Daniel Evinger, farmer, carpenter and millwright; P. O. Westfield; is a native of Ohio, having been born in Hamilton Co., of that State, Sept. 10, 1820. In November, 1831, when he was 11 years of age, his parents moved to Coles Co., and settled upon Sec. 19, Hutton Tp., where Mr. Daniel Evinger now resides. His parents died upon the homestead, his father in the year 1835, his mother in the year 1855. His father carried on the business of carpenter and millwright, and was also a minister of the United Brethren Church in Hamilton Co., Ohio. After coming to this county, he was mostly engaged in farming, although he turned his experience in his trade of carpenter to good advantage in putting up the frame of his residence and barn; the barn still standing, its frame apparently as strong as ever, and is one of the few buildings of that day now standing in Hutton Tp.; he also filled regular appointments of a minister up to the time of his death, and formed the nucleus of the United Brethren Church of this county, and the first class was organized in the year 1832 in his house; he also established the first Sabbath school in Hutton Tp., in the spring of 1832, near Otterbein Cemetery. The object of this sketch, with the exception of five years, when he resided in Clark Co., Ill., has resided upon the homestead. From the year 1853 to 1858, he was a partner in a steam-flouring and saw mill in Westfield, Clark Co., Ill.; having sold out his interest he was engaged in merchandising for five or six years, since which time he has been engaged in farming and carpentering. Mr. Evinger, with his brother and his son, built all the bridges and culverts from Westfield to Kansas, for the D., O. & M. Narrow-Gauge Railroad; he also superintended the building of the Westfield College; has been School Treasurer for a number of years. He married Miss Mary Jones, near Hitesville, March 11, 1841; she was the daughter of William Jones, of Jefferson Co., Ky., who moved to Coles Co., in 1831, and settled one mile south of Hitesville. They had a family of eleven children, five boys, all living, viz., William H., John F., Frederick A., Benjamin H. and David M., and six girls, but one living, Catharine J. (now Mrs. A. G. Brown, of Westfield, Clark Co., Ill.), and five dead, Sarah E. (formerly Mrs. Ezra Shuey, of Cumberland, Co., Mary E. and Ora S., the remaining two dying in infancy.
