John J. Evans
John J. Evans was born in Indiana in 1817. At the age of 17 he went to Independence, Mo., and in 1839 to Andrew County, Mo., and began business blacksmithing and farming near the present site of Savannah, where he remained until ’44. He then moved to Lee County, Iowa; remaining three years he returned to his home where he remained until 1855, when he moved to Kansas, and settled at Hickory Point, Jefferson County. He there began business and remained until 1857. In this place he built a shop about 20 foot square which served as a protection for the men under J. J. Evans, in the battle of Hickory Point, where he received four wounds. In Feb. ’57 he moved to Johnson County, and settled two miles north east of Olathe, and opened a farm of 200 acres, and in ’67 moved to his present homestead where he has opened a farm and works at his trade. He was married in ’36 to Miss Francis Yedo, of Madison County, Kentucky. They have ten children—five girls and five boys. The youngest, Lucy Rine, aged 26 years, is the oldest white person now living who was born in Johnson county, except children of missionaries or families otherwise connected with the Indian tribes.
Atlas Map of Johnson County, Kansas, E. F. Heisler and Co., 1874, p. 59.
