Donald Stephens Evans was born January 1, 1929, to David L. Evans, Jr. and Margaret Evans, the youngest of a family of three sons, with two older brothers, Roland and John V.

He worked in the Evans store and on the family farms in his adolescent years. Farm work was a challenge due to the shortage of manpower during World War II. He enjoyed the opportunity and ‘persevered’. Don still had time to experience and enjoy life growing up in Malad. He attended Malad schools and participated in band and athletics. Don was a four-year drum major in the marching band. He led the band in the 100th year “Days of ’47″ parade in Salt Lake City, Utah. He was also involved in four different sports and attended Stanford University where he played football. Don graduated from the University of Idaho in accounting/business administration.

After college, Don returned home to become an active partner of Evans Brothers with his two brothers, Roland and John V.  He assumed the responsibility of developing the cattle operation. The immediate concerns were to build a cattle feedlot and increase the cattle range permits with Don having the challenge to learn how to buy and sell cattle. The next move was to expand the land holdings. He was able to negotiate the purchase of the two-mile Reese property and the 7000-acre Kasiska ranch. He and his partner, brother John V., divided the farm management with Don overseeing the cattle operation and John the farm cropping. They supported each other’s endeavors. The 12,000-acre ranch sustained 1,500 head of cattle. Don still owns and operates the original farm homesteaded in 1870.

Believing that honoring and furthering the family name was a benefit to present and future generations, Donald always supported his brother John’s political career. Don oversaw all the family’s operations while his brother, John V., was Governor of Idaho, managing the Evans Co-op Department store and acting as trustee of John’s property. The store is the oldest continuous operating store in Idaho. It was incorporated in 1877 and D. L. Evans became involved in 1884. The minute book is continuous from 1877.

Appointed to the Board of Directors of D. L. Evans Bank in 1953, Don became Chairman of the Board and has served for fifty years. The Bank has grown from $850,000 to $950,000,000 since 1953. He was also active in the family’s other bank holdings – J.N. Ireland Bank and Cassia Bank. He proudly encourages the younger members of the families to assume an active part in the management of D. L. Evans Bank. In that way, both the family and the Bank will grow and prosper.

Don was involved in water development in the Malad Valley as a member of the boards of local irrigation companies. He was President of the Water Users Association of Idaho in 1963-64 and was on the Board of Directors of the Idaho Soil Conservation Commission. He served on the Malad City Council and is a past-president of the Malad Chamber of Commerce. He is a member of the Eagle and Masonic Lodges.

In semi-retirement, as Don still manages Evans Co-op, Don enjoys writing and preserving Malad Valley stories on his computer.

The Life of D. L. EVANS
BY DONALD  STEPHENS  EVANS, Grandson
December 11, 1999

“The clock of Life is wound but once and no man has the power to tell just when the hands will stop, on what day-on what hour, now is the only time you have, so live it with a will.  Don’t wait until tomorrow, the hands may then be still.”
Credo to live: “Life is as you make it” David Lloyd Evans to his son in l9l3.

