Representative James La Fayette Evans

James La Fayette Evans (March 27, 1825 – May 28, 1903) was an American businessman and Republican politician who served two terms as a U.S. Representative from Indiana from 1875 to 1879. Over the course of his public career, he contributed to the legislative process during a significant period in American history, representing the interests of his Indiana constituents in the House of Representatives.

Evans was born on March 27, 1825, in Clayville, Kentucky. In 1837, when he was still a boy, he moved with his parents to Indiana, where the family settled in Hancock County. Growing up in a developing region of the Midwest, he was shaped by the agricultural and commercial expansion of the era, experiences that would later inform his own business pursuits and his understanding of the economic concerns of his future constituents.

In 1845, Evans moved to Marion, Indiana, where he engaged in mercantile pursuits, entering the world of trade and commerce at a time when local markets were becoming increasingly important to the state’s growth. Five years later, in 1850, he settled in Noblesville, Indiana. There he continued in mercantile enterprises and expanded his activities into the grain-elevator business and the pork-packing industry. These ventures placed him at the center of the agricultural economy of central Indiana and established him as a prominent local businessman prior to his entry into national politics.

Evans’s business success and community standing helped propel him into public life as a member of the Republican Party. He was elected as a Republican to the Forty-fourth and Forty-fifth Congresses, serving in the U.S. House of Representatives from March 4, 1875, to March 3, 1879. During his two terms in Congress, he participated in the democratic process at the federal level and contributed to the legislative work of the House at a time marked by the later years of Reconstruction and the nation’s adjustment to the post–Civil War order. As a representative from Indiana, he worked to represent the interests and concerns of his constituents, drawing on his background in commerce and agriculture.

After completing his second term, Evans chose not to be a candidate for renomination in 1878 and returned to private life. He resumed his involvement in the grain-elevator business in Noblesville, continuing the commercial activities that had defined much of his career before and after his service in Congress. His post-congressional years were spent in the community where he had long resided and conducted business.

James La Fayette Evans died in Noblesville, Indiana, on May 28, 1903, at the age of 78. He was interred in Crownland Cemetery in Noblesville, leaving a legacy as both a successful Indiana businessman and a two-term Republican member of the United States House of Representatives who served his state during a transformative period in American history.