AARON B. EVANS.
Aaron B. Evans, pioneer auctioneer and livery proprietor, of Muscotah, Atchison county, was born April 16, 1857, in Union county, Tennessee, He was a son of George W. and Orlena (Wolfenbarger) Evans. His mother was a native of Granger county, Tennessee, and was of German extraction. George W. Evans, the father, was the owner of a large farm on the south side of Clinch river, in Union county, Tennessee, just opposite the old home of the Vansell family. A. B. Evans and M. C. Vansell, of Grasshopper township, were boys and play-mates together in Tennessee, and are first cousins. Like most boys living in the South, during that period, and in the time of the Civil war, their early education was sadly neglected. In fact, during the war the school system of Tennessee was entirely destroyed. When Aaron B. Evans was twenty years of age he left home and came direct to Kansas. He had no means wherewith to pay his transportation, and borrowed sufficient money from a neighbor to pay his railroad fare to Atchison. When he arrived at Atchison he had no money with which to pay for a meal or hotel accommodation. He and M. C. Vansell, who accompanied him on the trip, walked from Atchison to Kennekuk, where they stopped at the home of their uncle, M. C. Willis, for a few days.
Mr. Evans’ first employment in Kansas was on the farm of Dave Moore, located three and one-half miles northeast of Kennekuk, in Atchison county. He worked for various farmers in the county until he saved sufficient money to buy his first farm. For two years previous to his marriage, in 1881, he was in the employ of George Storch, who at that time was engaged in the general mercantile business at Muscotah, Kan. In 1881 Mr. Evans moved to a farm three miles northeast of Kennekuk, where he resided for three years, and was very successful in his farming operations. He then bought ninety-six acres of land near Kennekuk, which he cultivated for two years, when he sold it at a good profit. After selling his first farm he moved to a rented farm west of Muscotah, which he operated for one year, and invested in partnership with M. C. Vansell, and divided the land in a quarter section of raw prairie land, three miles northwest of Muscotah. He erected improvements on this farm and resided upon it for eighteen years. He sold his farm in 1901, and in May of the same year invested in a livery barn, and also entered upon his career of auctioneer, which he has followed since that time with considerable success. Mr. Evans also maintains a breeding stable, for the equipment of which he went to Lexington, Ky., in 1906 and purchased the best jack to be had in the Lexington market, and shipped him to Muscotah. This animal is the first high class jack ever brought to this section of Kansas. During this same year Mr. Evans also bought a pure bred black Percheron stallion, which he lost during the first year of his ownership. At the present time the Evans barn stands two high class jacks and one pure bred grey Percheron stallion.
On January 27, 1881, Mr. Evans was united in marriage with Recy Tannyhill, who was born in Marion county, Ohio, a daughter of William and Nancy Tannyhill, both of whom were natives of the Buckeye State, and emigrated to Kansas when Mrs. Evans was but eight years of age, and settled on a farm in Grasshopper township, Atchison county. Mr. and Mrs. Evans are the parents of seven children: Elizabeth, the wife of J. L. Morgan, St. Joseph, Mo.; William George, a farmer, Grasshopper township; Fred, who is associated with his father in the livery business; Orlena, the wife of Bert Annis, Chicago, Ill.; Nannie, living in Des Moines, Iowa; Nora, St. Joseph, Mo., and Frank, at home.
Mr. and Mrs. Evans are members of the Christian Advent church of Muscotah. He is a stanch and true Republican of the uncompromising variety, and has been one of the political leaders of his section of Atchison county for many years, serving as delegate several times to the Republican county conventions. He has always been an advocate of educational advancement, and has offered his children every opportunity to acquire a good common school education. He was one of the pioneers in the auctioneering profession in Atchison county, and was the second man to enter the business of crying sales.