David Lloyd Evans was born on May 20, 1854 in Brigham City, Utah.  He was a pioneer whose life spanned banking, politics, education, business, and investments.  His influence left a lasting imprint on Idaho’s history.  He left a heritage and a challenge for others to follow.  His birth started a one hundred forty-five years tradition.
THE EVANS FAMILY
John Lloyd was a tenant farmer for the rich in Wales.  A daughter, named Winnefred, was born on November 13, 1822 to John and Catherine Griffiths  Lloyd.  She preferred to be called Gwen for some unknown reason.  Winnefred detested her status as a poor tenant farmer and was willing to do anything to alter her lifestyle.  Gwen was tired of toiling for others.  She was married to Daniel L. Roberts and a mother of four children.  She was going to the United States with or without Dan.  He was apprehensive.  Dan must have had a premonition.  The preaching of the Mormon missionaries offered a solution.  Free land and paid passage were a great enticement.  The family was baptized Mormon.  In 1850, they embarked on a sailing vessel, the ‘Joseph Badger’.  The cheapest passage was on the empty cotton ships returning to New Orleans.  From that port, they took passage on a paddle wheeler boat on the Mississippi River to Council Bluffs, Iowa.  At that place, the Mormon converts were assembling for the trek westward.
While they were ascending the Mississippi River, cholera broke out on the steamer.  Daniel Roberts and son, William, fell victims to the disease.  Cholera was epidemic from drinking contaminated water.  They were buried on the banks of the Mississippi at Worthings Landing, Kentucky.  Gwen must have had great agonies by forcing Daniel to emigrate.  Undaunted, the widow continued her journey to Council Bluffs.  Gwen could not speak or understand English.  She must have suffered untold hardships waiting over a year to come to Utah.  Gwen’s parents tried to persuade her to return to Wales, but she refused.  She was a proud and stately woman.  Gwen had no schooling and could not read or write any language.  The progeny of Winnefred are most fortunate that she was so determined to leave Wales and come to ‘Amerika’.
Around July 1852, Gwen purchased a cow and joined forces with an emigrant who owned an ox.  The cow and ox were teamed to a wagon.  Gwen walked to Utah, as did her two daughters, Catherine age 8 and Elizabeth age 10 (Kate Wright and Eliza Jones).  Her three-year old son, John Lloyd, occasionally rode in the wagon and, at times was carried by his mother.
When she arrived in the Salt Lake Valley, a man gave her some food and asked her to marry him.  He demanded pay for the food when she refused his proposal.  Many young maidens were allowed to ride in the wagons, thus, the polygamists were invigorated in their old age.  Winnefred was adamant in opposition to the polygamy practice of the Mormon Church.
David Rees Evans was born on August 13, 1818 at Fishguard, on the coast of Wales.  He was the son of Isaac and Hannah Evans.  His family was seafarers.  He was a sailor who made frequent voyages between Liverpool, England and Portland, Maine.  His brother was Harbormaster in Rio d’Janiero, Brazil.  His father and brothers(James, Isaac, John and William), supposedly, died in the same shipwreck.  David received the nickname, ‘Captain’, on one voyage when the crew got drunk and he steered the ship.  He married Elizabeth Matthews on March 18, 1843.  They Joined the Mormon Church in 1849.  They sailed, with the Roberts family, on the ‘Joseph Badger’ to New Orleans in 1850.  David R. and Elizabeth came to Utah in 1851.  The couple was childless and Elizabeth died on May 20, 1853 in Brigham City, Utah.  David R. became a citizen on February 6, 1851 in St. Louis, Missouri.
The policy of the Mormon Church was to have various ethnic emigrants settled together in an area.  This was a wise policy because of language and custom restraints.  The Brigham City-Wellsville area was designated for the welsh emigrants.  Idaho became a territory in 1863.  The Welsh people were encouraged to move to Malad Valley and homestead.  They were happy to obey because the first settlers opposed polygamy.   The Scandinavian and German converts settled several areas in Cache Valley.
On July 8,l853, Gwen Roberts and Captain Evans were married at Brigham City, Utah.  They birthed five boys: David Lloyd, Charles Rees, Lorenzo Lloyd, Frank and Samuel.  They also raised Catherine, Elizabeth and John Lloyd Roberts.  The Captain was devoted to his children and was particularly kind to the Roberts children.  Captain Evans quietly died in bed on January 3, 1861.  The Captain was forty-two years old.  Their two youngest children, Frank and Samuel, died three years later, on the same day, and were buried in the one casket in Brigham City, Utah.
Gwen and her six children continued to reside on the Captain’s prosperous farm in Brigham City.  Eliza married Caleb R. Jones and moved to Malad.  Caleb R. Jones was appointed to the first Board of Education of Idaho.  Undoubtedly, D. L. Evans was helpful in Caleb receiving the appointment.  Kate married Amos Wright and moved to Bennington, Idaho.
Gwens’ grown sons wanted to expand and she wished to keep the family together.  The family moved to Malad in April of 1871 because homesteading land was available and reasonably priced.  To search for a suitable location, John and Charles traveled to Cache Valley and on to Marsh Valley. Gwen, with David and Lorenzo, explored the lower Bear and Malad Valleys.  The two groups met at Eliza’s, in Malad, to review their options.
Malad City was a wild gentile town, with many saloons, gambling and prostitution houses.  Gentile was how the Mormon’s referred to the non-Mormons.  Hebrews, in the Old Testament, referred to the non-Jews as gentiles.  It was quite a surprise to the Malad Jews to be called gentiles. In Malad City, the gentiles resided on Deep Creek’s South side and the Mormons on the North side.
Meyers Cohn, a Jew, had a dance hall on the gentile side.  Mary Ellen Williams [Evans] and her sister, Victoria, would go to the Saturday night dances.  This was not an acceptable practice.  They had to repent, in church, their shortcomings the following day.
Ironically, all denominations educated their children in the Presbyterian Mission School.  The Mission School was started in a log cabin in 1870.  Reverend Edward Welch, his wife Liz and his sister Emma were the teachers. The present brick Church was built in 1884.
The divisions concerned Gwen, but the opportunities outweighed the obstacles.  Thus, Gwen sold her prosperous farm at Brigham City and moved to Malad Valley to homestead one hundred sixty acres.  The site was four miles north of the Malad village.  She received enough money to buy seed and livestock for the farm and, eventually, help her boys further their education.  Initially, the family forged a hole in the side of a hill for living quarters.  The sight, of the first log home, has not been located.
Gwen, also, bought a large lot in Malad and her sons built her a log home. She lived in the home all her life.  The house is still on North Main Street.  Gwen gave Lorenzo the lot just North of her home.  A favorite story, concerning Gwen, was about a blowsnake in the factory(cheesecloth) wall covering of her kitchen.  The snake got too close to her fine dishes, so she pinned the snake to the wall with a knife.  One time on the ranch, an Indian demanded bread.  He struck the bedpost with his tomahawk and left when she refused.
In 1882, a homestead deed for the one hundred sixty acres was issued from the Territorial Land Office in Oxford, Idaho.  It is in Winnefred’s name and signed by President Rutherford B. Hays.  Winnefred died in Malad in 1909.  She was eighty-seven years old.
MALAD VILLAGE
Idaho became a Territory in 1863.  The boundary of Idaho and Utah was fixed in 1862.  The Oneida County line extended from Utah to Montana and West of Wyoming to the Lost Rivers.  It was a nine Thousand square mile area.  The first permanent settlers came to Malad in 1864.  Malad quickly became the source for supplies for the surrounding territory.
Colonel Patrick O’Connor, in 1863, established Soda Springs as the Oneida County Seat.  Soda Springs was on the ‘Oregon Trail’ for the wagon trains and was where the ‘Hutsmith Cutoff’ started.  The ‘Hutsmith Cutoff’ took the pioneers to California.  The ‘Hutsmith Cutoff’ trail went north of Malad.  Soda Springs and the wagon trains subsided with the impending completion of the transcontinental railroad in 1869.  The wagon trains used a different route that bypassed Soda Springs.  The old town is below the Alexander reservoir.  The Morrisites, Mormon offshoot, reestablished Soda Springs in 1870.
The first road to Fort Hall, the Bannack Mountain Route, followed an Indian trail in Malad, now known as Bannock Street.  The trail went north and crossed the Blue Springs Hills on the ‘Turkey Trail’ by the Malad Springs. This Crossing was also used by the ‘Hutsmith Cutoff’ wagon trains.  The Bannack Mountain route went North in Deep Creek Valley(Arbon).  The wagon train trail turned south.  The Bannack Mountain route followed Bannack Creek and on to Fort Hall.  In 1865, the stagecoach route was changed from Bannack Mountain to Portneuf Canyon.  In that year, H. O. Harkness built a toll road between Malad and Fort Hall in Portneuf Canyon.  H. O. Harkness founded Harkness(McCammon), Idaho.
In 1866, the Oneida County Seat was moved to Malad.  A petition, with eighty signatures, was submitted to the Idaho Legislature to move the county seat.  With this limited authority, a buggy brought the Oneida County books to Malad.  Henry Peck was the leader.  The Federal District Court gave the community prestige.  Judge Lewis of Boise was the presiding judge of the Court.  The Governor now appointed the County officials.
Malad became a prosperous town with the daily stagecoach route.  Conover and Oliver had the first stagecoach route between Corrine, Utah and Montana.  The government contract for hauling mail between Salt Lake City and Montana was let to Ben Holliday.  Holliday had a partner, a banker from Salt Lake City, named William Halsey.  The stage line charged five percent of the gold that was transported from the Montana mines.  Conover and Oliver drove their stagecoach between different camps in Montana after losing the mail contract.
Being thirty-five miles from Corrine, Malad was the first stop for travelers and freight wagons going north.  The freight wagons carried goods from the railroad at Corrine to the mines at Virginia City, Montana.  The journey was about one thousand miles and would take twenty days.  Dave’s brothers {Lorenzo, Charles and John L. Roberts} were freighters; as were many other Malad Valley residents.  Freighters usually maintained an unsavory reputation.
Even with prosperity, Malad was still a wild western town.  Saloons, gambling and other frontier enticements were available in the village.  A ‘sporting lady’ came to town with her black companion.  The roughest element in town, supposedly, hung the unnamed black man on a sign that extended over Court Street.  Confederate deserters and sympathizers were common in the West at that time.
Many robberies and killings occurred on the toll road at the ‘Portneuf Gap’, near McCammon, Idaho.  On one occasion, the stagecoach was robbed of sixty thousand dollars in gold and four men were killed.  This was, also, near an area referred to as ‘Robbers Roost’.  Not all the gold stolen was recovered.  Brockey Jack and James Lockett were two of the notorious highwayman in the area.  At that time, paper money (greenbacks), was only worth forty-five cents to the gold dollar.
A man named Michael Mooney was arrested, brought to Malad and held for trial.  He was accused of killing a man in Franklin, Idaho.  He was convicted, his appeal denied, and consequently hung on the ‘hanging tree’. The tree, apparently, was East of Malad.  Another man, years later, confessed to the murder.
Malad prospered for ten years following the transcontinental railroad completion.  There was hope that the Utah Northern Railroad would go north, from Corrine, through Malad Valley.  Captain Howard Stansbury reported to the railroad that the Bannack Mountain Route, through Malad Valley, was the easiest way to Montana.  The Mormons expressed concern about the ‘bad element’ that would come with the railroad.  It was a severe loss when, in 1879, the route chosen was through Cache Valley.  Malad began a standstill that lasted twenty years.
The Utah Mormons detested the power, political and financial, of the Gentiles in Corrine.  Undoubtedly, Mormon influence was used to have Ogden, rather than Corrine, the starting point for the Utah Northern Railroad.
The Malad Valley was forced to fall back upon its natural resources.  Mormon crickets, grasshoppers, and other pests destroyed the farmers crops. The insect plague lasted fifteen years.  Growth was stagnant and the Malad Co-op store was suffering.
A  YOUNG  D.L. EVANS
David Evans was very resourceful at the young age of 7.  Herding sheep for the fee of one cent a day launched his career.  At the age of ten, he managed the town herd of sheep for Lewis White’s ranch in Brigham City.  David practiced reading and writing while shepherding.  He showed an unusual caliber of ingenuity and ambition for his age.  He attended the Watkens, Moench and Crawford School in Brigham City.  The cost was one and a half-dollar per student a session.
From age 17 to 22, David lived and worked on the Devil Creek homestead.  He read everything available and continually worked on his writing skills. While at the University of Deseret, he composed an essay of life on the ranch, which was reprinted by the ‘Idaho Wildlife Magazine’ in 1990.
” ‘A Bear Hunt’, by D. L. Evans, April 22, 1877:
In the summer of 1877, bears became very numerous and troublesome to the ranchers in the open ca~nons of Malad.  They would make raids on the ranches and carry off calves, sheep, pigs or anything else, which lay in their way.  They even became so bold as to lie about in the brush near the ranches, during the day, until night enabled them to make their wonted raids.
