My father, I.W. Evans was born in Paris, Texas in 1854. After the Civil
  War, Southern Soldiers went to Texas where there was an estimated two million
  cattle. These had lived in Southern Texas after the French and Spanish settlers
  had been wiped out by small pox or Indians, and their stock went wild and
  multiplied. Anyone could buy a brand for 2 dollars and all the cattle he could
  catch and brand would become his property. My father had branded several head,
  and then hired by Buttler and Stewart Cattle Company as trail boss, driving
  the cattle to Kansas to the nearest railroad.
     Father made three trips, but the first one was composed of ten thousand
  head of longhorns. They reached Barber County, Kansas in the fall, and wintered
  these cattle in the Gyp Hills. He said the Buffalo grass had blown off the big
  country and filled the canyons with rich Buffalo grass hay. When spring came,
  these cattle were ready for market. The average steer brought $15 a head.
  While there, during the winter, he homesteaded a school section just north of
  Kiowa, and on the east side of Medicine River.
     While in Medicine Lodge, he was eating dinner at Johnson's Hotel and noted
  that the man next to him had measles. Later, while helping a neighbor break
  horses, he took down with the measles and was unconscious two weeks. He sold
  that place to one of the Circle boys - and later Bill Houlton bought the place.
     I came to Barber County in 1926 as Superintendent of schools at Sharon, and
  stayed there until elected Barber County Superintendent of Schools, then County
  Clerk. I resigned during WWII and went to Wichita where I was Modification
  Director of MidWestern Procurant District of the Air Force.
     I built the small brick house just north of the hospital - and later traded
  it on the old Stone farm two miles west of Medicine Lodge, where the late
  Bill Houlton's family now live.
     My wife was Madge Aubley, only daughter of the late Will and Lucy Aubley.
  She had three brothers; the late Carl, Guy who lives on the Ridge, and Ralph,
  who lives south of Medicine Lodge. Madge and I have three children: Virginia
  Springmeyer, who with her husband, runs an insurance office in Canyon City,
  Colorado. Our second daughter is now a pilot for the Attillis Air Boat Company
  on the St. Thomas, Virgin, Islands, U.S.A. Our youngest, a son, is the Executive
  Director of the San Juan Regional Commission, Region 9 - Social Services. This
  includes the five S/W counties of Colorado.
     I am living on the Piedra River in Archuleta County, Colorado, near the
  Navajo Lake which is good fishing! I just visit and help the Senior Citizens
  Clubs in the area. Althought, in a few days I'll be eighty-three, I still
  chase elk, deer, bear and wild turkey. We have two million acres of forest land,
  and my children tell me they will someday be looking for my body, but I just
  say - "How do I know that my youth is spent? My get up and go - just got up
  and went - Then I say with a grin. Just look at the places, my get up has been."
  That's the way to stay young.
                
     Source:Chosen Land - Barber County, Kansas,  pg. 173 
     Submitted by: Emmet B. Evans