Edwin T. Evans was appointed in 1869 as one of the original members of the Buffalo Board of Park Commissioners, and was chosen as Secretary at the organizational meeting. He accepted that role conditionally, only to be an interim officer until a salaried Secretary could be appointed. When the law allowing for the Board of Park Commissioners was altered in 1872, Mr. Evans was reappointed to the new board. He served for a full six year term, retiring from the board in May, 1878 after a cumulative nine years of park board service.
Edwin Townsend Evans (1837-1909) was a pioneer of Great Lakes shipping. Born in Buffalo 11 October 1837. He joined his father, James Carey Evans as a freight forwarding merchant. When the American Transportation Co. shipping line failed as a result of the Panic of 1857, Edwin managed to secure financing, and purchased several of the failed firm’s lake and canal vessels in 1859. In partnership with his father, the following year he formed the forwarding firm of J. C. and E. T. Evans, and that business in 1860 evolved into the Evans Line of lake shipping. That line concentrated on Great Lakes shipping, and the canal portion of the business was discontinued.
In 1862, Jame Evans and his son Edwin commissioned the construction at Buffalo of the 720 ton Merchant, the first iron propeller boat and the first to be powered by coal to sail the Great Lakes. In 1865, their line contracted with the newly formed Erie and Western Transportation Company which, in turn, was closely associated with the Pennsylvania Railroad, to furnish ships which would connect the Pennsylvania railroad’s operations in Buffalo with those of the Northern Pacific Railroad at Duluth, Minnesota.
The Anchor Line followed the success of the Merchant with the construction of the India, the China and the Japan, the first iron passenger and package freight steamers on the Lakes. The Alaska, the Cuba, the Java, the Scotia, and the Russia, all large iron propellers joined them by 1873.
The Evans Line, renamed as the Anchor Line, became one of the leading freight and passenger lines operating on the Great Lakes. Edwin Evans continued to be a principal of the Anchor Line; when it was sold to the Pennsylvania Railroad and renamed the Erie and Western Transportation Co., Edwin served as the Western manager for the line until 1903, thence becoming vice president of the company.
He was a member of the Executive Committee and of the Board of Directors of the Lake Carriers Association from that organization’s founding in 1880 until his retirement from active business in 1905. He was also a Director of the Bank of Buffalo
Edwin Evans was a member of the executive committee of the Board of Trade and Merchants Exchange. He was also a President of the Charity Organization Society of Buffalo, and was a trustee of the Buffalo Fine Arts Academy for several years. He was a charter member of the Buffalo Club, and a member of the Buffalo Country Club. Aside from his service with the Board of Park Commissioners, he never held nor pursued public office.i
He married Sarah Grant, of Oswego, in 1860; she died in 1873. He married Josephine Hewes Blake in 1874; she died in 1904.
Edward Townsend Evans passed away in Buffalo on December 20, 1909, survived by two sons, four daughters, and a full dozen grandchildren.
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