Name William Evans | ||
William Gray Evans was the oldest son of Colorado's second territorial governor, John Evans. William was president of the Denver Tramway Company. He was born in Evanston, Illinois in 1855. He moved with his family to Denver, Colorado in 1862 when Abraham Lincoln appointed his father, John Evans as Colorado's territorial governor.
William Evans served as secretary and later president of the Denver Tramway Company. He retired in 1913. In addition to his work with the Denver Tramway Company, William Evans was instrumental in building the Moffat Tunnel. Evans worked with David Moffat in financing the project in New York. Evans was with David Moffat at the time of his death in 1911, and the Grand Valley News described Evans as "the mainstay of Mr. Moffat in his railroad building and other enterprises for a number of years." After David Moffat's death, William Evans took over Moffat's positions as president of the Denver, Northwestern & Pacific Railway as well as president of the Colorado-Utah Construction Company. Taking over Moffat's former offices allowed Evans to continue the work the two men had started in negotiating the terms of the Moffat Tunnel's construction.
Evans was also influential in Denver politics in the first years of the twentieth century, and counted Denver Mayor Robert W. Speer and University of Denver chancellor Henry Buchtel among his personal friends.
William Gray Evans' home at 1310 Bannock Street in Denver is now a historic house museum, operated by History Colorado as the Byers-Evans House Museum.