When things had reached this state, the ranchers decided it was time to provide some way for clearing the country of these noxious animals.  Therefore (as many of these pests had been seen and pursued, but owing to the small number of pursuers, had escaped), it was agreed that if anyone should discover a bear, word should be sent to a sufficient number of neighbors to ensure his capture.
This was the state of affairs one Saturday when I visited my mother’s ranch in one of the ca~nons.  I had not been there long when word was received that a couple of bears had been discovered in a ravine not far from a neighbor’s ranch.
A horse being in the pasture, I soon had him under saddle and, in company with our next door neighbor, Mr. Roberts, wasn’t long in reaching our neighbor, Mr. Bradshaw’s ranch.  There we found Mr. Bradshaw and another neighbor, Mr. Thomas, awaiting us.  All necessary things being ready, we set out for the bears den, with Mr. Thomas, the discoverer of the pests, as guide.
We presented a fine picture of bear hunters, as we marched single file up the ravine.  On lead was Mr. Thomas, well mounted, and armed with a Henry rifle, and a five shooter revolver, next came Mr. Roberts, not so well equipped for the pray {sic}, I followed Mr. Roberts, perched on a small pony of whose ability to outrun a bear, I had no doubt; bringing up the rear was Mr. Bradshaw mounted on a very tall work-horse, whose first attempt at galloping would cause him to fall, thus rendering it quite dangerous to Mr. Bradshaw should the bears attack us.
After riding this way for a short time, we came in sight of the place where the bears had been seen.  It was the very ideal of a wild beasts’ den.  Situated at the bottom of {a} ravine, it was so thickly grown over with small bushes that nothing could be seen, until one had come very near it.  Besides these conveniences, there was a small spring, whose water had sunk before it had gone far from its source.
We now separated, so as to surround the place.  Mr. Thomas and Mr. Bradshaw taking the right hand side of the ravine, Mr. Roberts and myself taking the left.  After a minute’s ride, we reached a place on the hill just above the den.  We were now within seventy-five yards of the place, and dismounting, we placed our horses in a convenient position, should we require their use. Seeing that our arms were all right, we advanced a little nearer the bushes, but no bears could be seen.
It now occurred to us that perhaps they had left the place.  To make sure of this before advancing any farther, we threw rocks into the bushes.  These caused the bears to come in sight.  Now was the time our excitement began.  We were not experienced huntsmen, as no doubt the reader has perceived before this time, so there was considerable noise and confusion at first, but as the excitement wore off, we commenced the attack.  Having a good chance, I fired.  The bear dropped and my vanity rose; but remained up not long, for the bear was soon seen on the other side of the bushes.  Firing now became general; and the noise increased until about thirty shots had been fired, by which time the bears had ceased running through the brush.
One of them we knew to be killed, as it was lying at the edge of the bushes, but the other could not be seen.  So we approached the bushes together, very warily, and peering about for the lost bear.  A rustling of the leaves close by revealed the bear’s position and our unity, for with one mind, we turned and made for our horses, but as the beast did not follow, our timidity subsided, and we returned.
We found the bear in a hole and gasping for breath, but to make ‘assurance doubly sure’, Mr. Roberts stopped his gaspings by shooting him a couple of times with his pistol.  All danger being over, we were at liberty to see what, in our imagination, we had styled fullgrown grizzly bears, and lo! they were only yearling cubs of the brown bear.  Our ardor was somewhat lessoned by this discovery, but we had killed the bears and were happy.
Being victorious, we made our triumphant march homeward, in the following order.  First Mr. Bradshaw leading his horse, on which were the two bears; at the side of the horse, holding the bears on, was Messrs. Roberts and Thomas.  Bringing up the rear was myself, mounted on my pony, a gun on each shoulder, and leading two horses.  In this way we reached home without further incident.
(D. L. Evans had a distinguished life as a businessman, banker and politician.  He was in the Territorial Legislature, Speaker of House at the turn of the century and served three terms in the Idaho State Senate.  He organized and was President of the first state bank in Idaho.  His grandson and my brother has carried on – Gov. John V. Evans.  I still farm the original 160-acre homestead of my great-grandmother – D. L. Evans’s mother, Winnefred – ‘taken up’ in 1871. Don S. Evans, Malad.)”
In later years, the ranch was owned and operated by, his son, D. L. Evans Jr.  It remains in the Evans family today.
In 1871, Henry Peck gave a deed to the community for a school site located on South Main and Deep Creek.  A two-room ‘lean-to’ cabin was erected as the School.  A peddler, Al Bundy, taught six children for ten dollars a month, with board and room provided by the parents.  As more children came, one of the rooms in the A.W. Vanderwood store and the ‘parlor room’ in the Winnefred Evans home was used for schooling.  Thus, Dave completed his early education.
In the fall of 1876, David took his initial step into higher education by attending a ten-week course at the University of Deseret, forerunner of the University of Utah, Salt Lake City.  David visited with his father’s cousin, William White, who was a successful butcher.  Always desirous of sharing his knowledge and progress with others, he returned to teach at Malad in 1875 and 1876, earning ten dollars a month.  In the fall of 1877, he completed his education at the University of Deseret, and was awarded a Normal Diploma from John R. Park, President.  His younger brother, Lorenzo, followed his footsteps.  Lorenzo graduated from Deseret University and taught school at Samaria, Idaho.
In 1878, David relocated to teach in Franklin, Idaho.  In 1879, he married Emily Mecham, daughter of Leonidas Mecham, of Riverdale, Idaho.  They moved back to Malad where he was the instructor of the Oneida County School for four years (1879-1882).  This is a quote from Whites Biography about D. L. Evans: “As a life long student, well versed in good literature, he commanded an extensive library and vocabulary, and was a fluent and forcible speaker”.
POLITICAL CAREER
A man of profound honesty and ambition, David Lloyd Evans was intensely interested in the political future of the Territory.  One of D. L.’s goals was campaigning for Idaho’s statehood in this progressive nation.
In 1882, D. L. Evans was elected to the Territorial House of Representatives, which was held in Boise, Idaho.  He was twenty-seven years old.  The journey to the legislative session was long and treacherous.  In order to catch the Boise stagecoach, David traveled to Corrine, Utah.  He took the train to Kelton, Utah and transferred to the stagecoach.
While in Boise, he corresponded with his family through letters.  It took at least ten days to two weeks to receive each letter.  After the Legislative Session of 1883, David headed back to his precious family in Malad.  On route home, he learned that his spouse died while giving birth to their daughter, Emily.  This was a great tragedy, but Emily Evans Foss Craner survived.  Her grandmother, Gwen, raised Emily.  Emily married Frank Foss of Preston.  Their four children were Gwen, Frank Jr., Sally (Sadie), and Margaret.
The Republican Party was in control of the Idaho Territory with Governor Bunn.  The Secretary of the Territory was Mr. Pride.  Fred T. Dubois was  U. S. Marshall.  However, the Mormons generally voted Democratic.  In fact, all four elected Territorial Representatives from Oneida County were Democrats.  This threatened the Republican’s power in Oneida County and the Idaho Territory.  Even though Mormons were restricted politically, the possible loss of control by the gentile state officials resulted in a very bitter anti-Mormon propaganda campaign.  This was embellished with pictures in ‘The Boise’ newspaper.
At election time they registered dead men, Indians{not allowed to vote} and discarded suspected Mormon ballots.  No Mormon could hold an office or act as juror.  The anti-Mormons enraged the Mormon polygamists by passing harsh legislation.  The ‘Edmonds-Tucker Act’ or the ‘Election Test Oath’ was passed in January of 1885.  This forced those believing in polygamy or belonging to an order, which taught or advised plural marriage, to relinquish their voting privileges.
David’s older half-brother, John Lloyd Roberts was a polygamist.  He had moved to and was arrested in Sugar City, Idaho.  He served his six months in the Idaho Penitentiary with ‘time off’ for good behavior.  John L. Roberts, wrote the following letter from Boise City, on June 1, 1885:  “Dear Mother and Brothers and all the rest of you.  I suppose you would like to hear from me?  I am at present in the penitentiary.  My time started/commenced yesterday.  My sentence of four months commenced on the 31st of May.  I am told that six days from each month is knocked off for good behavior-of course you know that will be.  Of course, I don’t know how long I will have to stay to pay the fine.  I guess I will know when the time comes.  I wrote Dave a letter the day we left Blackfoot.  I hope he receives it all right.  I will not attempt to describe this place in this letter.  I guess you would like to know how I feel?  I will say I feel as well as I possibly could under the circumstance.  I will say we are treated as well or better than we expected-even from the date of my arrest.  Lorenzo called to see me on his road to Bay Horse.  Thomas Roberts called to see me just as we were waiting for the train to take us to Pocatello.  Hendricks may call, after a little, to see you.  He is up here at present. I close for the present, you will hear from me as soon as I can.  From Your Son, Jn. L. Roberts”.
Amos Wright, Dave’s sister Kate’s spouse, was also a polygamist who avoided the penitentiary by going on an ‘Indian mission’.  They lived in Bennington, Idaho.   A letter from Addie Wright, their daughter to her grandmother Gwen stated that, “my mother {Kate} would just as leif him go to the penitentiary”.  Being the first wife, Catherine still protected her husband.  One time, the United States Marshal was in the County to arrest the polygamists.  He came to the door and Amos was not able to ‘get away’. Kate went to the door and told him: “I’ll knock you down if you put a foot across this threshold”.
However, Catherine’s mother, Gwen, never forgave Amos’s polygamy.
Oneida County  was a ‘Mormon Ward’ of the ‘Bear River Stake’, under ‘Stake’ President Woodruff.  President Woodruff encouraged D. L. Evans to remove his religious undergarments, that being one test of a Mormon.  This would allow him to represent the Mormons in the legislature.   Sure to be Re-elected in 1886, D. L. Evans was prevented from filing for reelection to  the Territorial Legislature.  He was refused from holding his elected seat because of his Mormon standings.
The young men of voting age decided something must be done.  No person could vote without signing an oath swearing that he was not a member of the Mormon Church.  They were advised to take their names off the church records, vote, and then join the church the next day.  The church authorities said they had done no wrong, but insisted upon them being re-baptized.  Some members chose not to re-sign the Church records.  Thomas S. Thomas was one who remarked: “…From that moment on, I felt if it was necessary to divorce the Church to whip the devil, why not stay out and fight him all to a finish.  So the feeling for reinstating has never come over me since.  While my sympathy and best wishes are for you…”.
These young men took part in civic affairs, thus the anti-Mormons constantly sought ways to prosecute them.  For instance, David was the ‘ring-leader’ for a Mormon gathering.  He was taken to court for perjury.  He, supposedly, had signed the non-Mormon oath.  He was tried in a bitter anti-Morman court, but was finally acquitted.
In 1885, President Grover Cleveland, a Democrat, was elected.  Thus, a new Governor and other officials were appointed to the Idaho Territory.  The change promptly stopped the Mormon persecution.  In 1890, Idaho was admitted into the Union as the forty-third state.  In 1890, the Mormon authorities disavowed polygamy.
The United States Supreme Court declared the ‘Edmonds-Tucker Act’ unconstitutional in 1895.  David and friend, Ben Davis, were chosen to be the defendants in the case before the United States Supreme Court.  It was decided that D. L. Evans was too well known and involved, thus Ben Davis was the defendant of record.
MALAD  CO-OPERATIVE COMPANY
Joseph Smith had visualized a utopian society.  He wanted a society where material things were earned and shared by everyone.  It was referred to as the United Order of Enoch or the ‘Company’.  In l868, Brigham Young urged the Mormons to become self-supporting in their communities.  They were to make and manufacture those things that were needed.
Zion’s Cooperative Mercantile Institution [ZCMI] stores were organized in most of the pioneer communities.  They were stockholding corporations with the presiding Bishopric in charge.  Stock was sold to the local membership. In 1877, Two thousand shares, at twenty-five dollars apiece, were issued for the Malad Cooperative Company.  It is not known how many were sold.  Dan Daniels was Malad’s first Mormon Bishop.
The United Order was short of cash.  The faithful were instructed not to spend money for frivolous items imported from the East.  Fine furniture, foodstuff, clothing, materials, tea, coffee, alcohol, tobacco and other excesses were to be abstained.  Eventually, the abstinence became the Mormons ‘Word of Wisdom’.  Any monies saved could be used to support the United Order.  The money was to be spent on hard goods, machine tools, from the East.  Cash was also needed to pay the passage of converts from Europe. The converts were to repay the ‘Company’ with community service or with, ‘tithing’ money.
