• General Notes

  Genealogical Records: Pennsylvania Colonial Records, 1600-1800s
  Colonial & Revolutionary Families, Vol II, Powell Evans, P 773-4
  
  James Evans, MD, eight child of Thomas and Jane Beverly(Daniel) Evans, was born in the village of Marion, SC, Sep 12, 1831.  He received his early educationat Marion Academy, and at age of 17 entered the south Carolina Military Academy, class of 1853.  Owing to serious disputes and dissensions in the faculty of the college, he left that institution before completing his course, and joined an engineering corps in charge of the construction of the Cheraw & Dalington Railroad, from the head of naviation on the Pedee River.  At its completion he went to Carroll Co., MS and after teaching school for a short period he assisted as a civil engineer in building the Little Rock and Napoleon, now the New Orleans and Mississippi railroad.  In 1856 he was appointed by the gov of Ar, State Civil Engineer, and in that capacity had charge of the building of all the great levees along the Mississippi, Arkansas and Red rivers in that state.  He was living along the Mississippi River during the period when that region was visited by the terrible scourge of yellow fever in 1856-57 and with two Catholic priests assisted in nursing the victims of that dread disease..
  In ths spring of 1859, James Evans came to Philadelphia and entered the Medical Department of the University of PA and received private instruction under the eminent Dr Pepper, the elder, and Dr J M DeCosta.  He graduated in the spring of 1861 and went to NY with the intention of sailing for Europe to complete his medical education in the great universities and hospitals of London, Paris and Berlin,  Before his embarkcation, however, the news of the firing on Fort Sumter reached hin and he hastened south to enlist under the banner of his native state of SC.  He took part as a volunteer in the first battle of Manassas, and after the battle was placed in charge of the division hospital at Leesburg, VA, where he met and fell in love with Miss Powell, who four years later became his wife.  He was howevef soon detached for duty as assistant surgeon to Dr Fred Giddings, at a hospital established at Adams Run, SC.  While on duty there he suffered a severe attack of hemorrhagic fever, but on his recovery, returned to Virginia to fill an appointment as Regimental Surgeon with the rank of Major, to the Third South Carolina Regimen of Volunteers, Colonel James Nance, Kershaw's Brigade, McLaw's Division, Longstreet's Corps, Army of Northern Virginia.  With this regiment he shared the arduous campaigns of the remainder of the war.
  On Jan 4, 1865, Dr Evans married Maria Antoinette Powell, of Leesburg, VA at the home of her brother Col Daniel Lee Powell, Richmond, VA.  and at the close of the war bought a plantation on long credit in his native district of Marion, S where he settled down to retriee his fortunes and establish a hme by the practice of his profession and the tilling of the soil.  By industry and application he succeeded in paying for his plantation, which he sold in 1874, removed to Mars Bluff and later in 1877 to Florence, SC, where he resided until the time of his death, July 15, 1909, at Clifton Springs, NY at the ripe age of 77 years.  He achieved eminence in hiis chosen profession filling a number of honorable official positions in his native state.  In 1887 he was elected president of the SC State Medical Association, and the ollowing year was appointed by the govenor a member of the State Board of Health.  In 1895 he bacame secretary of that board and its chief administative officer, filling that position for more than 10 years.  He was active in securing legislation for improving sanitary conditions and classifying the vital statistics of the state, and fostering and encouraging the establishment of local health boards.  Dr Evans was a voluminous writer on topics pertaining to his profession and delivered many notable addresses to the various medical and scientific associations with which he held membership.  Among his published papers are "Puerperal Fever" which attracted wide attention both in the American and European medical journals and won for him the distinction of a bronze medal from the Paris Exposition in 1900.  The decoration is still cherished by his family.  "Sanitary uses of Plants and Flowers", "Shock", "Multiple Cancer", "Uses of Normal Saline Solution in Shock", etc.  He was the author of a number of health tracts for distribution under the auspices of the State Board of Health and the basis of the hygenic and sanitation instruction now introduced into the school course in every public school in his state, on diseases, their cause, treatent and method of prevention, and other kindred subjects.  He was a member of the American Medical Association, successively the delegate to the National Conference of State and Provincial Boards of Health, the Pan-American Medical Congress.  He was a member of American Social Science Association and the Institute of Art, Science and Letters, to which he was elected upon the nomination of Dr Barouk of NY.  He was also a member of the United Confederate Veterans; the United Confederate Surgeons Association and of the South Caarolina Chapter Sons of the Revolution.
  
   

Details of James' family with Marie Antoinette Powell