Maxwell Evarts

Maxwell Evarts

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Maxwell Evarts Wikipedia Profile

Evarts, (November 15, 1862 - October 7, 1913), youngest of the twelve children of Hon. William Maxwell Evarts and Helen Minerva (Wardner) Evarts. He was fitted for college at St. Paul's School, Concord, New Hampshire. He graduated from Yale College, 1884, where he was a member of Skull and Bones. After graduation, he studied two years in the Harvard Law School, and was then in the law office of Seward, DaCosta & Guthrie until the summer of 1889.

In 1890 he was appointed an assistant United States attorney for the Southern District of New York. He held this office two years, after which he entered the law department of the Southern Pacific Railroad Company. In recent years he had been active in the counsel of the Southern Pacific Railroad Company, Union Pacific Railroad Company, and affiliated lines of the E.H. Harriman System; with co-General Counsel Robert Scott Lovett. In 1904 he was elected a director of the Southern Pacific Railroad, for several years was an attorney of the Harriman system and in 1910; he was made general counsel of the Oregon Short Line and the Oregon Railroad and Navigation Company. Upon the separation of the Union Pacific and Southern Pacific Railroads he became general counsel of the Southern Pacific Company. He had also been a director of the Pacific Mail Steamship Company and the Union Pacific Land Company. He represented Wong Kim Ark in his lawsuit to gain recognition as a U.S. citizen. The Supreme Court sided with Evarts, establishing birthright citizenship as a right.

His home (Juniper Hill Farm) was in Windsor, Vermont, a stately manor overlooking Lake Runnemede and his family's compound. Maxwell Evarts considered Vermont to be his home, and made many contributions on both the local and state levels.

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 Company, half owner of the Amsden (Vt.) Lime Company, 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.

He married in New York City, April 23, 1891, Margaret Allen Stetson, daughter of Charles Augustus and Josephine (Brick) Stetson, and they had four daughters and a son.

He was the son of William Maxwell Evarts, the grandson of Jeremiah Evarts and Allen Wardner, and the great-grandson of Roger Sherman.

NOTE: Interesting that Maxwell didn't pick one of his brothers or brother-in-laws to be the executor of his estate, but rather his Bonesman cousin Reginald Foster, the son of Bonesman Judge Dwight Foster (who married the daughter of US Senator and Connecticut Governor Roger Sherman Baldwin. Baldwin is the first cousin of Maxwell's father US Attorney General, Secretary of State and Senator William Maxwell Evarts (S&B 1837)

Maxwell Evarts was a son of the late William M. Evarts, of New York, who was Secretary of State in President Hayes’ Cabinet. He was graduated from Yale University in 1884, and received a thorough education as a lawyer. For many years he was associated with Charles B. Tweed, counsel for Colis P. Huntington, of the Southern Pacific.

He was an organizer of the State National Bank of Windsor, and was also vice-president of the Windsor Machine Company, half owner of the Amsden (Vermont) Lime Company, 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.

He advanced through various positions and when Edward Henry Harriman died and Judge Robert S. Lovett became head of the Harriman system, Mr. Evarts was made general counsel. With the recent unmerging of the Union Pacific and Southern Pacific he became counsel for the Southern Pacific.

Although he devoted most of his life to the railroad service, he traveled little. Among the Portland people who knew him are: J. D. Farrell, president of the O.W.R. & N. Company; W. W. Cotton, consul for the O. W. R. & N. Company, and C. W. Fulton, ex United States Senator.

(From the Oregonian, Portland, OR, October 8, 1913.)