The faithful were to turn their produce over to the Co-op Store for credit. Their needs were then to be purchased at the store.  The plan failed in part because there were too many ‘takers’ and not enough ‘bringers’.    Trade and commerce in Mormon communities was largely in the hands of non-Mormons. The United Order was not for profit.  The gentiles gladly filled the void. Apparently, the gentile traders were able to sell goods cheaper than the cooperative stores.  Eventually the cooperative movement failed.  The Salt Lake and Malad stores are the only pioneer stores to survive.  Recently, the Z. C. M. I. Stores has been sold to the May Company.
This reprint of a l880 article in the Salt Lake paper tells the trials and tribulations of the Malad Co-op:
“There is in Malad, Idaho, a cooperative store, incorporated under the laws of the territory.  The stockholders have paid for their shares, and have put Judge Peck, Richard Morse and Jenkin Jones in the management of it as Trustees.  The concern got along very well and was doing a good and profitable business.
But a short time ago one George Stewart, described as a Mormon dead-beat, was appointed Bishop of Malad.  To the surprise of the Trustees, this fellow appeared in the store one day and gravely announced that he proposed to take charge of the business.  He did not own a dollar of the stock, nor did he claim to have the slightest pecuniary interest in it. Very naturally, therefore, the Trustees and stockholders objected. Stewart insisted and urged upon them John Taylor’s view that as Bishop he was in charge of their temporal as well as their spiritual interests.
The Trustees, owning large interests in the store, which was carrying $20,000 worth of goods, still protested against the impecunious bishop having anything to do with the business.  They knew it would be a disaster to them personally, and an outrage to the stockholders, by whom they had been put in charge.  So they persisted in their refusal to turn over to Stewart.
But the first thing they knew they were notified from Salt Lake City that they had been selected to go on a mission-all three of the Trustees.  Here was dismay.  If they went, it was simply to leave the store open for Stewart to go in and occupy it.  There was not time to close the business. Peck and Jones ignored the summons, while Morse got excused on showing that he held a civil office, which required his presence.  Besides, he was not as outspoken in opposition to Bishop Stewart’s schemes as the others were.
Presently, however, a peremptory order arrived from the headquarters of the Church here, commanding Peck and Jones to repair to Salt Lake forthwith.  They came, and are now in the city.  They are good Mormons, and think they owe an ecclesiastical duty to the Church.  Yet they see that if they obey in this thing it will simply be to allow Stewart to rob them of their property.  They think they ought not to be imposed on in that way in the name of religion.
They expected to be arraigned before the High Council.  A vigorous attempt to bluff them into submission would be made.  If the Church leaders can get away with the bluff, the men will be obliged to go away and leave their property to be seized by Stewart.  If the bluff does not work the Church will back down and allow them to conduct their own affairs, as it has now no way to enforce its decrees.
It is a very pretty piece of robbery in embryo as it stands, and we shall watch the outcome of it with interest.”
The outcome is unknown.  This writer was surprised that ‘dead-beat’ was an 1880 expression.  However, George Stewart became a valued trustee and director of the company.  Regretfully, the company went bankrupt.  In 1884, the Malad Cooperative Co. went into receivership.   The Malad ZCMI owed the Ogden ZCMI seven thousand dollars.  At this time, D. L. Evans was appointed manager by the court.  The Malad Co-op thrived under his business skills and professional mannerisms.  His brother, Lorenzo L. Evans, became a partner in the store’s management.  The brothers continued to teach school while they operated the store.
At one time, the store had two branches; at Samaria, Idaho and Collingston, Utah.  The Collingston store was near the Utah Northern Railroad (Oregon Shortline).  Merchandise purchased was delivered there and then brought by horse wagon to Malad.  Tim Covert operated the Collingston branch.  In 1910, he moved to Malad to manage the home store.  Gilbert Sweeten became the manager at Collingston.  Gil married Sara, who was Lorenzo’s daughter.
In 1910 the business was renamed the Evans Co-op Company.  The Evans Co-operative Co., Inc. is the oldest continuously operating business in Idaho. The corporation’s minutes begin in February 1877.  The earliest minutes were hand written with a quill pen and have survived.
Prior to being incorporated in 1877, the Malad Co-op was known as the Mill Company.  The Mill Company was started in the early eighteen-sixties.  The Mill Company was managed by a group of pioneer citizens who diverted Birch Creek into Malad Valley.  The community needed a more constant water flow to operate the wagon wheels for their gristmill and sawmill.  John J. Williams used a spirit level, the only tool available, to survey the ditch. The diverted water went to Devil Creek and on to Spring Creek.
The gristmill was the first flourmill, 1867, in Idaho.  Three bushels of wheat, an hour, were ground into flour between the burrstones.  The Malad Co-op proposed to build another gristmill at Warm Springs, where wheat could be ground throughout the year.  The surface of the grinding stones had to be constantly rough-hewed with a chisel and hammer.  Rock chips would imbed in the worker’s hand.  Thus, the expression, ‘show your true grit’, originated.  The burrstones were replaced, in 1890, with rollers and the name was changed to the Malad Roller Mill.  The Company had difficulty retaining experienced millers.  About 1904, the mill was sold to Crowther Brothers.  Edward, Junius, and Norman changed the name to Crowther Brothers Mill.  The flour produced was called ‘Big C’.
In 1878, the Marsh Valley citizens and the Mill Company went to court over the water diversion.  Thereafter by Court decree, the water was divided with three-fourths of Birch Creek diverted, out of the Columbia  basin, to Malad Valley in the Great Basin.  Water diverted out of one Basin into another is a very rare occurrence.  As you will read, Charles R. Evans thought it was only fair to do the reverse.
The Malad Valley Irrigation Company retains the water rights.  D. L. Evans was, later, President of the Irrigation Company and was instrumental in its organization.  Most other small stockholding irrigation companies followed his format.  Both D. L. and D. L. Jr. were very active in water projects.  They both served as President and Secretary of the Malad Valley and Deep Creek Irrigation Companies.  Water is the lifeblood of the West.
The Malad Co-op built a hog feedlot to feed bran, shorts and red dog from the flour milling process.  They also started an animal slaughterhouse, which was East of town.  George Stewart purchased the slaughterhouse from the Co-op.  Ben Stewart operated the slaughterhouse and after scalding the hogs, if the water were tepid, supposedly, he would have a bath.  The Indians from the Washakie Reservation dried, on the fence, the entrails from animals for food.  The Indians knew that the intestines contained the highest energy, per ounce, of any other part of the hog.  An ounce contains twenty-four grams of fat and three hundred twenty six calories.  Maybe the Indians knew that hog intestines are the primary ingredients of ‘chitlins’. An Indian named Suzy, from the Reservation, pitched her teepee at the nearby Deep creek.
Quoted in part from the l9ll ‘Idaho Enterprise’:
“Back in the earliest date of Malad’s commercial history extends the record of the Co-op, the leading mercantile institution of the city.  It was organized in the eighteen sixties by a half a dozen of the pioneer citizens and, in the beginning, occupied quarters in a building which later became the home of Mrs. Drake.
Within a short time the business grew to such an extent that it demanded more room, so a log building, 20′ by 40′, was erected on the site of its present location.   To facilitate construction and to increase the inventory, additional stockholders were taken in.  The store was supervised by the Mormon Ward Bishopric.
The common phrase ‘ups and downs’ expresses perfectly the variant conditions of the Co-op’s commercial standing from the time of inception.  In 1884, D. L. Evans assumed the management and began the work of building the business to its present proportions.
D. L. Evans was a young man without any previous experience or training in the mercantile business, but possessed of natural ability and capacity for work endowed by few others.  Very shortly after taking charge of the Co-op, D. L. Evans and his brother, Lorenzo, began buying up the company stock as fast as their means would permit, and eventually they became the sole owners except for a few shares.
To date, the building has been enlarged three times and is sometimes referred to as the ‘flat iron building’ or ‘the big brick’.  Today’s magnificent structure would do credit to any Idaho city.
D. L. Evans acquired enough wealth to permit his retiring from the active management of the store”.
The Co-op block was purchased from Henry Peck for $300.00 on May 5,1877.  He was appointed Probate Judge in the 1860′s.  He enjoyed being called Judge.  Judge Peck’s Homestead encumbered all of Malad’s downtown.  In 1892, Evans Brothers purchased the undeveloped balance of the Peck ‘Homestead’.  They subdivided several blocks in Malad.  They made sure that all the housing lots had a proper alley in the back.  Evans Brothers gave the Mormon Church the land for the Tabernacle.  Year’s later, D. L. Evans Jr. gave the City land for a park in memory of his parents.  The park was to be named D. L. Evans Memorial Park.
The 20′ by 40′ log building was built on the corner facing Main Street.  This building was built in 1877 and faced with boards painted white.  It is the Z.C.M.I. building in the picture.  In 1892, the red brick building was built in an ‘L’ shape around the original building.  The Bank is facing Bannock Street.  In 1903, the Main Street building was expanded to house the Drug store.  The log building was torn down.  In 1907, the ‘flat iron’ building was built to fill the block.  In 1936, the grocery/hardware structure was built on the west side.
The large room on the second floor of the Malad Co-op building served the community as a school, dance hall, music room and general meeting hall.  One of Idaho’s first bowling alleys was in the basement.  The Evans Electric Company’s office and Carl Nelsen’s barbershop were also in the basement.  George Gray, A. A. Honnex, and D. C. McDougall, an attorney, had offices on the second floor.
At various times, United States government offices were on the second floor.  During World War II, all United States government offices were required to have access to a bomb shelter.  A sign has survived directing to the basement as the bomb shelter.  It has never been explained why Malad would be bombed.
In the thirties, Ray Best was the Administrator of the United States Resettlement office.  The office was on the second floor of the Co-op building.  The United States government deemed that some land should not have been homesteaded.  Various counties around the country were designated to be repurchased.  Oneida County, due to the drought, was a designated county.  The land was purchased for five to ten dollars an acre.  This was a ‘windfall’ because land, if it could be sold, would sell for less than a dollar.  Moses Christensen sold his homestead on Deep Creek and moved to Caribou County.  When he died sixty years later, he had acquired twenty-five thousand acres.  J. F. Fredrickson, a car dealer, eventually owned the most land in Oneida and Power Counties, about thirty-five thousand acres.  John F. became the agent of the Federal Land Bank in the twenty’s for being the Chairman of the Oneida County Republican Party.  D. L. Evans Jr. sold many acres in western Oneida County.  The moneys received were used to salvage the D. L. Evans estate.  The United States does not pay property taxes.  Thus, the ‘windfall’ has been a tax deterrent to County schools and government.  The purchased property has been designated the National Grasslands under the administration of the United States Forest Service.  Since few trees are involved, a better name would have the sagebrush service.
A five square mile area south of Holbrook, in Oneida County, is in the Grasslands and is subject to wind erosion.  Many sand dunes were created when the land was cultivated, during the thirty’s, and are still visible.  The wind erosion was corrected by planting crested wheat grass.  The homestead homes were burned when the land was purchased.
Demona F. Evans was born and lived in a home, by the Curlew Springs, in the blow sand region.  She remembers how the sand stung the back of her legs.  Demona’s father, Moyle E. Facer, strung a rope between the kitchen door and the outhouse so his children would not become lost in the sandstorms and snowstorms.  Before the advent of the telephone, the homestead mothers, including Elizabeth B. Facer, devised their own communication.  When the need arose, lanterns were waved and pans were beaten from house to house.  Help would soon arrive.  To obtain water, Beth would stop the car in the creek, fill the milk cans and drive the ‘dugway’ home.  Beth would back the car if it could not negotiate the hill forward.  Elizabeth was blessed with five children in six years during those interesting times.  Moyle would take his children into the field to pull weeds where they worried about scorpions and rattlesnakes.  Do not tell Demona that those times were hard because she was happy and others were less privileged.  The children would take an egg or a found Indian arrowhead to Willard Smiths’ garage in Holbrook for a piece of penny candy.  Crowther Brothers ‘Big C’ flour sacks would be sewn for underwear or dishtowels.  Moyle provided venison and sagehen for food when the need arose.  Sometimes the hunting season had not started.  He was not any different than other caring fathers.  His stock holdings consisted of a horse and a cow.  The older children, Renee and Lyde, rode the horse to Holbrook to school.  The family flourished with love and faith in Morman teachings.
