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Genealogical Records: Pennsylvania Colonial Records, 1600-1800s
Colonial & Revolutionary Families, Vol II, Powell Evans, P 770 POWELL EVANS

The paternal ancestors of Powell Evans came from Rhydwilian, Caermarthonshire,Wales in 1710 and affiliated with Welsh Tract Baptist Church in Pencader Hundred, New Castle Co(now the State of Delaware).This ancient Baptist church was organized in the spring of 1701 by a little company of Welsh Baptist in the counties of Pembroke and Caermarthon, who having decided to emigrate to America, and one of them, Thomas Griffith, being a minister of that sect, they decided to form themselves into a church before embarking. The little colony consisting of sixteen persons embarked for Pennsylvania in the ship"James and Mary", June 1701 and landed at Philadelphia, Sept 8th of the same year. Not having as was common with most of the early Pennsylvania emigrants, purchased land of Penn before embarking to the Province, they located among their brethren of the Pennypack Baptist Church, and remained in Philadelphia county until early in 1703, maintaining however, their initial organization. Here a number of others were added to their membership, some of them recent arrivals from Wales, but mostly converts from other denominations among earlier settlers in that vicinity and in Bucks Co.
In 1703 the congregation of this church secured a large part of a tract of land laid out to two Welsh emigrants in Pencader hundred, in New Castle county, and moving thence in a body built on a promontory known as Iron Hill, near the present town of Newark, Delaware, a little meeting house. The church there established proved the nucleus of a large and important settlement of Welsh immigrants, and numerous other churches in that and other neighborhoods had their origin in this mother church, the first Baptist church south of Mason and Dixon's Line.

Among the offspring of the Welsh Tract Baptist Church, as it came to be known after its location in Pencader hundred, were the London Tract, Duck Creek, Wilmington, Cow Marsh, Mispillion, and Pedee (South Carolina) Baptist churches. (Pa. Hist. Mag., ix, 61, etc., Del. Hist. Soc. Records of Welsh Tract; "Nathaniel Evans and His Descendants," Evans: "History of Old Cheraws," Gregg.) At Welsh Tract they were joined at different periods by considerable additions from Pembrokeshire and other points in Wales. In 1710, among a considerable party of Baptists from Rhydwillan, Caermarthonshire, who brought letters to Welsh Tract Baptist Church, were several of the name of Evans, one of whom, Thomas Evans, was a brother to the ancestor of the subject of this sketch.

John Evans, probably accompanied by his brother Thomas and other relatives from Rhydwillan, county Caermarthon, Wales, to New, Castle county, in 1710, but was not baptized a member of the Baptist church before his immigration from Wales. John and Lydia Evans were baptized as members of the Welsh Tract Baptist Church, and their names appear on the list of those who signed the Confession of Faith read February 4, 1716, among the earliest signers. Another John Evans signed in 1712. He died in 1717, leaving a will of which he made his brother, Thomas Evans, executor, and left legacies to his four sons, of whom Nathaniel Evans was one.

It is possible that Thomas Evans, the emigrant, was the father and not the brother of John Evans, the testator of 1717, the executor being another son of the emigrant, since we find on the list of "Those Removed from us by Death," on the records of the Welsh Tract Baptist Church, under date of 1mo, 1714, the name of Thomas Evans. No age being given, it is impossible to determine whether he was the emigrant, but since he was a member of the congregation, the list purporting to be that of deceased communicants, the inference would be that he was the Thomas Evans who united with the church four years before by letter from Rhydwillan, Caermarthonshire.

