS, a prominent and leading physician of Shelbyville, was born August 24, 1821, in Caroline County, Va., being the only son of a family of eight children born to the marriage of David S. Evans and Judith Bowlware, both natives of Virginia, of Welsh and English descent, respectively. The father came with his family to Bedford County in 1832; and followed farming until 1840, when he bought the Evans House and began the hotel business, which he continued till the war. He died in 1869, the mother surviving him one year. Dr. Evans was eleven years old when coming to this county, and was reared on a farm. He assisted his father in the hotel business a short time and then studied medicine for several years. He graduated in the University of Pennsylvania in 1847, and then returned to Shelbyville, where he has been successfully engaged in the practice of his profession ever since, except in 1850-51, when he was on a western tour. He was married, December 24, 1867, to Mrs. Mary C. Fite, who was the mother of two children by her former marriage, viz.: Dr. C. C. Fite, assistant physician at the East Tennessee Insane Asylum, Knoxville, Tenn.; and Jennie M. Fite, now the wife of Surg. A. M. Moore, of the United States Naval Service, Washington, D. C. The marriage of Dr. Evans has been blessed in the birth of two children, Stella and Mary F. He his wife and youngest daughter are members of the Episcopal Church, and his eldest daughter of the Presbyterian Church. He has been senior warden of the church ever since its organization. He is a Knight Templar Mason. He is a member of the Tennessee Medical Society, and was elected president of that body in 1878. Politically he was reared a Whig, but is now a conservative Democrat.