The Evans Co-op general hardware department was located one block South of the main store.  In that area, Conoco products, Studebaker carriages, horse tack, wagons and McCormick-Deering(International) farm implements were sold.  The Co-op also sold coal and lumber.  A blacksmith shop provided aid to the farmer.  The store supplied the farmer, who was ‘homesteading’ the land, with anything he might require.  In 1936, an addition was added to the main store for the I.G.A. grocery and hardware departments.  D. L. Jr. said moving the hardware was a mistake because it lost business.  The International Implement Company could not coerce him at that time.  He had to build a new building to keep the equipment.  The franchise was terminated when he refused.  The store continued to sell Oliver, Calkins and Eversman implements.
D. L. Jr. became general manager in 1920; D. L. III 1936; Mariemma 1941; Maxilyn 1943; Roland 1946; and Donald 1976.  It has been a tradition that all members of the Evans family work at the Co-op.  Caleb Othneal Nibert lost his men’s store, The Toggery, during the 1930 depression.  D. L. Jr. gave him a job as department manager and he was sincerely grateful.  He loved the store and stayed until retiring.  He was a great friend.  Tom Evans was employed at the Co-op for forty years.  The list of employees and department managers is limitless.  The Evans family is eternally grateful. The Evans Co-op Co. has remained a pioneer Idaho company only because many people, proudly, gave freely of themselves.
Mary Ellen Williams, while in school, was a student of D. L. Evans.  She was the second lady clerk to be hired by the Co-op.  Mary was the daughter of John J. Williams, a pioneer blacksmith and surveyor.
In 1885, Mary Ellen became Mrs. D. L. Evans.  Three children were born to this union;  Victor died at 1 year, John Williams at age 18, and David Williams Evans at age 89.  David legally changed his given name to David Lloyd Evans, Jr.  The name change did not please his Mother, Mary.  He was born in 1888.
An article printed in the ‘Tribune’ on February 7, 1907 states: “The funeral services of John W. Evans, son of Mr. and Mrs. D. L. Evans, who died of pneumonia at the Holy Cross Hospital, Salt Lake, were held at the Tabernacle at one o’clock, Tuesday.  Professor R. N. Hill was the principle speaker.  Seven girlfriends of the deceased sang ‘The Vacant Chair’ and Mrs. W. W. Evans sang ‘Face to Face’.  There were many beautiful floral offerings.  The esteem, in which the young man was held, was evidenced by the fact that a hundred and twenty-five carriages composed the procession to the Malad Cemetery”.  John was sickly, so he attended high school in Salt Lake City.  His parents were at his bedside when he died.  This is John W.’s ‘Moment in time’.
BANKS AND NEWSPAPERS
D. L. Evans Sr. and Jedd Jones Sr. maintained a friendly rivalry from pioneer days.  They were born, a year apart, in Brigham City, Utah.  They probably knew each other as boys.  Jedd Jones was a Republican.  D. L. Evans owned the illustrious Malad Co-op store.  Jedd Jones owned and operated the famous Bank Saloon.  D. L. Evans had a bank.  Jedd Jones organized a group that opened, in 1907, the First National Bank of Malad.  Both men were successful and both became quite wealthy.  Their influence was endless and touched everyone.  They were powers in the state as well as in the community.
Jedd Jones financed the ‘Idaho Enterprise’.  The paper was printed in the basement of the First National Bank building.  The Newspaper was the chronicle for the Republicans.
Three newspapers were printed in the Malad Co-op building.  D. L. Evans financed them all.  They were to be the voice of the Democrats.  At the turn of the century, the ‘Peoples Advocate’ with Walter Peck as editor, was the first newspaper printed.  An article in the ‘Tribune’ on February 7, 1907 reads: “Malad is to have another weekly newspaper, ‘The Malad Telegram’.  The ‘Telegrams’ official home will be in the basement of the D. L. Evans Bank building.  The Editor, Utter Jones, is authority for the statement that, in politics, it will be independent”. The last paper printed in the Co-op building was the ‘Oneida County News’.  A. E. Pelton was the managing editor and publisher.
Regardless, they were friends who built large homes across Main Street from each other.  They both wore derby hats and occasionally, walked ‘upright’ to town together.  The two were very supportive of civic and charitable functions.  They were brother Masons.  Their wives were members of the same social clubs.  There was some competition between the two banker’s wives. Mary and Sara(Aunt Ted) liked to be the best dressed in the town.  One time they each went to Salt Lake City to purchase a hat.  They were quite mortified when they met at a social wearing the same style hat.  You would go to the other banker if you could not obtain money from the first banker.
Lawrence Jones and his family lived across mainstreet from his father.  One day in the nineteen-twenties, D. L. Evans gave Seth Thomas, and his son Seth, a ride home in his Rio touring car.   Lawrence had a twin daughter named Jean(Jean Jones Byrd).  The little girl ran across the street, from her Grandparents home, in front of the Rio car.  She was knocked to the pavement and the car passed over her.  Jean jumped up and ran home.  Apparently, She was not injured.  The car continued to the Thomas home.  The person most impressed by the incident was the young Seth Thomas.  Seth would become the future Mayor of Malad.
By law, a bank had to close if it could not pay a demand check written on an account in the bank.  For a duration in the ‘thirties’, there was no money.  Nervous people with lengthy memories hoarded the cash.  In fact, Malad issued ‘scrip’ or paper money to keep commerce going in the community.  Many government entities had to issue ‘scrip’ to pay salaries and bills.  Often individuals with cash bought the ‘scrip’, at a discount, from desperate people who needed money.
Dan O. Jones was the Assistant Cashier at the First National Bank.  One time, Dan ran down ‘Pig Alley’ to the back of the Co-op.  He went through the store to the back door of the J. N. Ireland Bank.  Dan obtained enough cash to pay a demand at the teller’s window of the First National Bank.  The Bank was saved from closing.  J. N. Ireland Bank had very limited cash, but the two Independent Banks always maintained close relationships.  D. L. Evans and Jedd Jones were responsible for the close association.
Long ago, a pundit named the West End of Court Street ‘Pig Alley’.  The best guess would be a soldier who was in France during World War I.  There is in Paris a famous, or infamous, Street by the name of Pigalle.
Franklin D. Roosevelt was elected President of the United States in 1932.  He immediately declared a ‘bank holiday’, which closed all banks for about two weeks.  This allowed the Treasury to print and circulate enough money, or cash, to alleviate the shortage.  The ‘double liability’ law against bank investors was repealed.  All gold was to be turned to the Treasury in exchange for paper currency.  Margaret Evans always regretted that she did not keep some of her few gold coins.  D. L. Evans Jr., her husband, convinced her it was patriotic to turn in all gold.
The ‘Senator from Sandpit’ is an old column from the ‘Salt Lake Tribune’.  Ham Park was the columnist.  In the early twenties, he wrote the following limerick: “Down in old Malad Valley, where the rank and the file till the sod.  Where the Evanses speak only to the Joneses, and the Joneses speak only to God”.  Twenty years later he rewrote the limerick and reversed the names.  Their progeny, over the years, have always maintained a close relationship.
The ‘Idaho Enterprise’ is the oldest newspaper in Idaho.  J. A. Straight first published the Newspaper on June 6, 1879 at Oxford, Idaho.  In 1879, the Utah Northern Railroad went to Oxford.  Three years later, Jay Gould, the railroad magnate, completed building the railroad to Montana and to Oregon.  The name was changed to the Oregon Shortline Railroad.  The Federal Land Office was at Oxford.  In 1884 the ‘Enterprise’ was moved to Malad.  The Publisher and Editor was R. H. Davis.
Clyde Hanson leased the paper in 1902 and became Editor.  In 1909, he left to publish papers in Montpelier and Rockland, Idaho.  In 1917, Clyde returned as Editor of the ‘Enterprise’.  The custom, at that time, was for the postmaster of the United States Postoffice to be an appointee of the duly elected national party.  President Warren G. Harding was elected in 1920.  Clyde Hanson, being a good Republican, was appointed postmaster in Malad.  He resigned as Editor of the ‘Enterprise’.
Due to the economy, Malad could not support two newspapers.  The ‘Oneida County News’ and the ‘Idaho Enterprise’ were merged by the respective shareholders into the ‘Oneida County Enterprise’.  A. E. Pelton, of the ‘Oneida County News’, became the Editor and Publisher.  The paper was printed in the basement of the United States Post Office.  The Post Office was in the First National Bank building.
Clyde Hanson lost his job as postmaster when Franklin D. Roosevelt was elected.  He purchased control of the paper and, once again, became Editor and Publisher.  The paper was renamed the ‘Idaho Enterprise’.  D. L. Evans Jr. sold the last remaining minority stock to Marion(Swede) Hanson in 1959. Besides, thanks to Swede, the political persuasion of the ‘Enterprise’ had softened, somewhat.
PUBLIC SERVANT
Continuing his political endeavors in 1898, D. L. Evans was elected as Oneida County Representative.  Being chosen Speaker of the House in the 1899 session of the Idaho Legislature honored him.
In 1900, Governor Dubois was a candidate to be the United States Senator on the Republican ticket.  The Republican Party endorsed gold to ‘back’ the supply of paper money.  The silver mines in North Idaho have always been a major source of silver in the United States.  The Democrats, including D. L. Evans, advocated gold and silver.  William Jennings Byrant, Democratic candidate for president in l900, gave his famous ‘Cross of Gold’ speech against the Republicans.  President William McKinley was elected.  Because Governor Dubois supported silver, the Republicans did not nominate him for senator.
He switched to the Democratic ticket and was elected to the United States Senate.  Previously as Marshall, Fred T. Dubois had to enforce the  ‘Edmonds-Tucker Act’, the law to send the polygamists to jail.  The Senator, whether right or wrong, was blamed for the anti-Mormon prejudice crusade.
Thomas S. Thomas expressed the people’s feelings with the following quote: “For many years we had a thriving community and a good following in church matters, until the bill by Dubois was passed, disfranchising every Mormon in the state of Idaho for his religious beliefs.  So we were, as it seemed, a people without a country.”
Consequently, Apostle Cowley from Salt Lake City counseled the Mormons to vote Republican.   As quoted from The Peoples Advocate, November 20, 1902, W.H. Peck, editor.   “We have the word from President Smith himself, that the church is not in politics, therefore, Apostle Cowley was doing that which he had no right to do when he went about trying to serve the Lord and the Republican Party”.
The 1900 General News, with Abbott the Publisher, stated the following:  “One of the most flagrant violations and usurpation of church authority that we have yet heard of comes from Fairview (then part of Oneida County, now Franklin County).   It is this:  Bishop Pratt before the election called a meeting of the teachers of the Ward and instructed them that it was the wish of the church authorities that they should vote the Republican ticket, and should council the members to do the same.  Is that not using church influence?:  And if it is not then what under the heavens would you call it”.
In 1902, D. L. Evans won the Idaho Senate seat for Oneida County by two votes.  Oneida County at that time was composed of Power, Franklin and Oneida Counties.  All other Democrats, candidates and incumbents, in Oneida County lost.
He was elected Oneida County Senator in l922 and l924.  In l9l0, he lost the election for Idaho State Treasurer.
Additionally, D. L.’s Democratic loyalty was accented by his uninterrupted attendance, as an elected delegate, at every convention held in the territory, state or county from 1882 to 1920.  He attended the following National Democratic conventions.  In 1900 at Denver, Colorado, Wm. J. Bryan was nominated for President.  In 1912 at Baltimore, Maryland, Woodrow Wilson was nominated.  In 1916 at St. Louis, Missouri, President Woodrow Wilson was nominated for a second term.  In 1920 at San Francisco, California, he saw James M. Cox nominated.  D. L. supported McAdoo for president in 1920.  D. L. was a presidential elector in 1896 and 1916.
He declined the nomination to run for Governor of Idaho.  His grandson, John V. Evans, was Governor of Idaho for ten years, from l977 to l987.
Governor Frank Steunenberg of Idaho was assassinated in l905.  Harry Orchard confessed to planting the bomb that killed the Governor.  He claimed to have been hired by the miners association.  The court case became national news.  The attorneys were Clarence Darrow for the defense and William E. Borah for the prosecution.  Harry Orchard went to prison for life, but the miners association was acquitted.  The Governor, a Democrat, was blamed for using ‘strike breakers’ at the north Idaho mines.  Governor Steunenberg, in l898, wrote two hand written personal letters to D. L. Evans.  D. L. was, at that time, Speaker of the House of Representatives.  He expressed his grave concern about the future.  The letters are mounted on the wall in the Burley office of D. L. Evans Bank.

