Jay, Evan

Born: 1811-01-28 Indiana

Died: 1861-02-23

Flourished: Henry County, Iowa

Evan Jay was a farmer, businessman, territorial and state politician, and early settler of Henry County, Iowa. Receiving little or no formal schooling, Jay became a farmer and a merchant. In 1827, he wed Hannah Way. Jay moved from his native state to the Iowa Territory, becoming one of the first settlers in Henry County. Gravitating to politics and the Whig Party, he won election in 1842 to the Legislative Assembly of the Iowa Territory, representing Henry County in the House of Representatives. From 1846 to 1850, he represented Henry County in the Iowa Senate. He remained a Whig until the party's dissolution, when he joined the ranks of the Republican Party. He voted for Abraham Lincoln in the presidential election of 1860.

Benjamin F. Gue, History of Iowa from the Earliest Times to the Beginning of the Twentieth Century (New York: Century History, 1903), 3:445, 459, 460; Portrait and Biographical Album of Henry County, Iowa (Chicago: Acme, 1888), 521; "Evan Jay," The Iowa Legislature, accessed 23 April 2020, https://www.legis.iowa.gov/legislators/legislator?ga=-4&personID=5995; Gravestone, Kearney Cemetery, Kearney, NE.