Born in Ebensburg, Pennsylvania on October 4, 1845, Evans was a son of David J. and Jane Ann (Jones) Evans and a grandson of John Evans, a carpenter and a native of Cardiganshire, Wales. Educated in local public schools and the Iron City Business College in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, Alvin Evins obtained a job in lumbering at the age of sixteen when his father's business failed due to the financial crash of 1857.[4][5][6]
After beginning legal studies with George M. Reade of Ebensburg in 1870, he was admitted to the bar in 1873. He then established a law practice in Ebensburg,[9][10] and later advocated for clients in the Superior Court of Pennsylvania and the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania, as well as in federal court. A one-term burgess for the borough of Ebensburg, he also worked as solicitor for the Pennsylvania RailroadinCambria County, Pennsylvania, and was a member of the school board and city council of Ebensburg. Involved in the incorporation of the First National Bank of Ebensburg, he was later appointed as president of that bank's board of directors.[11]
A member of the board of trustees of the First Congregational Church of Ebensburg, he was also active in the Grand Army of the Republic's Captain John M. Jones Post and the Free and Accepted Masons' Summit Lodge, No. 312.[16]
He wed Kate Shryock (1846–1886) in Wilmore, Pennsylvania on November 17, 1875. They had three children.[17] Evans died in Ebensburg, and was interred in the Lloyd Cemetery.[18][19]
^"Evans, Alvin," in Biographical Directory of the United States Congress (CongBio|E000232). Washington, DC: Office of the House Historian, U.S. House of Representatives, retrieved on 2008-02-14.
^Storey, Henry Wilson. History of Cambria County, Pennsylvania, Vol. 3: "Hon. Alvin Evans." New York, New York: The Lewis Publishing Company, 1907.
^"Evans, Alvin," in Biographical Directory of the United States Congress (CongBio|E000232), Office of the House Historian, U.S. House of Representatives.
^"Evans, Alvin," in Pennsylvania Civil War Veterans' Card File. Harrisburg, Pennsylvania: Pennsylvania State Archives, retrieved online, June 7, 2021.
^"Evans, Alvin," in Biographical Directory of the United States Congress (CongBio|E000232), Office of the House Historian, U.S. House of Representatives.
^Storey, Henry Wilson, History of Cambria County, Pennsylvania, Vol. 3: "Hon. Alvin Evans."
^Alvin Evans, in "William Davis," in Biographical and Portrait Cyclopedia of Cambria County, Pennsylvania, p. 397. Philadelphia, Pennsylvania: The Union Publishing Company, 1896.
^"Evans, Alvin," in Biographical Directory of the United States Congress (CongBio|E000232), Office of the House Historian, U.S. House of Representatives.
^"A. Evans Kephart, 102, former senator," The Philadelphia Inquirer, January 18, 2008.
^"Evans, Alvin," in Biographical Directory of the United States Congress (CongBio|E000232), Office of the House Historian, U.S. House of Representatives.
^Storey, Henry Wilson, History of Cambria County, Pennsylvania, Vol. 3: "Hon. Alvin Evans."
^Storey, Henry Wilson, History of Cambria County, Pennsylvania, Vol. 3: "Hon. Alvin Evans."
^"Evans, Alvin," in Biographical Directory of the United States Congress (CongBio|E000232), Office of the House Historian, U.S. House of Representatives.
