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Local figure

Henry Evans

Henry Evans (1817–1886) was a free Black cabinetmaker in Hillsborough. In 1840 he paid $265 for a shop lot on Churton Street across from the courthouse then being built, and St. Matthew's Church, where he was baptized, records him as maker of its chancel furniture. In 1854 he and his brother Wilson Bruce Evans took their families to Oberlin, Ohio, where both were jailed for their part in the 1858 Oberlin-Wellington rescue.

Source: Historic Burwell School

Orange County Indexed has not yet linked an indexed work directly to Henry Evans. The biography and the dated events on this page provide sources about Henry Evans’ life and work. If you know a useful source, tell us.

Research sources

Life and Orange County connections

Dated events connected with this person, earliest first. See these 3 dated events in the chronology →

  1. Fanny Evans, a free woman of color, receives a town lot by the Eno A land record gave Fanny Evans and her children Henry and Jane lot 135, a town lot running down to the Eno River. She also owned three lots at West Margaret Lane and Occoneechee Street. Her sons Henry and Wilson Bruce Evans became cabinetmakers in town. People: Henry EvansBurwell School Historic Site Task Force: Antebellum Hillsborough, Slavery, and Enslaved and Free People of Color who Worked at the Burwell School, 1837-1857 (2019), p. 37
  2. Henry Evans, a free cabinetmaker of color, buys a shop lot on Churton Street Evans paid $265 for old lot 6 on Churton Street, across from the courthouse then being built, and made furniture there, including chancel pieces for St. Matthew's, where he was baptized in 1842. The Bailey map marks his workshop. People: Henry EvansBurwell School Historic Site Task Force: Antebellum Hillsborough, Slavery, and Enslaved and Free People of Color who Worked at the Burwell School, 1837-1857 (2019), p. 37
  3. The Evans families leave Hillsborough for Oberlin, Ohio Squeezed by laws that stripped free people of color of the vote, the right to preach and schooling, the cabinetmakers Henry and Wilson Bruce Evans took their families to Oberlin, where their sister Delilah Copeland had settled in 1843. Both brothers were jailed there for their part in the 1858 Oberlin-Wellington rescue of a man taken as a fugitive. People: Henry EvansBurwell School Historic Site Task Force: Antebellum Hillsborough, Slavery, and Enslaved and Free People of Color who Worked at the Burwell School, 1837-1857 (2019), p. 37-38

Places in this person’s story

Buildings, schools, churches and other sites named in the dated events on this page, the most often named first. The map shows them all.

Map tiles © OpenStreetMap contributors. Site locations from the N.C. State Historic Preservation Office survey, Open Orange and OpenStreetMap; town and community pins mark the middle of their mapped buildings.

All places and the county map →

Research sources

Resources picked for this person, each with a note on what it holds. For ready-made searches of other catalogs, see Search further.

Collections and databases

  • NC LIVE: prepared search for Henry Evans Library card An advanced search of the state’s shared databases already scoped to Orange County’s places and this subject; edit it freely, and sign in through your North Carolina library to read
  • Ancestry Library Edition In the libraryOrange County Public Library Census, birth, death and marriage records, and more, free on the public computers at OCPL libraries

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Books about Henry Evans

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Historical records and collections

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