D.L.EVANS BANK
As early as 1870 the need for safekeeping facilities in the territory was obvious to safeguard miners and farmers properties.  The small communities needed a centrally located safe.  Malad residents kept their valuables in the Malad Co-op safe.  The night watchman, Tom Roberts, was ‘knocked over the head’ and the safe was robbed in 1880.  The safe was drilled and the tumblers were aligned.  This was very sophisticated since no electricity was available to run a drill.  The ‘Hole in the Wall Gang’ was the suspected thieves.  What was taken was never recorded.  The safe is still in the Co-op store and is renamed the ‘Butch Cassidy’ safe.
D. L. Evans provided banking services in the Malad Co-operative Company.  ‘Homesteaders’ were rapidly settling the land.  The Malad Co-op would ‘grubstake’ the farmer’s provisions in the summer.  The account would be paid, with interest, after fall harvest.
In 1890 Idaho achieved Statehood, all the Idaho banks were National banks, mainly located in Boise.  Recognizing the need in Malad for state banking, D. L. Evans applied for a bank charter.  The State of Idaho granted him the fourth chartered state bank in 1892.  The bank was opened in the new Malad Co-op building in 1893.  The bank’s vault door was shipped to Collingston, Utah by railroad and then, by freight wagon, to Malad.  It was the first Idaho State Bank to open for business.
D. L. Evans found four investors:  Lorenzo L. Evans, his brother; Drew W. Stanrod, attorney at law; J. Nathaniel Ireland, sheepman; and William G. Jenkins, merchant and whiskey wholesaler.  Each invested $5,000.00 into the bank venture.  Bill Jenkins had his whiskey business in a building purchased from A. W. Vanderwood.  Jenkins had his $5,000 in a mattress.  The Vanderwoods tried to claim these funds, but Bill said the money came from mine investments.  A. W. Vanderwood rented rooms on the second floor of the store.  It is possible that some of the stagecoach robbers rented these rooms.  Maybe the Vanderwood claim has some validity, since not all the gold from the stagecoach robberies was recovered.  Bill also deposited $10,000 in gold, which greatly helped the fledgling bank.  Before buying the Vanderwood store, Bill Jenkins drove freight wagons to Montana.  Bill was very proud of the large garden he cultivated.  During the summer, he would pull a little wagon about town and peddle vegetables.  D. L. made sure Bill’s three children stayed involved in the banking enterprises after his untimely death.  Over the concerns of Stanrod, he made Griffith L. Jenkins, at the age of thirty-three, Cashier of their new Cassia National Bank at Burley, Idaho.  Nate Ireland was a gold miner who worked at stagecoach station maintenance and construction.  Drew Stanrod moved to Pocatello and became a judge.  The partners were confident and proud to invest with D. L. Evans.
The associates invested in several banking enterprises.  Although, Nate Ireland limited his bank investments.  D. L. Evans at one time held interests in thirteen banks throughout Idaho and Utah.  He was always willing to help a community group organize a bank.  At times, he would take shares of the new bank for his efforts.  Many new companies would use the recognized name of D. L. Evans when they organized.  Sometimes they would use his name without permission.  D. L. Evans was Chairman of the associates because he was the banker.
They agreed to name the banks after themselves.  Nate Ireland would only invest in the enterprise if the initial bank was named the J. N. Ireland & Co.  The bank was opened in Malad in 1893.  D. L. Evans was President.  The D. W. Stanrod & Co. of Blackfoot was established in 1898 and it closed in 1923.
The D. L. Evans & Co. of Albion was founded in 1904, with D. L. Evans as President.  In 1921, D. L. Evans wrote a letter to D. W. Stanrod.  He was concerned whether the bank would survive in Albion and thought it might be wise to move the bank to Minidoka.  D. L. Evans Bank was the only bank in Cassia and Minidoka Counties that did not fail.  The Bank, today, has assets of 200 million with seven branches and three offices.
The Evans State Bank & Co. of American Falls opened in 1908 and, in 1923, merged with the First National Bank of American Falls; it closed in 1923.  The W. G. Jenkins & Co. of Mackay opened in 1904; it closed in 1932.  The Bank of Commerce opened in 1907 and became the First National Bank of Arco in 1920; it was merged with the Butte County Bank in 1925.  The Cassia National Bank of Burley was started in l922, with D. L. Evans as President; it was sold in 1973.
There were other banks the Evans Group did not control, but maintained major stockholder investments.  The City National Bank of Salt Lake City closed in 1922.  National Bank of Idaho in Pocatello was sold in 1927.  Idaho Falls National Bank was sold in 1927.
‘Chain banking’ as we know it today was not legal at that time.  Each Bank was incorporated with their own officers and board of directors.  Although, the banks were interlocking.  Securities, loans, monies, guarantees, and endorsements were freely exchanged between the Banks and the owners any time there were difficulties.  Only three, of D. L.’s thirteen Idaho and Utah, banks survived the depressions of the nineteen-twenties and nineteen-thirties.
In 1930, a minority suit of shareholders {Sorgatz, Vance, Archibald} was initiated against the majority shareholders {D. L. Evans and D. W.  Stanrod} of the W. G. Jenkins & Co.  The claim was over notes purchased from the D. W. Stanrod & Co.  The notes subsequently were uncollectable.  The minority did not prevail in court, although Evans and Stanrod had to pay five thousand dollars apiece.  They were happy to settle at that price.  Ralph H. Jones Sr. was the Evans attorney.
The bank failures caused D. L. Evans and D. W. Stanrod to organize the Standard Security Company, under Walt Service, to cover their indebtedness. All claims against them were resolved.  In 1936 the Standard Securities Company was dissolved with the principles purchasing the remaining assets. D. L. Evans Jr. paid sixteen thousand dollars for his share of the remaining equities.
In 1909, D. L. and Brother L. L. made a trip to Albion to examine the D.  L. Evans & Co. Bank.  The Bank was five years old.  D. L. sent a Charles Russel postcard to his son Dave Jr., attending the University of Utah in Salt Lake City, describing the trip.
Tim Covert, the Co-op store manager, drove them to Downey, Idaho to catch the Oregon Shortline Railroad train.  Tim drove them in the 1906 Maxwell, the first car in Malad.  The car became stuck in the mud on the devide pass between Downey and Malad.
They missed the train and had to stay at the Oxford Hotel in Downey.  The brothers took the train the next day and Tim went back to Malad.  They transferred to the Boise train at Pocatello, Idaho.
The only towns on the Snake River plain were the railroad towns.  All of them were located along the Oregon Shortline Railroad track  They were American Falls, Minidoka and Shoshone.  The brothers disembarked at Minidoka, a town of several thousand people, and took the stage or horse drawn bus to Albion.  They had to ferry across the Snake River and continue up the Albion Valley.
The only other communities in the area, at that time, were in the mountain valleys where water was available.  Burley, Twin Falls, Rupert, Jerome, etc. were not in existence.  In l892, the Normal School, to educate teachers, was built in Albion by the State of Idaho.  At that time, D. L. Evans was involved with the State Board of Education.  He was instrumental in establishing the school and, undoubtedly, recognized  the need for a bank.
EVANS  BROTHERS
The two brothers, D. L. Evans and L. L. Evans, engaged in a family partnership as young boys.  Later the partnership, Evans Brothers, represented ‘property ownership in common’.  The brothers had banks and mercantile stores in Malad and American Falls.  They possessed land and livestock, which were held jointly.
The Evans Brothers shared exclusive grazing rights, with Verlum Dives and Walt Daniels, to all the land from Holbrook to American Falls.  This included Arbon Valley and Bannack Creek Valley.  They purchased the grazing rights from Utah Construction, the operating company for Union Pacific.  This was prior to the government land being opened to homesteading.  It is unknown how they could have grazed through the Fort Hall Indian Reservation.  Dives and Daniels grazed horses.
The cousins as boys, David Jr., John W., L. L. Jr.(Bud), Roland L., Grover C., and Paul, participated in the cattle ’round-ups’ that started at Holbrook and ended at American Falls.  The cattle were corralled at the big bend of Bannack Creek,’natural corral’, on the Indian Reservation.  The Evans Brother’s brand was a ‘bar lazy E’.  On one occasion, seven thousand heads of cattle were shipped, by Evans Brothers, on the railroad from American Falls to Eastern feedlots.  Pioneer lore claims that many prominent cattle families got their start by rustling ‘bar lazy E’ calves.
Roland L. Evans was the first serviceman, from American Falls, killed in the First World War.  Consequently, in American Falls, there is the Roland L. Evans Post of the American Legion.
In the center of Malad Valley, there are ten thousand odd acres of land that is only suitable for wild hay cultivation and grazing.  The land is salty and marshy, with an extensive artisan water system.  It is the largest artisan system in Idaho.  In early pioneer days, hay was harvested and cattle grazed in common.  When times changed, there was a rush to ‘homestead’ the meadows.
The Evans Brothers ‘staked their claim’ in the middle of the valley.  They eventually accumulated over a thousand acres.  This was the center of their cattle operation.  The hayland was later sold to Ed Vaughn.
To ‘prove up’ on a ‘homestead’, you had to fence the land and build, and live in a home for six months.  It is ridiculous to visualize Mary Ellen or Matilda(Addie) Evans moving to a log cabin.  It was common practice to fill a coal oil lamp and leave it burning.  Ashes were brought from town and dumped in the back of the cabin.  Waste was also brought from town and put in the ‘outhouse’.  A garden was cultivated.  Trees were planted.  Hence, one could receive a patented deed on a ‘homestead’.
Dave Jr. and Bud worked in the wild hay at the Evans Brothers ranch in the haylands.  The insects, gnats, were bothersome, so the older hands suggested the boys cover themselves with molasses before bed.  They were ‘quite a sight’ after sleeping in the hay all night.  The boys got even by coiling a dead rattlesnake just out the door of the bunkhouse.  They then ‘hollered’ for the men to ‘come quick’.  The snake got the farmhand’s attention when they had to step down out of the bunkhouse.  When working in the hay, it was common practice to have two hours for lunch.  It was very deflating when told the horses needed the rest.
On Sept. 17, 1911, the two brothers and their wives amicably dissolved the business union.  David L. kept the store, land, livestock and properties in Oneida County.  Lorenzo L.(Colonel) kept the store, land, livestock and properties in Power County.  They retained their respective shares of stock in the banks and other companies.  Although there was love, trust and respect between the brothers, they were somewhat opposites in their personalities and desires.  They both remained Mormon, but questioned the practice.
D. L., in his later years, did not smoke or drink hard liquors.  Grandmother, however, was proud of her ‘homemade’ wine.  His gambling was with mining stocks, banks, other companies and faith in loans made to people.  These ventures, together with the depression, cost him his fortune.
John Harrison invented the Non-Sagging Gate.  The invention was patented worldwide.  The Evans-Harrison Gate Hinge Company was organized.  Dave invested the Money and John built the gates.  The iron used to build the gates, about five thousand dollars, was purchased in Pittsburgh.  There was not enough demand and the venture failed.  The gate iron was still around sixty years later.
He never hesitated to give money to his brother to save his bank. D. L. made the statement: “That had it been the reverse, Lorenzo would have done the same”.  All his relatives never hesitated, when in need, to call on him for financial help.  They usually received the money.  He had, and relished, the reputation as being the ‘rich banker’ from Malad.  After his father’s death, D. L. Jr. had great difficulty getting the debtors to meet their obligations.
The respect and authority that D. L. possessed is unquestioned.  For instance when the old deep creek dam burst in 1908, the floodwaters were bound for Malad.  As a youth, Arthur Williams(Little Arthur) was attending a dance at Deep Creek he raced his horse in front of the waters to: “tell Uncle D. L.”.
His longtime secretary was Vance Bigler.  Vance filed endless letters that requested money, favors or information from D. L.  These letters today are a great source of historical material.
He was pleased to have his friend and fellow Democrat, Ralph J. Harding, elected Chairman of the Oneida County Commissioners.
David’s favorite breakfast was poached eggs on toasted ‘homemade’ bread.  Another was ‘soppes’, which was made with cream, sugar and coffee over toast.  They also enjoyed melted brown sugar or raspberry jam over toast.  Coffee and tea were an important part of life.  One would always feel better after a hot cup of tea and toast.  These pleasures have been handed down for generations and are appreciated today.
L. L. liked to be called the Colonel.  He was younger and possessed the same integrity as his brother.  He was a cattle buyer and liked to gamble. The Colonel was an astute card player.  He enjoyed the other amenities.  His wife, Addie, died young and he never remarried.  He was elected, several times, to the Idaho Legislature.  L. L. was chiefly responsible for the building of the American Falls Dam and the development of the Mischaud Flat for irrigation.  He also lost his fortune, but enjoyed the pleasures of life.  The Colonel died in 1934.
Worthy of noting is the last paragraph of their dissolution agreement:  “It is with a feeling of sadness and regret that we thus dissolve the business association of a lifetime, but the passing of time admonishes us that would we avoid greater regrets and trouble, we must act now, and in doing so, we pledge to each other our continued love, confidence, and assistance in our declining years”.
Charles Rees Evans choose not to participate with his brothers in their ventures.  He did not wish any further education and spent his early years driving freight wagons to Montana.  He was gone for long periods where the family in Malad did not know his whereabouts.  Charles mailed letters from Market Lake and Eagle Rock(Idaho Falls) to his mother.
When he choose to ‘settle down’, he married Jane Lusk, who was the sister of Matilda, Lorenzo’s wife.  Charles ‘homesteaded’ in the Cherry Creek area of Marsh Valley.  At one time, he and others dug a ditch to devert water from New Canyon, in Malad Valley, to Cherry Creek.  This would take water away from his mother’s farm.  There would have been quite a discussion among the brothers.  He did not prevail.  He also was elected to the school board.
Nevertheless, Charles possessed the same integrity and high ideals as his brothers.  The following quotes were given at his funeral.  Attorney, A. L. Merrill shows the high regard in which the Brothers were held: “So it was with these men – they stood like granite peaks, and as they braved life, the sunlight flashed from their heads, and to me they were granite peaks looking to the setting sun.  Are we losing – us younger men – these fundamental characteristics that made them great?”
Silas Wright, a nephew, said: “My impressions of D.L., L.L., and Charles was that they were physical giants – I envied their fine physiques.  Winnefred was of the same type – not one ounce of cowardice in her”.
The three brothers were lifelong Democrats.
MALAD
In 1898, Malad City was incorporated with Peter Fredrickson, D. L. Evans, L. L. Jones, D. J. Reynolds and J. R. Thomas as Councilman.
An 1899 Quote from “The New West Magazine” notes the growth: “Of manufactories it boasts two flour mills, three sawmills, and a brickyard.  On the business and professional roster are five general stores, a bank, a drugstore, a newspapers, a tin store, a fruit and woolen goods store, three hotels, a restaurant, meat market, a furniture and notion store, confectionery and tobacco store, three saloons, four blacksmiths, three livery barns, a shoemaker, a photographer, two physicians, a dentist and four attorneys”.
The telephone line was brought to Malad in l902.  It was first established in a little tollbooth in the Malad Co-op building.  A spur line of the Oregon Shortline Railroad came into the valley in l906.  L. L. was the leader of the group that obtained the right-of-way for the railroad to Malad.
Electrical power in America was still in its infancy.  Electricity came to Malad in l905.  In 1913, D. L. purchased from Hodson & Little the power franchise for Malad Valley.  Birch creek was put in a pipeline to propel the generator and provide electrical services for the valley.  D. L. Evans Jr., while a senior in electrical engineering at Stanford University, had designed a power plant for Malad Valley as his final college thesis.  He supervised the construction of the electric plant, following the design, one year after his graduation.  Incidentally, nine progeny have followed him to Stanford University.  Ground was broken for the new facility on Labor Day in 1914, and power was generated on December 19, 1914.  The hardest work was construction of the power distribution lines from powerhouse to Malad.  People were fearful of electricity and oftentimes homes were wired free of charge.  The first streetlights in Malad were arc lamps.
The City National Bank of Salt Lake failed in l922.  D. L. Evans Sr. was a director and major stockholder.  The ‘double liability’ law, of that time, assessed the investor in a failed bank an equal amount of their investment and a penalty for being an officer and/or director.  He was assessed, and paid, fifteen thousand dollars, which was the amount of his original investment.  In l923, he was fined an additional fifty thousand dollars for the failure.  The fine was paid with five thousand in cash and a forty-five thousand one-year note, at six percent.  Besides, he had to pledge four hundred eight shares of Pingree Brothers stock (Salt Lake City Mercantile) as collateral.  In l923 the Pingree stock value, per share, was two hundred seventy dollars($110,160), but by l924 it was bankrupt.
Joe Pingree and D. L. Evans developed an association with mutual trust.  They were equal partners in several hard rock mining ventures.  Dave would accept a note when Joe could not pay his share of the expenses.  The Partners traded the Copper King mine in Milford, Utah for the Marshall Land and livestock ranch in Duchesne, Utah.  They both invested in the City National Bank.  They also invested in the Idaho Falls National Bank and a bank in Ogden.  They invested in an insurance company, a packing plant and other enterprises.  Joe Pingree and his brothers had a retail/wholesale store in Salt Lake City called Pingree Brothers.  The Pingree Brothers Company had financial problems locally and went east to borrow from Merril-Lynch.  D. L. Evans became a member of the Board of Directors of Pingree Brothers.  He insisted, to no avail, that they reduce the inventory.  D. L. Evans extended personal checks to be deposited if a payment to Merril-Lynch would not clear the Salt Lake Bank account.  A cover note of the Pingree Brothers Company was issued to D. L.  He held $167,000 in notes of Pingree Brothers Company.  As conditions deteriorated, Joe relinquished, to D. L., ownership in the Marshall Land and Livestock Company.  When Merril-Lynch demanded payment, the bankruptcy of Pingree Brothers Company was the end of the story.  Joe Pingree took advantage of a trusted friend and partner.  Joe Pingree signed certificates with an elaborate signature.
To raise the money, the Evans Co-op Company or the Evans Electric Company had to be sold.  On June 10, 1925, the Evans Electric Company was sold to David O. True & Associates($40,000), who two months later sold to California-Pacific Utilities Co.($60,000).  Eventually the Utah Power & Light [Portland Power] bought the power rights.
All of the Pingree Brothers Co. stock was sold for three thousand dollars in l930.  The stock was offered to D. L. Jr., but he either did not want  or lacked the money to buy them.
D. L. Evans Jr. sold the thirty-five hundred-acre ranches in Duchesne, Utah, for six thousand dollars in 1940.  Willie Foy bought the ranches for five hundred dollars a year at six percent.  In 1942, oil was discovered in the Duchesne Basin.