Nathaniel Evans, son of John Evans, was baptized at Welsh tract Baptist Church(as an adult) Oct 2, 1735. In Nov,1735, Abel Morgan"teaching elder", Thomas Evans, deacon, James James, ruling elder, and ninetten others, including Nathaniel Evans and Annie Evans, "are removed to Carolina, and was recommended by a letter to ye Church of Christ in CharlesTown or elsewhere in South Carolina, where the above named person from Welsh Tract Church formed a church known as " The Church on the Pedee." This was the founding of the colony of Welsh Baptist on the Pedee river in South Carolina, from Welsh Tract Church formed a church known as " The Church on the Pedee." In 1736 "our brother Samuel Evan and his wife Mary Ann Evan was recommended unto our Christian friends on Pedee in South Carolina", so we find from the records of the Welsh Tract Church, and several others followed in the years 1737-38-39., among them being John Jones and Ann his wife, recommended to Pedee by letter dated Mar 11, 1738. Lydia Evans was buried at Welsh Tract, Pecander Hundred, New Castle Co, Dec 25, 1735;"John Evans,Elder", April 16, 1738; another John Evans on April 28, 1740 and Mary, wife of John Evans, Jr., on Aug 21, 1721.
Nathenial Evans purchased large tracts of land on the Pdee in South Carolina, receiving patents dated from 1743-1772 at least an aggregate of 1100 acres, much of which lying in Marion District, is still owned by his decendants. He dide prior to the Revolution, at a date not definitely known, further than that he was lining in 1772.
Nathaniel Evans married Ruth Jones, of a family that removed with or followed him to the Pedee from New Castle County, and they had children---David, Margaret, Thomas and Nathan or Nathaniel. David Evans, the eldest son, born in Craven Co., SC, about 1745, was a captain of the Rangers and served throughout the Revolutionary War. He lost a leg by a cannon shot at the siege of Savannah, while serving under General Nathaniel Greene. Margaret Evans married Major William Baker, a distinguished officer in the Continental Army, from Newborn, NC, and a man of much prominence in public affairs there.
Nathaniel Evans, youngest son of Nathaniel and Ruth Jones Evans, was born near the present site of Marion village, then Craven(now Marion) county, SC, about the year 1760. Long before attaining his majority he marched with his elder brothers to the defense of the patriot cause, under the intrepid Colonel Waters, and was one of Marion's trusted lieutenants throughout the rapacious and intercine strife that marked the Revolutionary struggle in the Carolinas, where Tarleton and Rawdon, with their Tory refugees, not only incited the bitterest partisan struggles, but with fire and sword determined to crush out the heroic patriots who had pledged their all to the State. It is a fact that the Southern soldiers of the Revolution under Sumter, Marion, pickens and others, fought as many battles in their own seciton as the soldiers of Washington's army in all the other coloniees. Nathaniel Evans served as a private under Colonel Waters in the siege of Charleston, and after its fall is enrolled in 1778 in the company of Captain Anderson Thomas, and was paid on April 14, 1785, by State order for services rendered in 1778, in Colonel Water's Regiment. He died on his plantation on Cat Fish Creek, in 1810.
Nathaniel Evans, married in 1788, Edith Godbold, daughter of Thomas Godbold, of Liberty District(now Marion Co) and his wife Martha Herron and granddaughter of John Godbold, a native of suffolk or Kent Co., England who settled on the Pedee about 1735 with his wife, Elizabeth McGurney, He had been an officer in the English navy, in the West India service prior to 1735, and was drowned on his plantation near the present town of Marion, SC, in 1765 at the age of one hundred and one years. His son, Thomas Godbold, died at Marion, Marion Co., SC in 1825. A son, Stephen Godbold, brother to Edith Godbold, Evans, fought under Marion in the Revolutionary War as a lieutenant and captain. Edith Godbold Evand died after the birth of her two sons Thomas and Asa, the latter of whom died in infancy. Nathaniel married (second) Miss Fore, who survived but a ffew years, and he married (third) Elizabeth Ann, daughter of Captain Lot Rogersm who came to the Carolinas from Virginia, and was a distinguished partiot during the Revolutionary war. The will of Nathaniel Evans, of the District of Marion, dated in 1810, proved May 23, 1810 provides for his wife Elizabeth and devises to his eldest son Thomas, 200 acres of land purchased of his brother Thomas, gives legacies to his daughters, Edith,Zilpha and Elizabeth Ann and sons, William, Nathan and John Gamewell Evans. The two daughters Edith and Zilpha were by his second wife, they married respectively, Col Levi Leggett and Robert James Gregg.

 

Source: Genealogical and Personal History of Fayette County, John W. Jordan, Lewis Historical Publishing Co., 1912.
One branch of the family headed by Nathaniel Evans settled in South Carolina, where they became prominent. The branch from which Dr. G. O. Evans of Uniontown belongs remained in Delaware, at or near Wilmington.

(I) The first Evans settlement in Western Pennsylvania was in Allegheny county, by James Evans, a hatter, who came from Wilmington, Delaware, and settled in McKeesport in 1798. He made hats and also opened a retail store for their sale by retail. He was a magistrate or justice of the peace for many years, appointed by the governor of Pennsylvania, until the office was made elective. He died in 1846. His wife Emily was a daughter of William Alexander, of the Cumberland Valley. Children: Ann M., married Dr. George Huey; John; Emily, married Dr. Robert McClellan; James; Hannah, married Hugh Boland; Harriet, married David King; Oliver, of whom further; George.

(II) Oliver, son of James and Emily (Alexander) Evans, was born in McKeesport, Pennsylvania, November 16, 1816, died there at his residence on Capitol Hill, December 7, 1888. He was educated in the public schools, but studied the higher branches and languages under the instruction of his brother-in-law, Dr. Robert McClellan, a learned physician of Mercer, Pennsylvania, with whom he also read medicine, with the intention of adopting that profession. But ill health decreed otherwise, and he spent his entire after life engaged in farming. He lived a quiet, retired life. He was known to all as a man of integrity, strong convictions, and decided opinions on all public questions of his day. He was a man of great mental activity, always a student, devoting his spare hours to gratifying his early love for good literature, and keeping fully abreast of his times. He saw the hamlet of his youth in a surprisingly few years become a busy manufacturing city of twenty thousand people. He passed a long and useful life and went to his final rest honored and respected. He was a faithful, devoted Christian, a member of the Presbyterian church. In polities he was a Democrat of the old school, loyal and devoted to its welfare. He married, November 24, 1839, Mary A., daughter of Thomas and Ann (Kuhn) Sampson, of Versailles township, Allegheny county, Pennsylvania. Children: James; Thomas S., died young; Cadwallader, of whom further; Anna M., married J. W. Bailie; and Oliver (2).

