It is difficult to get away from Elwood Evans while reading about the political history of Washington Territory. Born in Philadelphia December 29, 1828, he was appointed by President Millard Fillmore as Deputy Collector of Customs under Simpson P. Moses and opened their office in Olympia on November 15, 1852. Admitted to the bar shortly after setting up shop, Evans became one of the Territory’s earliest lawyers. His initial stay in Washington Territory was brief, in late 1852 he went to Washington, D.C. to campaign for the creation of a territory separate from Oregon. Evans served as an aide to Gov. Stevens during the overland expedition to Washington Territory in 1853. He served as the Chief Clerk of the House during the First Session (1854) and was later elected to fill an unexpired term of a House member. At the same time he filled the role of Thurston County School Superintendent.
An active member of the Whig Party, he led his colleagues into the newly formed Republican Party by the end of the 1850s. In January 1859 he was instrumental in the incorporation of Olympia and was elected the President (Mayor), serving 1859-1861. Although Evans lobbied hard for an appointment to the office of Governor, he was never successful. Yet he was frequently in a position to be Acting-Governor. He was made Territorial Secretary during the Lincoln Administration and assumed the right to select a public printer, and awarded the post to Olympian Thornton McElroy.
Brother Evans served as Master of Olympia Lodge No. 1 in 1864 and 1865,and would also be elected as Grand Master in 1865. However, his path to the Oriental Chair could best be described as circuitous. To quote from the History of Olympia Lodge: “At this particular period in the history of No. 5 (remember that Olympia No. 1 was previously Olympia No. 5, under the jurisdiction of the Grand Lodge of Oregon), it is quite apparent that sinister motives actuated certain members in their ballots on petitioners. There was good material rejected without apparent cause –men of good reputation who had borne their parts in the struggle against the Indians and were in every way good citizens, whose exclusion from the Fraternity reflected little credit on the guilty ones. As an evidence, Elwood Evans was rejected twice before admission.”
In 1868 he would return to public service as Chief Clerk in the House, and made valuable contributions in compiling the Code of 1869. He was elected to the House in the mid-1870s, rising to the office of Speaker. He apparently took over the office of Territorial Librarian simply to move the facility to the capitol campus. It was during this time he seriously started compiling his history of the region, as Norman Clark observed, “Among the most literate of the territorial barristers, his experiences left him with an intense interest in the drama of those early years, and he had already presented manuscripts to the most enterprising historian of the West, H.H. Bancroft of San Francisco.” After he completed his Librarian term, he moved to Tacoma. In 1881 he compiled, along with fellow past Librarian John Paul Judson, the Laws of Washington Territory. He was elected as a member of the First Session of the Washington State House.
Most Worshipful Brother Elwood Evans laid down his working tools on January 28, 1898.