FAMILY
David L. Evans was devoted to his wife Mary Ellen.  She was ten years younger, born in 1864.  Her parents, John J. and Mary Williams, brought her to Malad as a baby in 1865.  Mary was John J.’s plural wife in polygamy.
David and Mary Ellen traveled extensively about the country.  The presidential conventions have already been mentioned.  They attended world fairs and even traveled to Hawaii in the early years.  Mary Ellen had twelve pregnancies with, all but three, ending in miscarriage.  She was a marvelous seamstress, especially embroidering.  She won many prizes and awards.  She had numerous other constructive hobbies and collections.  Mary Ellen was very fastidious in her appearance and stature.  She was a tiny lady, not five feet tall.
She loved to play cards and the slot machines.  Many afternoons Mary and her sisters, Victoria and Ruth, would play a card game called solo.  She was a charter member of the Kensington and Cleo afternoon bridge Clubs.  The lunches served at these socials were marvelous, especially the creamed peas and shrimp in ‘homemade’ pie cups.  Margaret always saved some for her family.  Mary could not have been hostess without Margaret.
Her sister Victoria and husband Hyrum Davis lived in the adjacent home.  The sisters were a great comfort and help to one and another.  Victoria lived for one hundred and one years.  She was skilled at baking ‘homemade’ bread in number two tomato cans.  The hot bread was spread with butter and melted brown sugar.  The brown sugar was, frequently, on the coal stove.  It was very good.  Aunt ‘Torie’ also had one son, Leroy, and suffered a dozen miscarriages.  She always had ‘homemade’ lye soap by the back door.
R. B. Davis was a druggist.  His drug store was in the Evans Co-op building.  He married Ester, she was the oldest daughter of Lorenzo and Addie Evans.  Besides being a relative, he was a close friend of the family.  You could often find Mary playing the slot machines in the front part of the drug store.
In later years, when slot machines were only at Downata Hot Springs, Mary would say: “Margaret-don’t you think it’s time to take the children swimming?”.  She was very generous with her grandchildren.  It was exciting to see what gift grandmother gave at Christmas.  Mary was true to her Mormon beliefs.  Earlier, she was President of her ‘Ward Relief Society’ for seven years.
Both grandparents suffered ill health.  D. L. suffered ‘essential tremor’. It was probably Parkinson’s disease, but his son said it was not.  He was mentally alert, but suffered a terrible palsy or tremor.  He laid down for a nap, suffered a heart attack, and never awakened.  He was seventy-five years old.
Mary had many illnesses, which kept her in bed.  Margaret said that Mary just enjoyed the attention.  No other person catered to and loved Mary more than Margaret.  David, her son, was late putting handrails on the back steps.  Mary Ellen fell on the steps in 1944 and broke her shoulder.  She went into shock and never recovered.  She was eighty years old.
When a man becomes a Mason, the first thing presented to him is the Sacred Lambskin Apron.  It is to be worn by him after his death so that he might be recognized as a Mason forever.  Mary Ellen did not want the Lambskin in D. L.’s casket.  His son made sure it was in the casket.
D. L. Evans Jr. married Margaret Thomas in l9l4.  They had six children – David Lloyd III, Neva Margaret, Mariemma, Roland Thomas, John Victor, and Donald Stephens.
The Malad Masonic Lodge entered in their minute book the following, in part, Resolution of Respect: “Neva Margaret Evans, beloved daughter of D. L. and Margaret Thomas Evans, who died February 7,1925.  Once again the daughter of a brother Mason, and our Worshipful Master, having completed the designs written for her on life’s trestle board, has passed thru the portals of Eternity and entered the Celestial Lodge above and hath received her reward…  Leaves have their time to fall, and the flowers to wither at the North wind’s cold blast, but thou, oh death, has all seasons for thine own.”
Neva developed spinal meningitis and was rushed to the Salt Lake hospital. Margaret had just born John V., so Dave drove his six-year-old daughter to the hospital.  She was in excruciating pain and kept calling for her ‘Momma’.  David said the doctor performed a spinal tap that caused fluid to shoot across the room.  Neva died in her father’s arms.  These paragraphs are Neva’s Moment in Time.

