Dr. E. L. Evans

E. L. EVANS, M. D. The medical profession of Greene county has no abler exponent than Dr. E. L. Evans, universally liked by all with whom he comes in contact. His friends feel deservedly proud of his success in his profession, for he has studied hard, worked diligently and been self-sacrificing when there was need. He possesses excellent judgment of men and things, well balanced by knowledge and experience. He is a gentleman of good personal appearance and courteous address, and is certainly entitled to mention with the representative citizens of Springfield and Greene county.

Doctor Evans was born in Boone county, Indiana, January 2, 1867. He is a son of John and Sarah Jane (Clark) Evans. The father was a contractor and died here on December 17, 1913; the mother is living on St. Louis street, Springfield, Missouri. Grandfather Samuel Evans was a farmer and one of the early settlers of Boone county, Indiana. His death occurred at the age of eighty-four years. His wife was a Miss Wilson. The maternal grandfather, Ezra Clark, married Harriet Hancock. They were both natives of Ohio in which their parents were early settlers, and there Ezra Clark and wife grew up and were married, and soon thereafter moved to Boone county, Indiana, where they established the family home on a farm, and were among the first settlers.

Dr. Evans of this review has two brothers and one sister living, namely: Dr. Emery Evans, is a practicing physician in St. Louis; Dr. Harry T. Evans is engaged in the practice of his profession in Springfield, and Mrs. Ella Speer, also lives in Springfield.

Dr. E. L. Evans is one of those self-educated, successful, self-made men, commonly met in America. When a boy he earned his own way, working at various things to earn an honest dollar to assist in defraying the expenses of an education, and when he had gone far enough in the public schools of his native county to enable him to teach he took up that line of endeavor and taught several terms most satisfactorily, working meanwhile, during the summer months, on the farm or at other things until he succeeded in obtaining his professional education. He received his primary education in the schools of Harrison, Arkansas, where he removed from Indiana when a boy, and later he attended the Rally Hill Academy, and in 1892 he entered the Marion Simms Medical College in St. Louis, from which he was graduated with the class of 1895. Soon thereafter he returned to Harrison, Arkansas, where he began the practice of his profession, in partnership with Dr. Kirby, and remained there eleven years, during which he enjoyed a large and constantly growing practice, and was one of the leading general physicians of Boone county throughout which his name was a household word. Seeking a larger field for the exercise of his talents he came to Springfield, Missouri, in April, 1906, and has been engaged successfully in the general practice from that time to the present, each succeeding year finding him further advanced and more popular than the preceding.

Doctor Evans is a member of the Greene County Medical Society, the Southwest Missouri Medical Society, the Missouri State Medical Association and the American Medical Association. He was for some time president of the Boone County Medical Society when he lived in Arkansas, and was also secretary of the same for many years, resigning the office upon his removal to Springfield. Fraternally he is a member of the Masonic order, including the Chapter, Commandery and the Ancient Arabic Order of Nobles of the Mystic Shrine. He also belongs to the Knights of Pythias and other lodges. Politically, he is a Democrat, and is a member of the South Street Christian church.

Doctor Evans was married March 19, 1897, to Nora Kirby, who was born in Harrison, Arkansas, in September, 1876, and there grew to womanhood and received her high school education in Harrison, Arkansas, and graduated from Christian College at Columbia, Missouri. She is the scion of a prominent family of that place, and is a daughter of Dr. L. and Virginia (Crump) Kirby.

To Doctor Evans and wife the following children have been born: Virginia, born January 11, 1898; Harry C., born March 17, 1899; Frances Irene born June 17, 1900; Dorothy Lee, born July 11, 1902; Lenore, born July 26, 1903; Kirby, born June 23, 1909 and Ezra Levi, born January 29, 1911.

Source Citation: Boone County Biographies [database online] Boone County Genealogy INGenWeb. 2007. <http://www.rootsweb.com/~inboone> Original data: Fairbanks, Jonathan and Clyde Edwin Tuck. "Past and Present of Greene County, Missouri, Volume I." Indianapolis: A. W. Bowen and Company, 1915, pp. 1074-1076.
Submitted by: T. Stover - October 18, 2007