Sadly, I can only find a brief emotion of Mary Evans within biographies of John Evans.
"He afterward wedded Margaret P. Gray, a daughter of the Hon.
Samuel Gray, of Bowdoinham, Maine, who was a leading and prosperous
attorney of that city. In religious faith Dr. Evans was a Methodist. He had united with the church while in Attica, Indiana, as a result of the teachings and eloquence of the renowned Bishop Simpson, with whom he became well acquainted. In 1853 he urged the necessity of founding a Methodist educational institution, believing that it was an opportune time for such a movement, and in connection with others selected a suburb of Chicago as the site for the school, and this suburb was afterward named Evanston in his honor. Within two years the university was established and his great sagacity in providing for the institution is shown In the fact that in connection with others he bought for the school property that is now in the heart of Chicago-and among the holdings of the University is the land which is today occupied by the Illinois Trust and Savings Bank and which with others, is still owned by the university. Dr. Evans endowed the chairs of Latin and also of mental and moral philosophy with fifty thousand dollars and subsequently increased the endowment to one hundred thousand dollars.
He became the first president of the board of trustees of Northwestern University and occupied that position for forty-two years. He always seemed to take an advanced stand upon any vital public question and ever looked beyond the exigencies of the moment to the opportunities and the needs of the future. In 1861, in a public controversy with Judge Scates of the supreme court of Illinois, he persistently advocated the emancipation of the slaves and their enlistment in the Union army as one of the most effective measures that could be adopted for crushing out the rebellion. While a resident of Chicago he became a candidate for congress and was one of the most prominent speakers at the first republican convention, which was held in Aurora, Illinois. He was defeated, however, by the know-nothing or American party candidate.
He was a warm personal friend of Abraham Lincoln and was a delegate to the state convention which nominated him as the state's candidate for the presidency. In 1861, President Lincoln offered Dr. Evans the
governorship of Washington territory but this he declined. In 1862,
however, he accepted the appointment of territorial governor of Colorado to succeed William Gilpin, and in this connection a
contemporary writer has said: "Great as his work had been in Indiana
and Illinois, the full consummation of his beneficent efforts appears
in more than three decades of usefulness to the people of Colorado." (excerpted from (
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The above author has ignored the great scandal of Gov. John Evans - the Sand Creek Massacre (
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