Louisa Pollard Evans

Born in Deptford, the second child; crossed the plains just as she turned eight. Louisa is also represented in Pioneer Women of Faith and Fortitude (page 925) with a short biography.

I have no record when Pollard's Court was built- or developed, as I have always understood it to be a short street or cul de saq, and not just the family home. I know that it was very near the railroad and that that was to be a meaningful enterprise for Joseph Polllard and several of the in-laws. But Pollard's Court was the home in which the bishops daughters grew up; an "interesting English cottage at Pollards Court" as Pioneer Women states it.

Joseph Pollard would be Bishop in the Fifteenth Ward for about 15 years, and active in the ward administration for as long a time: the childhood years of his daughters. Pioneer Women reports that Louisa did not remain active in the LDS church, but we do not learn if there was a precipitating event or simply a growing apart from this faith in her home and certainly in her neighborhood. It was not unheard of, and many of the early families have branches that left active participation even while remaining active in the society and commerce of the area.

Louisa married Moses Evans, an immigrant from south Wales. They were married March 9, 1866 and had seven children. I believe that Moses had a career with the railroads. Louisa would live to be 80 years old, a widow the last four years of her life, which ended February 1928.

In a Salt Lake City newspaper her obituary ran as follows:
Pioneer Utah Woman Dies After Long Illness
"Mrs. Louisa Pollard Evans, 79, died Wednesday night at the family residence 816 West Second South street, following a lingering illness. Mrs. Evans was the wife of the late Moses Evans and crossed the plains to Utah in 1857.
"She was born in Bettford [sic], Kent, England June 23, 1848. She is survived by the following children: Joseph P. Evans, Mrs. G. M. Cramer [sic], Mrs. Mary Blanchard, Mrs. E. [sic] L. Schefski, Mrs. Floyd T Baysinger and Mrs. Charles Patton all of Salt Lake. The following sisters also survive: Mrs. G. H. Backman Sr, Mrs J. L. Johnson, and Mrs. John W. Boud of Salt Lake and Mrs. Mary Ann Allred and Mrs. Lydia Pusey [sic] of Spring City. Funeral arrangements will be announced later." I believe this was the Salt Lake Tribune, possibly the Telegraph.

Louisa's children were:
Joseph Pollard Evans, 1867-1940, married Frances Emma Olson
Emma Louise Evans, 1869-1953, married George Merrill Creamer
Mary Alice Evans, 1871-1957, married Ira Blanchard
Robert Taylor Evans, 1877-1926, married Eleanor Valentine Sharrock
Louie May Evans, 1881-1953, married Arthur Lewis Schefski
Julia Evans, married Floyd Terrell Baysinger
Grace Evans, married Charles Patton