Evans, Akin

Born: 1807-10-03 Virginia

Died: 1861-11-10

Evans moved from Virginia with his parents when he was thirteen years old and settled in Seminary Township, Fayette County, Illinois. Between 1830 and 1855, Evans purchased approximately 280 acres of land in Bond and Fayette counties. In 1835, Evans married Cynthia Reeves. Evans represented Clay, Effingham, and Fayette counties in the Illinois Senate from 1840-42. He represented Effingham and Fayette counties in the Illinois Senate the following session from 1842-44. Cynthia Evans died in 1843, and Evans would remarry to Hannah Chandler in 1846. In 1849, Evans worked as a sheriff and was involved in a court case where Abraham Lincoln served as the plaintiff's attorney. Evans represented Fayette County in the Illinois House of Representatives from 1851-52. In 1858, Evans was a deputy U.S. marshal and was involved in another case with Abraham Lincoln. By 1860, Evans was living in Vandalia, Illinois and owned $5,000 in real property, with a personal estate of $1,000.

History of Fayette County, Illinois (Philadelphia: Brink, McDonough, 1878), 62; Illinois Public Domain Land Tract Sales, Bond County, 145:155; Fayette County, 145:74, 146:95, 148:95, 343:36, Illinois State Archives, Springfield, IL; Illinois Statewide Marriage Index, Fayette County, 5 April 1835, 22 January 1846, Illinois State Archives, Springfield, IL; U.S. Census Office, Sixth Census of the United States (1840), Fayette County, IL, 161; Butler et al. v. Briscoe, Martha L. Benner and Cullom Davis et al., eds., The Law Practice of Abraham Lincoln: Complete Documentary Edition, 2d edition (Springfield: Illinois Historic Preservation Agency, 2009), http://www.lawpracticeofabrahamlincoln.org/Details.aspx?case=138474; John Clayton, The Illinois Fact Book and Historical Almanac 1673-1968 (Carbondale: Southern Illinois University Press, 1970), 208, 210, 217; S. C. Davis & Co. v. Wilborn, Martha L. Benner and Cullom Davis et al., eds., The Law Practice of Abraham Lincoln: Complete Documentary Edition, http://www.lawpracticeofabrahamlincoln.org/Details.aspx?case=137660; U.S. Census Office, Eighth Census of the United States (1860), Fayette County, IL, 114; Gravestone, Evans Cemetery, Hagarstown, IL.