George C. Evans
George Collings Evans was born February 20, 1858, the son of Edward Patton Evans and Amanda Jane Evans, in the family homestead now owned and occupied by John P. Leonard. As a babe, he was large, strong and healthy. He walked at the age of nine months. He was always a sturdy boy. His father and the Hon. George Collings, of Monroe Township, were close friends and the babe was named for the latter. George attended the public schools in West Union until his sixteenth year when he went to school in Portsmouth, Ohio, residing with his elder brother, Nelson W. Evans. In September, 1874, he entered the Academy at South Salem, Ross County, and remained there one year. In September, 1875, he entered Marietta College in the freshman class. He remained there until July, 1877. While in college he was a fair student and was very fond of athletic sports and all those amusements dear to college boys.
In the summer of 1877, he took up the study of the law with his father and was admitted to the bar by the district court in Ironton, Ohio, April, 1879. He formed a partnership with Luther Thompson, also now deceased, under the name of Thompson and Evans and practiced his profession at West Union until January, 1881, when he opened an office in Columbus, Ohio, and began the practice of law there. From 1877, his father's health had been failing and in 1881, it had so far failed that he was confined to his home, a helpless invalid. About the first of December, 1881, George returned to West Union to make it his home during the life of his father. On December 27, 1881, he was married to Miss Josephine Cluxton and the two took up their home with his parents.
On September 25, 1882, in the forenoon, he was in as good health, apparently, as any one could wish to enjoy. He went to his office and attended to his business. Conversing with some friends that morning, in regard to the death of a young lady, it was said to him, "You have the physical powers to live to old age." George replied he believed he would have a very long life. Just before noon, he began to write out an administrator's deed. He had it half finished and left it on his desk, when he closed his office and went to dinner. He never was at his office again. He ate a hearty dinner and rested awhile. Then he complained of severe pain. He was attacked with hepatic calculi or gall stones. From that time until his death, he was never free from pain, unless under the influence of opiates. He continued suffering until 11 P. M. October 2, when peritonitis set in and from that time until he breathed his last at 9 A. M. October 3, he was in a mortal agony which opiates could not relieve. It is believed that at this hour, the gall stones ruptured the hepatic duct and let the contents of the gall bladder into the cavity of the bowels. However, all this time, he was in his full strength. On the morning of October 3, at 6 A. M., a neighbor, David Thomas, called and saw that George was dying, though not apparent to others. He requested the physician in attendance to notify the family which was done and they gathered about him. His aged father was carried to his bedside to bid him a last farewell. His mother and his wife were beside him. George said, "Father, I had expected to be your comfort and stay in your old age, but I am called first." The word spread through the village quickly, "George Evans is dying," and his friends hurried to bid him farewell. He made his will; he prayed for himself and bade his relations and friends all a touching farewell. He left messages for his brother in Portsmouth and his sister in school at Oxford. He left directions as to his wife, expecting soon to be a mother, and expressed his willingness and readiness for the inevitable. Fifteen minutes before he died, he was on his feet and was conscious almost to the last moment. Those who were present say they never saw such a death scene and hoped to be spared from a like one. He died at fifteen minutes past 9 A. M. October 3, 1882, and the court house bell at once tolled the fact and the number of his years. The community was never so shocked by the death of anyone since the cholera epidemic of 1851. His funeral was held October 5th at his father's residence. It was a beautiful, ideal, October day and the attendance was so numerous that the services were held in the open air. The Masonic Order had charge of the ceremonies and the West Union band, at its own request, preceded the funeral procession playing dirges. No sadder funeral was ever held in West Union than this and none in which more profound sympathy was felt and expressed for his family friends.
The following was said by the Defender in respect to his sudden death:
"He was just entering into the realities of life and beginning to assume the responsibilities of manhood. His star of hope shone bright in the firmament of his ambition. The future to him was the fairest of visions, and his life full of the enthusiasm of youth. His most earnest desires and aspirations seemed to be fast approaching a happy consummation. Young in years, buoyant in spirits, ardent in hope, his light was dashed out at the beginning of a splendid and promising career. The midnight of the grave drew its sable curtains at a time when all things seemed fair. To say that his death caused universal grief but illy expresses the universal feeling of sorrow at his sudden demise."
The following was the expression of the bar of Adams County, on the occasion of his death:
"George C. Evans, a highly esteemed and respected member of the bar, having been suddenly removed by the casualty of death, his late associates, in commemoration of his estimable qualities of head and heart and as expressive of their unfeigned sorrow at his sudden death, take this action:
"George C. Evans is taken away from us while yet in the vigor of his early manhood, being only 24 years of age, having within three years been admitted to practice, he had scarcely developed to the public the large ability which his fellows at the bar knew him to possess. Notwithstanding his brief career as a practitioner, he gave clear evidence of the many qualities which form the able and successful lawyer.
"He possessed in the prosecution of his business almost untiring. energy. He was always prompt and persistent in attending to the interests committed to his keeping. He manifested much more than usual ability as an advocate and had a happy vien of humor, and a pleasant faculty of expressing himself, which rendered him a pleasing and forcible speaker. His unquestioned integrity rendered him at all time a safe representative of the interests of clients and he was an agreeable associate and respected and trusted opponent in the practice. His social qualities render particularly sad his untimely death. He had an almost uninterrupted flow of good spirits— always a kindly disposition and a general warm heart with a hopeful view of the future. These qualities made him a rare addition to any social occasion. Those of this bar who have known him as a man and boy during his life, cordially bear testimony by this tribute that no loss that could have been visited upon us would have been more sadly deplored than the sudden death of the brave, warm-hearted genial gentleman, and upright lawyer, George C. Evans. Great as our sense of bereavement is, we can only appreciate in a small way, the sorrow that has fallen upon his aged parents and young wife. We tender them our heartfelt sympathies in their great loss. In token of our respect of the deceased,
"Resolved, That the court be requested to enter upon its journal the foregoing action, that the same be published in each of the several papers of the county, and a copy furnished the wife, the parents, brother and sister of the deceased.”
The Masonic Fraternity also passed resolutions in respect to the awful calamity. His Sunday School class, consisting of ten young boys, all of whom are now men, and two of whom have since passed beyond, expressed, by written resolutions, their feeling on the occasion of the sudden demise. These resolutions were presented at a memorial service held by the Presbyterian Sunday School. They spoke of him as their able and beloved teacher, of his genial manners, his earnest instruction, of his liberality and of the brave manner in which he submitted to the last enemy.
His office was opened the day after his funeral and his papers were found just as he had left them at noon on Monday September 25. The administrator's deed lay on his desk half finished, just as he had left it to go to his dinner.
His child, born after his death, is now (1900) almost a woman, Georgia C. Evans, residing at Winchester, Ohio, with her widowed mother.
When we reflect that in the disease of which George Evans died, there is only one fatal case in every hundred, and that almost immediately after his death, the medical profession began the practice of successfully relieving such cases, by surgery, it seems a thousand pities that this young man, so full of manly vigor, of courage and hope with such happy prospects for a long life, and so full of the activities of this life, should be so suddenly called away, but until every one living in West Union, who realized this startling event, has passed away, the shock caused by his untimely demise will not be forgotten.
From History of Adams County, Ohio from its Earliest Settlement to the Present Time - by Nelson W. Evans and Emmons B. Stivers - West Union, Ohio - Published by E. B. Stivers - 1900