Amos S. Evans died very suddenly at about 10:30 a.m. Sunday morning, Apr. 4, 1897, while walking to church. He dropped dead upon Santa Clara street in San Jose without a moment's notice. He had been in excellent health that morning. He was a native of Ohio and spent the largest portion of his life in Fort Wayne, Indiana, where he engaged in the manufacture of dry goods and men's clothing. He made a fortune from this business during the Civil War. He came to California in 1877 and retired from active work, leaving the business to his sons, John, George, and Oliver Evans. He purchased a fine homestead on Alum Rock Avenue in East San Jose. He was active in religious and charitable work and was one of the oldest elders of the First Presbyterian Church. His wife and his daughter, Mrs. J. L. Kalfus, were the only family members with him at the time of his death. He died at the age of 80 years, 10 months, and 19 days. (San Jose Daily Mercury, Apr. 5, 1897, obit. and death notice) (calculated birth date).

Amos Evans left an estate valued at $100,000, equivalent to over $3 million in 2020 dollars. In his will, he left $1,000 for a monument to himself at Oak Hill Cemetery (around the price of a small car today). He named his wife Sarah H. Evans and daughter Eliza (Mrs. J. Leland Kalfus) as executors. Along with his wife and daughter, the devisees included his sons John P., George P., and Oliver F. Evans; N. T. and Margaret Biddle of East San Jose; and Florence Biddle and V. R. Ricketts of Philadelphia; and the Board of Foreign and Home Missions of the First Presbyterian Church. His assets included five acres on Alum Rock Avenue in San Jose and land in Fort Wayne, Indiana; Jay County, Indiana; Williams County, Ohio; and Warren County, Iowa; as well as stock in the San Jose Water Company. (San Jose Herald, Apr. 13, 1897.)∼AN ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF THE STATE OF INDIANA
Richard S. Peale & Co., Publisher, 1875
Page 673-674

AMOS S. EVANS
In the spring of 1800, Richard Evans emigrated from Kentucky, and settled in Highland county, Ohio, where Amos S. Evans, his son, was born May sixteenth, 1816.

Richard Evans was an extensive and successful farmer, and trained his son to the same occupation. The son, however, was born to be a merchant; and, in 1836, at the early age of twenty, in obedience to an instinct which had been manifest from boyhood, he formed a partnership with his brother-in-law, F. Evans, and embarked in business on his own account at Defiance, Ohio.

In the fall of 1838, he removed to Hillsboro, Ohio,
where for twenty-five years he prosecuted the retail dry goods trade with success. Having determined to seek a larger and more promising locality for trade, he removed, in the spring of 1860, to Fort Wayne with a view of
engaging ultimately in the wholesale trade. For two years, while making arrangements to that end, he continued the retail trade. At length, in August, 1862, in the dark days of the war, against the remonstrances and amid the forebodings of friends, he inaugurated the wholesale dry goods trade of Fort Wayne. Wholesale grocery houses had existed there for some years, but he was the pioneer of the dry goods jobbing trade in Northern Indiana. Up to this time he has continued the same business, with constant
and increasing success; and with the aid of several well-chosen junior partners, all young men trained in business by himself, he has established a house second to none in the State in standing or prosperity.

Mr. Evans is eminently fitted for the business which he has pursued with such unvarying constancy from boyhood up. With the keenest powers of observation, cautious in the midst of danger, and yet bold to take
advantage of the rising tide, he never fails to catch the favoring breeze, and yet has always been found with all sails furled when a storm came.

During this long, active and laborious life, he has not been unmindful of other and higher interests, both public and private. He is a man of extensive reading and culture, and accurate general information. In 1854 he traveled in Europe, and, in 1856, with his wife, made a second and more extended tour, embracing Europe, Egypt and Palestine. With many others of the State, he has been an active worker in behalf of prison reform. In
1871 he was appointed by Gov. Baker one of the commissioners of the house of refuge for juvenile offenders. In all religious enterprises, and
especially in the Sunday-school work of his city and State, he has been particularly active. In 1867 he bought a lot, and built on it a neat and suitable chapel, at his own expense, for a mission Sunday-school in the
destitute part of Fort Wayne; and he has personally superintended the school ever since with the exception of one year. In 1872 he was president of the State Sunday-school union, and has rarely ever missed one of its
meetings. For fourteen years he has been one of the officers of the Allen county Bible society, and was for several years its president.

Upon the whole Mr. Evans' life has been one of great labor and
activity, and at the same time of great usefulness. He has shown how it is
possible for a man to be a philanthropist, and a worker in all humane and
christian causes, and a systematic and successful business man on the
largest scale, at the same time. He has proved by his own example that a
man may grow rich in trade and yet be doing good all the while. Such
examples are not as numerous as they should be, and they deserve to be
noted when they occur.
Mr. Evans was married September twelfth, 1843, to Mary Poage, of Greenup, Ky. She died December thirteenth, 1853. On February eleventh, 1856, he was married to Sarah H. Hanna, of Fort Wayne, who is still living, and is a worthy co-laborer with her husband in all good works.