Evan Williams (tenor)

When Evan was 13 years old, his Mother died in childbirth, and he was sent to live with his aunt and uncle, Thomas and Sarah Davis in Thomastown, a Welsh immigrant mining community near Akron, Ohio.

While he was working in his youth in coal mines in the Akron area, the quality of his voice was discovered when he was singing in a local church choir.

In 1907 he returned to the United States for most of the rest of his performing career, where he sang as a tenor soloist for various choral societies and in concerts all over the country.

[1] Williams was a great draw at many music societies and events, among them the Orpheus Club of Springfield, Massachusetts, from the 1890s until his death in 1918.

For two publicly available (pre-1923) recordings of his singing, click "Just a-Wearyin' for You" on YouTube and "A Perfect Day" on YouTube—both composed by Carrie Jacobs-Bond (1862–1946).

According to his obituary in The New York Times, Williams was fondly remembered for his singing of "Tim Rooney's at the Fighting" to audiences of soldiers during World War I.

He built the substantial house circa 1914 at 105 Mayfield Avenue in Akron with his record royalties and concert proceeds.

After Evan Williams' premature death in 1918, his widow Nona built a smaller house in the side lot at 97 Mayfield Avenue where she subsequently moved.