D.L. Evans Bank

D. L. Evans, our founder, was born in 1854 in Brigham City, Utah and was taught by his widowed pioneer mother, Winnefred (Gwen) Lloyd Roberts Evans, the importance of industry and hard work. His first job as a lad was the daily herding of their neighbor's dairy cows on the rugged Utah mountainsides. In 1870 he moved with his mother and two younger brothers to Malad Valley in Idaho, where they homesteaded a 160 acre farm, breaking out the sagebrush by hand with grubbing hoes and then planting crops. Through the encouragement of their mother, D. L. and his younger brother, L. L., attended the local pioneer schools, were fine students, and eventually both qualified to attend the University of Deseret in Salt Lake City, Utah. In their two years there, they earned their teaching certificates and thereafter returned to Idaho where they taught for several years at Malad, Samaria and Weston village schools.

Being bright, energetic and possessing the pioneer entrepreneurial spirit, the brothers formed a close family partnership that over the years led to the development of two Evans Cooperative Mercantile Stores, one in Malad City and the other in American Falls, several ranches and farms, and investments in thirteen pioneer Idaho and Utah banks. Both brothers were public spirited and served in numerous local public leadership positions. Both served in the Idaho Legislature during Idaho's early statehood years. D. L. was first elected to the Idaho Territorial Legislature in 1882 at 28 years of age and became the Speaker of the Idaho House of Representatives in 1899.