(III) Dr. Cadwallader Evans, son of Oliver and Mary A. (Sampson) Evans, was born in McKeesport, Pennsylvania, July 23, 1843. He attended the public schools of McKeesport and Elders Ridge Academy, after which he entered Washington and Jefferson College at Cannonsburg, Pennsylvania, whence he was graduated with the class of 1866, being the first class graduated after the consolidation of Washington College with Jefferson College. He chose medicine as his profession, and entered Jefferson Medical College at Philadelphia, whence he was graduated M.D., class of 1868. He successfully followed his profession at Braddock and Hazlewood, Pennsylvania, for fifteen years, then abandoned medicine for a business career. He acquired an interest in the Oliver & Roberts Wire Company (Oliver Steel and Iron Company) and continued actively engaged in the iron and steel business until his retirement. He resides in Pittsburgh, East End. For sixteen years he was a member of the select council from the old Twenty-third Ward (Hazlewood). He is a member of the Christian church, and a Republican in politics.

He married, October 1, 1872, Margaret B. Oliver, born in Allegheny City, Pennsylvania, second daughter and sixth child of Henry W. and Margaret (Brown) Oliver, of the prominent Pittsburgh family of that name. Her parents were born in county Duncannon, Ireland, of Scotch parents. In 1842 they came to this country, settling in Pittsburgh (now North Side), Pennsylvania, Henry W. Oliver was a harness maker and saddler, a business which he followed until 1866, when he retired with a competency. He and family were members of the Christian church. He died in 1888, his wife in 1900.

Children: 1. David B., manager of the Oliver Iron & Steel Company until 1891, when he retired; married Rebecca Cunningham. 2. Mary, married B. D. Holbrook, of Onowa, Monona county, Iowa. 3. Henry W. (2), born in Ireland, February 25, 1840, died February 8, 1904. He began his career as messenger boy for the National Telegraph Company in Pittsburgh, and rose to be a leading iron and steel manufacturer of his day, and a man of enormous wealth. He figured largely in public life, and in 1881 was the caucus nominee for the Republican party for United States senator, but a division in the party that year defeated the caucus choice. He married Edith A. Cassidy, of Pittsburgh; his only child, Edith, married Henry R. Rea. 4. James B., married Amelia Shields. He was president of the Oliver Iron & Steel Company, and spent thirty-seven years of his life in developing the iron and steel business that has made the Olivers ' fame and fortune. 5. Hon. George Tener, United States Senator, who for several years engaged with his brothers in steel manufacturing, then entered journalism as owner of the Pittsburgh Gasette, the oldest newspaper west of the Allegheny mountains. He is a power in Pittsburgh, also controlling the Chronicle-Telegraph, the first evening paper published in Pittsburgh. He married Mary Kountz, of Omaha, Nebraska. 6. Margaret B. (of previous mention), wife of Dr. Cadwallader Evans. Their children, all born in Pittsburgh: 1. Henry O., married Louise Straub. 2. George O., of whom further. 3. David, died in infancy. 4. Bernard Holbrook. 5. Cadwallader (2), married Myra Thornburg. 6. Mary Frances. 7. Marjorie. 8. Dorothy, married Levi Noble. 9. Deane M. 10. Norman K.

(IV) George Oliver, son of Dr. Cadwallader and Margaret B. (Oliver) Evans, was born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, November 21, 1874. He attended the public schools of Pittsburgh, finishing the high school course, then entered the medical department of the University of Michigan, where he remained two years, and then entered the medical department of the University of Pennsylvania, whence he was graduated M.D., class of 1899. He served one year as interne in the McKeesport Hospital, and in 1900 located in Uniontown, Pennsyivania, where he has since been in continuous practice. He was located for eleven years with offices on Church street, since then at his residence, No. 173 Beeson street. His practice is general in character, and has brought him an honorable reputation as a skillful practitioner. He is a member of the American, Pennsylvania State and Fayette County medical societies; is a member of the medical staff of Uniontown Hospital; is in charge of the health of the County Home, and physician for the Oliver Iron & Steel Company at Oliver, Fayette county, Pennsylvania. In politics he is a Republican, and he is a member of the Christian church, to which his wife also belongs.

He married, June 10, 1903, Amy Young, born in Pittsburgh, daughter of Judge James S. Young, of the Federal court. Children: Margaret, born July 7, 1904; Jane, November 17, 1909.