Lincoln County leader. [volume] (Toledo, