Blair County PA Archives Biographies.....Evans MD, Henry J. January 8, 1855 - ???? ************************************************ Copyright. All rights reserved. http://www.usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm http://www.usgwarchives.net/pa/pafiles.htm ************************************************ File contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by: Judy Banja http://www.genrecords.net/emailregistry/vols/00004.html#0000757 December 16, 2024, 1:40 pm Source: Biographical and Portrait Cyclopedia of Blair Co, PA: Philadelphia, 1892. Author: Samuel T. Wiley HENRY J. EVANS, M. D., one of the younger members of the medical fraternity in Altoona, and a graduate of the Hahnemann Medical college, of Philadelphia, who has achieved success and position in his profession, is a son of John N. and Mary (Evans) Evans, and was born January 8, 1855, at Rhymmey, Monmouthshire, Wales. Nicholas Evans (grandfather) was born, lived and died in Wales. He was a carpenter by trade, married, and reared a large family. Among his sons was John N. Evans (father), who was born in Wales in 1825, and lived in his native land until he was thirty-six years of age. In 1861 he came to America with his family, and located that same year in Schuylkill county, Pennsylvania. He resided there for some time, but later removed to Shamokin, Northumberland county, where he died in 1885, aged sixty years. He was a miner by occupation, and took an intelligent interest in, and actively promoted measures calculated to improve the conditions of the laboring classes of this country. In politics he was a republican, and a Latter-day Saint in religious belief. He married Mary Evans, by whom he had a family of eight children: Ann, Elizabeth, Henry J., Nicholas, Mary, Agnes, John A., and Susan. The latter three were born in America and the others in Wales. Henry J. Evans received his early education in the common schools of Pennsylvania, and later took a course of training in the Millersville State Normal school, and supplemented that by a course at Mt. Pleasant seminary, in Berks county. He then became a teacher, and followed that occupation for several years, during part of which time he served as principal of a graded school at Shamokin. When he was yet engaged in teaching, he began the study of medicine under the preceptorship of Dr. M. M. Harple, of Shamokin, Northumberland county, Pennsylvania, and in 1879 entered the Hahnemann Medical college, in Philadelphia, from which he graduated in March, 1881, with the degree of M. D. he soon after located at Tyrone, this county, where he opened an office, and was successfully engaged in the practice of medicine until December, 1881, when he removed to Altoona. In this city he has since resided, devoting his time principally to his profession, in which he has been very successful, but incidentally interested in coal mining in Cambria county, where his brother, Nicholas, acts as superintendent of the business. On November 8, 1881, Doctor Evans was united in marriage with Melissa Burley, a daughter of Jonathan Burley, of Tyrone, this county, where he was then practicing. To this union has been born one son and a daughter. The daughter is named Mary Boynton, and was born September 24, 1882, while the son is Henry Simpson, and his natal day May 28, 1884. Doctor Evans is a republican in politics, and a member of the First Methodist Episcopal church, in which he has served for some time as a steward. He is also a member of Mountain Lodge, No. 281 Free and Accepted Masons. Doctor Evans is popular, both as a physician and as a citizen, and while attending to a large practice, at the same time takes an active interest in all matters connected with the public welfare. He is justly held in high esteem by a very large circle of friends and acquaintances, who concede his ability and skill as a physician, while they admire the pluck and energy with which he has made his way in the world in the face of many adverse circumstances. Additional Comments: Originally submitted 2001. Transcribed by Ruth Curfman rcurfman@home.com This file has been created by a form at http://www.usgwarchives.net/pafiles/ File size: 4.1 Kb