My Genealogy Hound

ROWLAND EVANS, a prominent lawyer of Philadelphia, comes of a family which from the earliest colonial days has been identified with the county of Montgomery. His ancestor in America was Cadwalader ap Evan, born in Wales, one of four brothers who came to America in 1698 and settled in Gwynedd township, Montgomery county.

Cadwalader was originally a member of the Church of England, but after coming to America he joined the Society of Friends. He and his son John and his grandson John were prominent members of the Gwynedd Meeting, and preachers of the Society. Father, son and grandson lived on land which the former had taken up at the time of the immigration. They were prosperous farmers and persons of great influence, held in high esteem by their neighbors.

John the grandson (born in 1730, died 1807) married Margaret Foulke, and among their children was Cadwalader, born in the ancestral homestead at Gwynedd in 1762. He was a man of great force and vigor, both in body and mind. Growing up during the Revolutionary war he began life as a land surveyor, and attained eminence in that profession. He afterwards became conspicuous in public affairs in the new state of Pennsylvania, was several times a member of the legislature, and once speaker of the house. He was one of the promoters of the Schuylkill Canal, and the first president of that company. He married Harriet V. Musser, of Lancaster, Pennsylvania, and they had a large family of children, among whom was Edmund Cadwalader Evans, born in the family homestead in 1812.

Edmund Cadwalader Evans was educated in the city of Philadelphia, to which place his father had removed, and at the University of Pennsylvania, at which institution he also studied for the medical profession. On being graduated as Doctor of Medicine, he settled near Paoli in Tredyffrin township, Chester county, where he pursued the practice of his profession. He subsequently retired from practice and lived for some years at West Chester, the county town of Chester county, removing in 1865 to Lower Merion, Montgomery county, where he died in 1881. His wife was Mary L. Allen, a daughter of Benjamin Allen of Hyde Park, New York. Of this marriage were born two sons, Rowland and Allen. The last named was born in 1849, and married Rebecca L. Lewis, a daughter of John T. Lewis, of Philadelphia, who was descended in a remote line from the same ancestral stock with himself. Allen Evans is an architect by profession, belonging to the well known firm of Furness and Evans.

Rowland Evans, the eldest son of Dr. Edmund Cadwalader and Mary (Allen) Evans, was born July 12, 1847, in Tredyffrin township, Chester county. He began his studies in private schools at West Chester, and pursued advanced branches in Wyer’s Academy in that town, then known as one of the most admirable academic schools in the state. He then took up the study of law under the masterly preceptorship of George W. Biddle, of Philadelphia, and was admitted to the bar of that city in 1869, when twenty-two years of age. He immediately entered upon the practice thereof, in which he has been successfully engaged to the present time. His present offices are at 225 South Sixth street. Mr. Evans resides in Lower Merion township on land which he inherited from his father. He has always taken an active interest in public affairs in his locality, and in politics is an ardent Democrat of the Jeffersonian school.

In conjunction with the late Judge Logan, of Bala, and the late John B. Thayer, of Merion, Mr. Evans took a large part in framing the Pennsylvania Statute of April 28, 1899, classifying the townships of the state and providing a special form of government for “Townships of the First Class,” whereby the needs of the more populous townships were provided for, a measure which has proved to be beneficial and satisfactory. Mr. Evans has been always a member of the Protestant Episcopal church, and is prominent in her councils, having been one of the representatives of the diocese of Pennsylvania in the last two general conventions of that church. He has for many years been a vestryman of the Church of The Redeemer at Bryn Mawr, where he and his family attend.

Mr. Evans married in 1878 Mary Binney Montgomery, a daughter of Richard R. Montgomery, of Philadelphia. Of this marriage four children now survive; Edmund Cadwalader, Elizabeth, Mary and Essyllt. The eldest daughter is the wife of the Hon. Algernon B. Roberts of Pencoyd, Lower Merion.