Page 310 - PGM Compendium

BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH
Of
M⸫W⸫ Elwood Evans

1865-1866
It is difficult to get away from Elwood Evans while reading
about the political history of Washington Territory. Born in
Philadelphia December 29, 1828, he was appointed by
President Millard Fillmore as Deputy Collector of Customs
under Simpson P. Moses and opened their office in Olympia
on November 15, 1852. Admitted to the bar shortly after
setting up shop, Evans became one of the Territory’s earliest
lawyers. His initial stay in Washington Territory was brief,
in late 1852 he went to Washington, D.C. to campaign for
the creation of a territory separate from Oregon. Evans
served as an aide to Gov. Stevens during the overland
expedition to Washington Territory in 1853. He served as the
Chief Clerk of the House during the First Session (1854) and was later elected to fill an unexpired
term of a House member. At the same time he filled the role of Thurston County School
Superintendent.

An active member of the Whig Party, he led his colleagues into the newly formed Republican
Party by the end of the 1850s. In January 1859 he was instrumental in the incorporation of Olympia
and was elected the President (Mayor), serving 1859-1861. Although Evans lobbied hard for an
appointment to the office of Governor, he was never successful. Yet he was frequently in a position
to be Acting- Governor. He was made Territorial Secretary during the Lincoln Administration and
assumed the right to select a public printer, and awarded the post to Olympian Thornton McElroy.

Brother Evans served as Master of Olympia Lodge No. 1 in 1864 and 1865, and would also be
elected as Grand Master in 1865. However, his path to the Oriental Chair could best be described
as circuitous. To quote from the History of Olympia Lodge: “At this particular period in the history
of No. 5 (remember that Olympia No. 1 was previously Olympia No. 5, under the jurisdiction of
the Grand Lodge of Oregon), it is quite apparent that sinister motives actuated certain members in
their ballots on petitioners. There was good material rejected without apparent cause – men of
good reputation who had borne their parts in the struggle against the Indians and were in every
way good citizens, whose exclusion from the Fraternity reflected little credit on the guilty ones.
As an evidence, Elwood Evans was rejected twice before admission.”

In 1868 he would return to public service as Chief Clerk in the House, and made valuable
contributions in compiling the Code of 1869. He was elected to the House in the mid-1870s, rising
to the office of Speaker. He apparently took over the office of Territorial Librarian simply to move
the facility to the capitol campus. It was during this time he seriously started compiling his history
of the region, as Norman Clark observed, “Among the most literate of the territorial barristers, his
experiences left him with an intense interest in the drama of those early years, and he had already