Maxwell Evarts

Maxwell Evarts
Maxwell Evarts circa 1884, on his graduation from Yale College
Preceded by	Sherman N. Taylor[1]
Succeeded by	C. H. Finch[2]
Member of the Vermont House of Representatives from the Windsor County, Windsor district
In office 1906–1908
Personal details
Born	(1862-11-15)November 15, 1862 New York, New York
Died	October 7, 1913(1913-10-07) (aged 50) Windsor, Vermont
Education	Yale College, 1884 (Bachelor's) Harvard Law School, JD
Occupation	Lawyer and legislator

Maxwell Evarts (November 15, 1862 – October 7, 1913) was an American lawyer and politician.

Early life and education

Maxwell Evarts was born on November 15, 1862, in New York City,[3] the youngest of the twelve children of Helen Minerva (Wardner) and William M. Evarts.[4] He attended St. Paul's School, Concord, New Hampshire. He graduated from Yale College, 1884,[5] where he was a member of Skull and Bones.[6]: 165  After graduation, he studied for two years at Harvard Law School, and was then in the law office of Seward, DaCosta & Guthrie until summer 1889.

Career

In 1890 he was appointed an assistant United States attorney for the Southern District of New York.[7] He held this office two years, after which he entered the law department of the Southern Pacific Railroad Co. He was counsel to the Southern Pacific Railroad[8] and Union Pacific Railroad, along with co-general counsel Robert Scott Lovett,^[citation needed] and for E. H. Harriman.[9] In 1904 he was elected a director of the Southern Pacific Railroad, for several years was an attorney of the Harriman system, and in October 1910 he was made general counsel of the Oregon Short Line and the Oregon Railroad and Navigation Co.[8] Upon the separation of the Union Pacific and Southern Pacific Railroads he became general counsel of the Southern Pacific Co. He was also a director of the Pacific Mail Steamship Co. and the Union Pacific Land Co. He represented Wong Kim Ark in his lawsuit to gain recognition as a U.S. citizen.[10] The Supreme Court sided with Evarts, establishing birthright citizenship as a right.

He was an organizer of the State National Bank of Windsor, which included Vermont State Treasurer John L. Bacon as cashier. He was also vice-president of the Windsor Machine Co., half owner of the Amsden (Vt.) Lime Co., president of the Vermont State Fair Association, a governor of the Morgan Horse Club, and president of the Vermont Fish and Game League. He was a member of the Vermont House of Representatives in 1906.[11]

Personal life

Evarts – on April 23, 1891, in Manhattan, New York – married Margaret Allen Stetson (1866–1937), daughter of Charles Augustus Stetson and Josephine Brick. They had four daughters and a son.[12] He was the son of William M. Evarts, the grandson of Jeremiah Evarts and Allen Wardner, and the great-grandson of Roger Sherman.[13][14]

Evarts died on October 7, 1913, in Windsor, Vermont.[3][15]

References

1. House, Vermont General Assembly (1905). Journal of the House of Representatives of the State of Vermont: Biennial Session ... Montpelier, Vermont: Vermont General Assembly. p. 9. Retrieved 5 December 2021.
2. House, Vermont General Assembly (1909). Journal of the House of Representatives of the State of Vermont: Biennial Session ... Montpelier, Vermont: Vermont General Assembly. p. 9. Retrieved 5 December 2021.
3. "Death of Maxwell Evarts". Morrisville News and Citizen. October 8, 1913. p. 4 – via newspapers.com.
4. Daggett, Leonard Mayhew, ed. (1914). A History of the Class of Eighty-Four, Yale College, 1880–1914. New Haven. pp. 163–166. OCLC 1158569927. This article incorporates text from this source, which is in the public domain.
5. Obituary Record of Yale Graduates, 1913-1914, p. 629-30.
6. Robbins, Alexandra (2002). Secrets of the Tomb: Skull and Bones, the Ivy League, and the Hidden Paths of Power. Boston: Little, Brown. ISBN 0-316-72091-7.
7. "1862 – Maxwell Evarts – 1913". The Vermonter: The State Magazine. new series. 18 (10). C.S. Forbes. October 1913.
8. "Maxwell Evarts Very Ill". New York Tribune. September 3, 1913. p. 6 – via newspapers.com.
9. "Maxwell Evarts Enraged". Bennington Banner. March 27, 1908. p. 6 – via newspapers.com.
10. "Case of Wong Kim Art". The Daily Democrat. March 12, 1897. p. 8 – via newspapers.com.
11. House, Vermont General Assembly (October 3, 1906). Journal of the House of Representatives of the State of Vermont (Biennial Session). Montpelier, Vermont: Vermont General Assembly (publisher). St. Albans Messenger Company (printer). p. 9. Retrieved December 4, 2021 – via Google Books. OCLC 40373600.
12. "Maxwell Evarts," July 1911, pp. 629–631.
13. "William Maxwell Evarts". New York Genealogical and Biological Record (quarterly). Vol. 47. New York Genealogical and Biographical Society. July 1916. p. 314. Retrieved June 14, 2022 – via Google Books (Harvard College Library). OCLC 270665540 (all editions).
    1. "Jeremiah Evarts". p. 314.
    2. "William Maxwell Evarts". p. 314.
    3. "Maxwell Evarts". p. 314.
14. Baker, Mark Allen (2014). "The Sherman Family of New Haven" – "William M. Evarts (1818–1901), Grandson of Roger Sherman". Connecticut Families of the Revolution – American Forebears From Burr to Wolcott (limited preview). Arcadia Publishing. Retrieved June 14, 2022 – via Google Books). LCCN 2014-952245; ISBN 978-1-6261-9664-3; OCLC 890758822 (all editions).
15. "Maxwell Evarts Dies in East". Chicago Tribune. October 8, 1913. p. 4 – via newspapers.com.