TROUP COUNTY, GA - BIOS  W.S. Evans

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Memoirs of Georgia, Vol. II, Atlanta, Ga., pages 917-918
Published by The Southern Historical Association in 1895


TROUP COUNTY

W.S. Evans, farmer, LaGrange, Troup Co., Ga., son of Thomas C.
and Rhoda B. (Swanson) Evans, was born in Georgia in 1838.  His
father was born and raised in Edgefield district, S.C., and
came to Georgia sometime in the twenties, when a young man.  He
was a captain during the Indian war of 1836, and was with the
forces which escorted and guarded the Cherokees on their way to
their new home.  He was a party to the contract to convey the
Indians from Georgia; and after the treaty he was selected to
settle with and pay the Indians for their lands.  While thus
engaged he ate, and held councils with them in their wigwams,
securing their friendship and confidence.  He was fond of
military display and life, and for years was a general of the
local militia, when to hold the office was no insignificant
local distinction.  In 1843 he came to Troup county, soon after
which he was elected sheriff, holding the office several years
to the entire satisfaction of the people.  In 1856 he was
elected ordinary of Troup county and held the office until he
died, in 1857.  He was a member of the masonic fraternity.  Mr.
Evans was reared and educated at the common schools in Troup
county, and had entered the university of Georgia when his
father died, and he had to abandon his college course.  In
April 1861, he enlisted as a private in the LaGrange Light
guards - the first company that left LaGrange - which afterward
became Company B, Fourth Georgia regiment.  Not long after the
regiment went to the field he was elected lieutenant; and the
officers of the Twiggs county volunteers and the West Point
guards having been captured, the command of these forces
devolved on him.  He was in all the engagements in which his
company bore an honorable and conspicuous part, among them -
King’s School-house; Malvern Hill; Sharpsburg; Second Manassas;
Morton’s Ford; the Gettysburg campaign; the fights around
Richmond; Cold Harbor, and Monocacy, where he lost his right
leg.  At one time during his service he crossed the Potomac
three times with his company, and was wounded each time.  At
Sharpsburg he was shot in the head and left on the field for
dead; but he recovered consciousness and rejoined his command. 
At the battle of Monocacy, July 9, 1864, when he lost his leg,
he was captured, but was soon exchanged and came home, and as
soon as he was able resumed farming.  In 1888 he was appointed
postmaster at LaGrange by President Cleveland, and retained the
office several months during President Harrison’s
administration.  Mr. Evans stands very high with his fellow
citizens as a man of stern integrity and uprightness of
character.  Mr. Evans was married in 1866 to Miss Maggie,
daughter of Walker and Margaret (McCalley) Dunson, native
Georgians.  To them seven children have been born: Lucy Lee,
Mary Virginia, Maggie, Ruth, Willie, Thomas C., and Frank T.
The mother, who was an exemplary member of the Methodist
church, died Aug. 10, 1891.  It is a singular coincidence that
all their children were born on Sunday but one, and that on was
born on Saturday night.  Mr. Evans is a Knight of Honor - was
made a master Mason as soon as he was of full age, and is now a
royal arch Mason.  Himself and all his children are members of
the Methodist church.