DEDECATED TO MY GRAND CHILD
NEVA MARGARET EVANS BY THOMAS S. THOMAS
“That silent form, now dum and cold,
Has crossed that bridge of fear.
She has blazed the trail from earthly cares
To that life of joy and cheer.

Where pain and trouble is no more,
Where love and peace doth blend,
To mingle with the souls above
And to her God ascend.

Thou fairest flower, thou bud of youth,
In whom my hopes were fed,
With eyes so blue, with heart so true,
My life to thee was wed.

Her perfect form, her loving grace,
Her charming voice so clear,
That welcome smile, that sweet embrace,
Whose affection grew most dear.

The future pictures I had made
of what she was to be,
Those happy thots that fed my soul
Now all come back to me.

Oh death, the seal of the silent tomb,
The fate that life deplore
You have cast the veil that separates
Mortal life for evermore.

So, after all, it is sweet to know,
When our earthly tasks are done,
That we again will re-unite
All hopes in God have won.”

David Lloyd Evans III was born in 1914.  It was not easy being the scion of a wealthy family.  He grew in some very difficult economic times.  He was a very patient, pleasant, and fun loving person.  He attended the University of Idaho, in the thirties, when money was almost non-existent.  He owned a model T Ford, of which he was very proud.  In 1936, D. L. Jr. took his family to Moscow for his son’s graduation.  His son forgot to tell him that he did not have enough credits to graduate.  David came, forthwith, to Malad to manage the Evans Co-op Company.  Margaret always felt sorry that Dave would not let his son finish collage and graduate.
David went to work without hesitation.  He was responsible for the new building that would house the hardware and I. G. A. grocery departments.  They were well accepted and appreciated by the community.  David was successful and very well liked.
In 1940, he married Maxilyn Wedel.  In February 1941, David died in an automobile accident on Black Rock Hill.  Maxilyn was seriously injured but managed to climb to the highway for help.  He was twenty-seven years old.  Maxilyn was pregnant and six months later bore a daughter.  The little girl was named Maxilyn DeLell Evans.
David’s death was a severe shock to the community.  Clyde Hanson, the Editor of the ‘Idaho Enterprise’, wrote a Memoriam, on February 6, I941: “Seldom has the news of a death affected a community so severely, rarely has there been manifested such deep and genuine sorrow as was evidenced in Malad Monday as people learned of the untimely passing of D. L. Evans Jr.  The page of his life was clearly written without blot or stain; his future was full of promise.  Among the youngest of our businessman, he had already displayed a capacity for leadership and an integrity that won him the admiration of the people of this community.  There was not a person who knew Dave that did not regard him as a friend for he was a kindly, social, and neighborly-like young man, given to the small, amiable courtesies of life, and to those gracious ways that attract and cement friendships.  All those who knew him, will greatly miss his genial presence and the ring of his cheerful voice”.
The annual stockholder’s meeting of the Evans Co-op Company was in February 1941.  His Father, now acting as Secretary, wrote the following in the Minute Book: “…The untimely death of D. L. Evans Jr., our Secretary/Treasurer in a highway upset near Pocatello, Idaho on the morning of February 3, 1941, is most unfortunate for the company.  He was rapidly becoming a power in our community and most expert in the discharge of his duties as an officer of our company.  We morn his loss and sincerely hope his future is in good hands.  His lovely wife was seriously injured in the same accident.  We pray for her early and complete recovery…”.
This is D. L. III’s Momemt in Time.
One must reflect what, of future and fortune of the family, would have been, were it not for the untimely deaths of D. L. Jr’s Father, Brother and Son.  He had no one to confide in or fall back upon.  Much was lost, but the family has persevered.
PUBLIC SERVICE
During his career of public service to education, D. L. Evans was elected and served almost continuously on the Oneida County School Board.  He was appointed to the Idaho State Board of Education[1912-1918].  In recognition of David Lloyd Evans, a brass plate hangs in the Administration Building at the University of Idaho in Moscow.  His devotion to education was vital during the early organization and progress of the states educational system.  Lorenzo was, also, elected to the Oneida County School Board.  The brothers never forgot their early vocations.  David L. worked diligently to establish a Carnegie Free Library in Malad, but was unsuccessful.
During World War I, he was Chairman of the Council of Defense and the War Loans Committee. organization This is a quote from the ‘Oneida County Enterprise’, July 18, 1929: “When the Oneida County Chapter of the American Red Cross was organized, he was chosen Chairman, which position he has held continuously; rendering service to humanity and his country, receiving the five service stripes; the highest honor badge conferred by the national upon a member for continuous service.  The Oneida County Chapter was organized June 5, 1917″.
In 1908, a Lodge of Master Masons was chartered in Malad, #51 A.F.&A.M.  Dave became a Mason in 1911, a tradition followed by his son and three grandsons.
He was a Charter member of the Malad Lions Club, the oldest Lions Club in Idaho.
He supported prohibition.
David Lloyd Evans died in Malad City on July 12, 1929.  He was a man of great physical stature, his six feet, two inches of height was held always erect with head high and shoulders back.  This was matched by his strength of character and the magnitude of a life lived with a purpose.  His was a life full of kindness, with words of encouragement and good wishes for all. He was a builder of character and industries.  Dave was a man whose word was as good as his bond.  He was a man who believed in a devout dedication to give the best he had to the world.
Thomas Stephens Thomas was a multitalented man from St. John, Idaho.  He was a lifelong friend of D. L. Evans.  They invested, together, in the California Gold and Copper Company.  Margaret Thomas Evans was his oldest daughter, and consequently, he was this writer’s maternal grandfather.  He was a poet who composed and recited at funerals and other celebrations.  The following is the original poem he recited at D. L. Evans’s Memorial.

In Memory by Thomas S. Thomas
“Today we all have met in mourning,
In due respect to a life long friend.
Yet you’ll find it’s just the beginning
Of a career that has no end.
This sad departure from life’s burdens
Where all our earthly tasks are done,
It is the time we cast reflections
On all the honors lost or won.
So the life of D. L. Evans
Creates a picture I view with pride,
He was stalwart, honest, and ambitious
A friend in whom you could confide.
He has labored hard from the days of childhood
And all the laurels he has won,
He has carved them from his stage of action
He felt his task was never done.
So the moral that I find in thinking
O’er the things he so nobly planned,
I deem it wise if we could emulate,
Keep them in mind at our command.
This grand display of lovely flowers
They are but symbols of his glorious life,
May the Gods with grace bestow affection
Upon his children and loving wife.”

“Here is the vacant home of a wonderful soul”…Thomas Stephens Thomas.

In the Evans household you worked and saved for what you wanted.  You told the truth, paid your debts, and kept your word.  You showed appreciation when someone did you a favor.  You lived up to your end of a deal.

The greatest thing a person has to achieve…is the last thing.
DSE
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