Dudley Evans

Colonel Dudley Evans (January 27, 1838 – March 27, 1910) was an American soldier, legislator and banking executive who served as president of Wells Fargo Co. from 1902 until his death in 1910.

Early life Evans was born in Morgantown, Virginia (today Morgantown, West Virginia) on January 27, 1838. He was descended from a family of Welsh immigrants that first settled Fairfax County, Virginia (near Mount Vernon) in 1683. Shortly before the American Revolution, his family "went over the mountains into that part of Virginia which split off in the civil war" into Monongahela in what became West Virginia. serving in that role until 1902. After the death of John J. Valentine Sr. in December 1901, Evans served as acting president until he was formally elected to succeed Valentine as president of the Wells Fargo Express Company in October 1902. Harriman had a large influence over the financial policy of the company as one of its largest shareholders, and staunchly supported Evans during a 1906 stockholder fight over a more liberal distribution of earnings. After Harriman's death in 1909, however, the company increased its capital from $8,000,000 to $24,000,000 paying stockholders a 300% dividend.

Personal life Evans married Nellie Seelye of New Brunswick, Canada. Together, they were the parents of two children: who married Ellen Louise Cott (1892–1947), a daughter of Frank Alfred Edwards Cott of Englewood in 1916. Clarice Evans, who married Roger Dunscombe.

Evans died at Roosevelt Hospital in New York City on March 27, 1910. His widow died at the Hotel Monclair in New York in 1929.

Descendants Through his son Stanley, he was a grandfather of Dudley Evans (1918–1993), a Princeton University graduate who married Carolyn Campbell Ingraham (a daughter of Paul Webb Ingraham) in 1945.