The venerable Samuel Evans, one of the best-known residents of Columbia and historian of wide repute. 

Samuel was the son of Alexander Lowery and Ann Slaymaker Evans. He attended schools in his neighborhood until he was fifteen when he was apprenticed to Israel Cooper, a Quaker, one of the prominent builders of Columbia, with whom he remained six years.

For one year after reaching his majority, he continued in that locality, and then for 18 months, he followed his trade in New York, Pittsburgh, St Louis, and New Orleans. Returning to Columbia, he engaged in building there and in Lancaster and also followed the lumber business along the river. With a natural literary gift and liking politics, he was a frequent contributor to Whig newspapers. He was elected a delegate to the Republican State Convention and continued in that capacity for years. In 1853, Capt. Evans was elected Justice of the Peace of the Lower Ward in Columbia. 

When a company of volunteers was organized in Columbia, after Fort Sumter was fired upon, he enlisted and marched with his company to Camp Curtin, Harrisburg, May 1, 1861. He was soon appointed Orderly Sergeant of Company K, 5th Pennsylvania Reserves, and soon after that, was promoted to 2nd Lieutenant. On October 1, he was appointed quartermaster of the regiment with the rank of 1st Lieutenant. 

For meritorious conduct in the Wilderness Campaign, he was commissioned a Brevet Captain. By July 1864, he was mustered out of service at Harrisburg. In 1866, Capt. Evans returned to the office of Justice of the Peace in Columbia and served in that capacity until 1900. 

Samuel Evans was associated with the General Welsh Post, the Colonial Society, Sons of the Revolution, the Scotch-Irish Society, the Maryland Historical Society, the Virginia Historical Society, and the Lancaster Historical Society. In the line of historical research, few citizens were better known or contributed as much to this valuable study. He had a vast fund of information which he freely imparted to anyone with interest.

In 1852, Sam married Miss Elizabeth Anderson, who died three years later. In 1857, he married Miss Mary Shock. Sam and Mary had one daughter, Lillian Slaymaker Evans.