Nixon Evans, farmer, P. O. West York.  One of the principal farmers of Melrose Township is the subject of this sketch, Nixon Evans.  He is a native of Paoli, In., born December 27, 1814, and is the thirteenth of a family of sixteen children of Benjamin and Rebecca (Willard) Evans. The parents were both born in North Carolina, and came from Indiana to Illinois in 1816.
They settled in Crawford County, where they remained two years, coming from there to Clark County, in 1818.  The mother died in 1823 and the father afterward married Mrs. Hannah Moore, by whom he had a family of eight children.  He died in 1851. The circumstances under which he received his early education were identical with all other pioneer boys, viz:  sitting on
a split-log bench in a found-log house with a puncheon floor, greased paper windows and eight-foot fire-place, fuel for which was obtained by the larger boys from the adjacent forest.  Subject says he can yet distinctly remember of his old teacher, Joseph Claypool, addressing them in this way, "Dismissed and git wood."  Mr. Evans was married, December 15, 1837, to Miss Minerva Bartlett, daughter of James and Hannah Bartlett, and was born July 6, 1818, and died September 17, 1853, having six children, viz.:  Iredell, Warren, Sr., James, Sr.; the two latter dying in youth, their names were transferred to the next two sons; Warren, Jr. and James, Jr., one died unnamed. Subject was married to his present wife, Clarissa Hungerford, on November 27, 1853, by whom there are six children, Charles H. Evans, Emily M. Evans, Julia M. Evans, Ulysses G. Evans, Sarah E. Evans, and Clarence N. Evans; Ulysses G. is deceased.  Mrs. Clarissa Evans was born October 2, 1834.  Mr.
Evans is engaged in farming and milling, having a mill which he has run since 1849, commencing with horse power.  He owns a farm of 273 acres of land in Melrose Township, about 170 in cultivation.  James B., Sr., born December 19, 1842; James B. Jrs., born October 9, 1846; Warren B., Sr., born May 13, 1850; Warren B., Jr., born April 22, 1853; Charles Born September 1, 1854; Emily M., born February 14, 1861; Ulysses G., born February 25, 1866; Lula M., born September 9, 1869; Sarah E., born May 23, 1871; Clarence, born February 16, 1876.  They are members of the Methodist Episcopal Church.  Mr. Evans has been a minister in that connection since 1836. Politics, Republican.

Submitted by mccachern@att.net