Named in 1925 for Rev. Wolcott H. Evans (1864-1934), then pastor of the First Presbyterian Church of Newhall. The Minnesota-born, Kansas-raised Evans arrived in Newhall in 1914 with his wife Ida and adopted sons Edmund and Arthur. (He had previously presided over Calvary Presbyterian Church in Wilmington.) Living in near-poverty, Evans became a beloved local figure and earned the nickname “The Shepherd of the Hills”. He famously provided aid and comfort after the 1928 St. Francis Dam disaster that killed over 450 (see Mulholland Drive), but the heartbreak of conducting so many last rites and burials took a toll on Evans’s health: he retired in 1930 and spent his few remaining years growing avocados in Vista, CA.
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