Evarts, Jeremiah

Born: 1781-02-03 Vermont

Died: 1831-05-10 Charleston, South Carolina

Jeremiah Evarts was an editor, reformer, religious leader, and advocate for the rights of American Indians. Evarts attended Yale College, receiving his BA in 1802 and MA in 1805. In 1804, he married Mehitabel Barnes; and he read law, gaining admission to the Connecticut bar in 1806. He was a leader in the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions (ABCFM), and he edited that organization's publication, the Panoplist. He traveled extensively for the ABCFM, working with the Cherokees, Chickasaws, and Choctaws; and he was an outspoken advocate of rights for American Indian groups and a strong opponent of the Indian Removal. He wrote numerous articles decrying the policy and lobbied in Washington against it. He was the father of William M. Evarts.

David M. Stowe, “Evarts, Jeremiah,” in Gerald H. Anderson, ed. Biographical Dictionary of Christian Missions (Grand Rapids, MI: William B. Eerdmans, 1999), 204; E. C. Tracy, Memoir of the Life of Jeremiah Evarts, Esq. (Boston: Crocker and Brewster, 1845), 2, 417; Gravestone, Grove Street Cemetery, New Haven, CT.