Find a Grave memorial: William George Evans Sr.

Transcription

Biography on the memorial (contributor's text, not a primary source):

William George Evans, Senior, was a horse breeder, builder-contractor, and rancher. He was the eight child of John Jehu and Elizabeth McMurray Evans. He was born October 3, 1804 in Morgan County, Georgia. He died June 6, 1878, in Parker County, Texas. He and his grandson had gone horseback to see the swollen creek. He was very bent over in his old age and when he waded into the creek, he was swept into the flooding water and drowned. His body washed up two or three miles downstream and it was three days before his body was located. He is buried about a quarter mile off this creek in the Cole (Wise) cemetery located about a mile on Farm Road 5 out of Aledo, Texas on a place now owned by Chester Wiley. • From a History of Texas, chapter about Fort Worth and Texas Northwest; The pioneer and founder of the family was William G Evans, Sr., who in 1846 left Georgia and, accompanied by his family, sought a new home in Texas, which had just been admitted to the Union. The family traveled overland and for a brief time sojourned in Denton County, then an utter wilderness. From Denton they removed to Palo Pinto County, an even more remote and unsettled district. After some years there, William G. Evans returned to Denton County, but spent his last years in Parker County, where he died at the age of seventy-two. He had a large family of eleven sons and three daughters, all of whom grew to mature years. Their mother was a Susan James Owens, who survived her husband about ten years and died in Parker County. The record of the children of this pioneer couple is briefly stated as follows: Green F., who subsequently went to the southwest country and died there; John B.A. (Jack), who served as a Confederate Soldier and died in Parker County; Elizabeth Childs (Bettie), whose two husbands were Mr. Hayes and Mr. Smith, and she is now a resident of Smith County, Texas; Josiah Washington, who died in Jack County, Texas; Francis Marion, who died in Clay County; Jehu Owen ("Gee"), who died in Parker County; William George Junior; Henry, a stock farmer in Hamilton County Texas; James Rufus, also in Hamilton County; Clarissa Jane, wife of Newton Atkinson, of Jacksboro, Texas; Mrs. Louisa Sarepta Layne, of Parker County; Lee Andrew, who died in Shackelford County; Columbus, who has his home in the far west; and Camlin, the youngest. • Notes for William George Evans, Sr William G.. Evans was awarded the contract for the new courthouse in Palo Pinto County, Texas. His bid was three hundred dollars. The courthouse was built on lot one, block one, where Clark's grocery store now stands. The lumber for that first courthouse was cut from the cottonwood trees along the town branch. Many of those unseasoned boards naturally warped. The late Uncle Frank Bailey of Oran, often reminisced about the discomfort of that first county courthouse. He said that 'the wind whistled through the cracks during the winter sessions of court and chilled my sense of justice.' (Mary Whatley Clark, in a book called the Palo Pinto Story, published by the Manney Company of Fort Worth, Texas, 1956, page 8.) William George Evans, was born Oct. 3, 1804 in Georgia, a son of Jehu Evans, and died June 6, 1878 with burial at Aledo, Parker County, Texas. In 1836, William George Evans served in the war with the Creek Indians in Florida, and drew 40 acres of Bounty land for his services. From Georgia, his family moved to Alabama for a year and to Louisana for a year, before reaching Texas. He lived in Smith County, Texas, in 1848, and later in Denton and Palo Pinto Counties, before settling in Parker County in 1863. He built under contract for $300.00 the first log and clapboard courthouse in Palo Pinto County, and was a member of the survey crew that laid out the town of Mesquiteville, which later became Jacksboro, Texas.

Parents linked on the memorial: John Jehu Evans (1765–1819); Elizabeth McMurray Evans (1760–1844)

Spouses linked on the memorial: Susan James Owens Evans (1809–1895)

Children linked on the memorial: Sgt Green Franklin Evans (1828–1891); John B. A. "Jack" Evans (1829–1895); Jehu Owens Evans (1830–1893); Clarissa Jane Evans Atkinson (1832–1862); Elizabeth Childs Evans Hays (1832–1919); Josiah Washington Evans (1835–1901); William George Evans Jr (1836–1911); Francis Marion Evans (1838–1899); James Rufus Evans (1840–1922); Henry Evans (1841–1924); Louisa Sarepta Evans Layne (1842–1914); Lee Andrews Evans (1845–1882); Columbus G. Evans (1847–1923); Camlin Evans (1847–1913)

Citation: Find a Grave, database and images (https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/67813663/william-george-evans : accessed 2026-11-10), memorial page for William George Evans Sr. (1804–1878), Find a Grave Memorial ID 67813663, citing Cole-Markham Cemetery, Aledo, Parker County, Texas, USA; maintained by KJ (47437162).