Dr. William
Augustus Evans
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| Dr.
W. A. Evans |
Born in Marion, Alabama where his father had been head of
that town's CSA Army Hospital, William Augustus Evans Jr.
grew up in Monroe County Mississippi, both in the family's
Aberdeen town house and on their plantation near Prairie,
Mississippi. He graduated from Aberdeen High School and was
a member of the Mississippi Agricultural and Mechanical College's
first graduating class. After earning his MD from Tulane University
in 1885, he completed postgraduate studies at the Pasteur
Institute in Paris, France.
In 1891 Dr. Evans moved to Chicago where he was a Pathology
demonstrator at the University of Chicago's Medical School.
He became Chicago's first Public Health Commissioner in 1907
and began a 20-year career of working for cleaner drinking
water and milk. He was also health editor for The
Chicago Tribune and a leading figure in preventative
medicine; writing a local health column on disease prevention
techniques. The Memphis Commercial Appeal
also published the Chicago Tribune
articles under the title "How to Keep Well" making
it the first syndicated health column in the United States
of America. Sears and Roebuck later published these articles
collectively in a book of the same title.
While in Chicago, Dr. Evans published his first book, a biography
of Mary Todd Lincoln. After retirement he prospected for gold
in New Mexico, then traveled to Central and South America,
Asia and Africa. He then returned to Aberdeen, Mississippi,
where researching and recording the history of Monroe County
became his main interest.
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Marguerite Hubbard and Miss Lucille Peacock loading
books for the traveling library. |
In Aberdeen, Dr. Evans became the Aberdeen Public Library’s
most regular user. He also generously donated books and materials.
He had built specially designed boxes to carry books he purchased.
With the help of the Monroe County Board of Education, he
had these boxes delivered as Traveling Libraries to county
schools that currently had no "in house" libraries.
In 1939, in emulation of the Carnegie Libraries, Dr. Evans
gave the city of Aberdeen $10,000 for a new library in honor
of his family. Dr. Evans gave the city an additional $5000
for a library to serve African Americans. Known as the Evans
Memorial Library Colored Branch, it was built under the supervision
of Dr. James Woodruff and was one of few libraries in Mississippi,
which served African Americans.
Dr. W. A. Evans died in 1948. The obituary in the Memphis
Commercial Appeal summarized his life as "an internationally
known physician, health authority and newspaper columnist."
In a subsequent editorial in the same paper, Dr. Evans was
named "in all respects a good citizen who so lived that
his country and the world were better places"
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