Page 301 - 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

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