Los Angeles County
Biographies
SAMUEL C. EVANS
EVANS, SAMUEL C., Farming and Real Estate, Riverside, California, was born in Fort Wayne, Indiana, November 22, 1866, the son of Samuel Cary Evans and Minerva (Catlin) Evans. He married Edith Southworth at Stockton, California, June 5, 1891, and to them there have been born two children, Errol Southworth Evans and Samuel Evans.
The Evans family moved from Indiana to California in 1876 and located at Riverside, where the elder Evans was one of the pioneers in the development of that section of the country. He was a heavy land owner and many of the improvements begun by him have been carried to completion by his son.
Samuel C. Evans received his primary education in the public schools of Riverside, where he was a pupil from 1876 to 1882, and in 1883 he attended school at Jacksonville, Illinois. For one year he was a cadet in Litton Springs Military Academy, in Sonoma County, California, and for four years attended the University of the Pacific, at San Jose, California. He was graduated from there with the class of 1889, receiving the degree of Bachelor of Philosophy.
Mr. Evans also read law for one year, but did not carry his studies to completion, turning his talents instead to agriculture and land improvement. Since 1889, the year of his graduation, Mr. Evans has been actively engaged in business for himself in the cultivation of the soil, leveling lands, putting in irrigation plants and selling farms.
He is and has been for many years and (sic) ardent advocate of the “Back to the Land” movement and has fostered it to a large extent by selling farms to actual settlers at encouraging prices. Many years ago his father organized the Riverside land and Irrigation Company, and Mr. Evans, who now holds the office of President and General Manager, conducts his farming operations through it. He has planted and sold to settlers many hundred acres of citrus and alfalfa lands, and is himself an extensive grower of alfalfa, apples and other products. He also has large stock interests.
Mr. Evans is a man of great spirit and for many years has been one of the potent influences for the upbuilding of his city and the country surrounding it, a liberal contributor of his energy and capital in all movements having for their purpose the uplift or improvement of his community.
Not content with originating and carrying to conclusion various important public improvements, he has added largely to the welfare or Riverside on various occasions by practical gifts to the city. Among other things, he gave a magnificent piece of property known as Evans Athletic Park for the benefit of the school children of Riverside. He gave the city a house and lot for headquarters of the Associated Charities of Riverside; donated a handsome brick building and grounds at the village of Casa Blanca, for use as a branch library and fire hall; and besides these gave to the city of Riverside valuable lands and water rights for what is known as Fairmont Park.
Park improvements and the betterment of the public school conditions of his city have been subjects to which Mr. Evans has always given a great deal of personal attention. He was elected a member of the Board of Education of Riverside in 1895 and served for twelve years, resigning in 1906 to become Chairman of the Board of Freeholders, which framed a special charter for the government of the city.
Following the completion of the charter, Mr. Evans, who is a Republican in politics, became a candidate for Mayor, and was elected by a large majority. He held office from 1907 to the early part of 1912 and during that time not only was a consistent advocate of progressive policies, but made his administration notable for many modern improvements to the city. These involved street and park improvements to a large extent and he was especially active in behalf of the latter.
Mr. Evans personally agitated the improvement by the city of Fairmont Park, which his generosity made possible, and urged the installation of a children’s playground, including swimming tank. The result of this agitation was the voting by the people of $30,000 worth of bonds, the expending of which was left almost entirely to his judgment, as President of the Riverside Park Board, the citizens feeling confident that the city would get value received for its money.
Mr. Evans’ record in the Mayor’s chair, one of the most creditable in the city’s history, was due in large part to the fact that he had made a special study of municipal government as a science. He is a member of the National League of Municipalities, also of the California League of Municipalities, of which he served as President in the year 1910, and has taken an active interest in all of their deliberations. Along this line, he made a trip around the world, and spent one year studying social and economic conditions in foreign countries. He has also visited and studied the governmental methods in a number of the larger American cities and has devoted considerable time to the social problems which confront these cities.
Being a thorough business man and one of great enterprise, Mr. Evans conducted the city government of Riverside on a business basis and this policy, added to his wide knowledge of civic methods and his earnest efforts for the advancement of the city, won for him an unusual popularity with the people at large. The result was that when he retired from the office of Mayor he was put forward by his friends as a candidate for the Republican nomination for Congress in the Eleventh California District. After a stirring campaign, he was chosen as the nominee of his party on September 3, 1912.
Mr. Evans is generally credited with taking an active part in politics from purely patriotic motives, his desire being to do all in his power to better living conditions and governmental methods in the interest of his fellow man. He is independently wealthy, the owner of valuable property in and around Riverside, and has little to gain except that which will benefit the entire community, from public office.
Because of his enthusiastic labors in behalf of his city Mr. Evans has been honored in various ways by his fellow townsmen and in 1911 was elected President of the Riverside Chamber of Commerce, in which office he has put forth his best efforts for the city. He also is a member of the Southwest Museum, and of the Phi Kappa Psi fraternity.
Transcribed 7-2-09
Marilyn R. Pankey.
Source: Press
Reference Library, Western Edition Notables of the West, Vol. I, Page 313,
International News Service, New York, Chicago, San Francisco, Los Angeles,
Boston, Atlanta. 1913.
© 2009 Marilyn R. Pankey.
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