HISTORY OF KANE COUNTY.
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HON. HENRY H. EVANS, Aurora, statesman and financier, was born March 9, 1836, in Toronto, Canada, a son of Griffith and Elizabeth Evans, both natives of Harrisburg, Penn., and was brought by his parents to Aurora, Ill., in June, 1841, where his father had secured employment as a millwright. Mr. Evans began his business career when quite young by purchasing the Fitch House, then known as Aurora's leading hotel, and still doing business under the name of Hotel Evans. He remained in this business until he was elected to the lower branch of the State Legislature in 1876, where he served one term. In 1880 he was chosen a member of the State Senate, to which he has been continuously re-elected to the present time, and for which he was renominated May 4, 1904. Since 1876 he has been engaged in various business enterprises, and has been very successful in real-estate deals. He was one of the organizers and for some years the President and Manager of the Aurora Street Car lines, built the Aurora, Otsego & Yorkville Electric Railway, and organized Riverview Park, the chief park of Aurora, and one of great popularity. Mr. Evans built the Elgin, Joliet & Eastern line from Aurora to Joliet, and is President of the Interstate Independent Tele-
phone and Telegraph Company, Vice-President and Director of the German-American National Bank, and a Director of the Aurora Silver-Plating Company. For three and a half years he served in the Civil War as a member of the One Hundred and Twenty-fourth Illinois Volunteer Infantry, and was Colonel on the staffs of Governors Cullom, Hamilton, Oglesby and Fifer. He was a member of the Aurora City Council when first elected to the Legislature. In 1858 he married Miss Alice M. Rhodes, daughter of A. C. Rhodes, of Aurora, but a native of England. She died in Aurora Oct. 6, 1897. One son, Arthur R. Evans, is in the telephone business with his father.
JOHN D. EVANS, farmer and stock-breeder. Sugar Grove Township, Kane County, Ill., born in Sugar Grove, Oct. 25, 1865, son of Isaac Evans, one of the pioneer settlers of the town; was brought up under the parental roof, and received his education in the public schools and the Sugar Grove Normal and Industrial Institute. For a time he taught school a portion of each year, and then turned his attention to farming and stock-raising, in which he has been quite successful. Taking an active part in politics, Mr. Evans soon became noted as one of the more prominent young Republicans of the county, who cared more to help his party and aid his friends than he did for office for himself. Locally he has filled several positions, and has been much interested in the construction of better school houses in Sugar Grove Township. Mr. Evans belongs to the Order of Elks, the Modern Woodmen, the Royal Neighbors, and the Yeomen of America. In 1896 he married Miss Nellie M., daughter of William West, of Sugar Grove.
ISAAC EVANS, pioneer farmer. Sugar Grove, Ill., was born in Caermarthenshire, South Wales, in 1825; grew up in his native country and was trained to farming; came to the United States in 1856, and first lived in Iowa for a year; later came to Illinois and established his home in the town of Squaw Grove, DeKalb County, and afterwards removed to the farm where he now resides in Sugar Grove Township. At the present time (1903) Mr. and Mrs. Evans have lived in Sugar Grove Township forty-one years. In 1856 Mr. Evans was married to Miss Hannah Walters, and their living children are David T., Thomas W., Annie E. and John D.
