154

BIOGRAPHICAL AND PORTRAIT CYCLOPEDIA

little later be engaged in the mercantile business with his brother, under the firm name of Davis Brothers. In 1887 he went out of business and lived in South Dakota for three years, in the hope of curing a bad asthma. At the end of this time he returned to Ebensburg and engaged in the real-estate business, which he has since followed. Politically he is a republican and has served as jury commissioner of Cambria county. In 1876 he accepted the nomination for the office of sheriff, and came within two hundred and eleven votes of being elected, the Democratic majority being twelve hundred and sixty-eight. His candidacy, as shown by this, was a very creditable one, Mr. Davis is also a member of the borough council.     It was said at the beginning, that Mr. Davis is of Welsh descent. It may be said in conclusion, that in his unusual war record and in his public and private life, he has uniformly shown the reliance, energy and adaptation peculiar to his race. ALVIN EVANS, a talented, well-known and leading attorney-at-law of Ebensburg, is a son of David J. and Jane Ann (Jones) Evans, and was born in Ebensburg, the county seat of Cambria county, Pennsylvania, October 4, 1845. His grandfather was John Evans, who was a native of the Principality of Wales, but who, in about 1833, left the parental roof to seek a new home and new associations in America. His first location was in Cambria township, this county, but he afterwards removed to Ebensburg, his home at the time of his death, in 1847. He was a carpenter and wood-worker by trade. A skilled and proficient artisan, he followed that craft successfully all his life, combining with it, during his more mature years, the manu-

facturing of lumber, by what was known as the old whip-saw process.     He married and reared a large family, one of whom, David J. Evans, was the father of the subject of this biography. He was born in Wales in 1813, and came to the United States in about 1836. He was a tailor by trade, and plied his craft at Munster, Pittsburg, and other places and finally located in Ebensburg, and embarked in the merchant tailoring and clothing business, which he continued the remainder of his life. Originally he was an old-line whig, but upon the disruption of that party, and the organization of the present Republican party in 1856, he became a republican, and filled many local offices. Religiously he was a member of the congregational church.     He married Jane Ann Jones, who was a daughter of David Jones, a native of Wales, but who in 1836, came to America. Mr. Jones was married prior to his emigration, brought his wife and family with him, and settled in Cambria township. Here he and Mr. Evans' paternal grandfather, John Evans, figured prominently in the pioneer life of that section, toiling together in sympathetic harmony, and contributing their share to the conversion of the virgin forest into farms and homes, fit for the habitation of civilized man. They were warm friends and close companions through the various trials and vicissitudes incident to pioneer life, and their last remains were laid to rest in the Ebensburg cemetery, where their unurned ashes now tranquilly and peacefully repose.     Alvin Evans acquired his early mental training in the public schools, and in the Iron City business college, at Pittsburg. He entered the battle of life on his own account at the early age of sixteen years, his mother

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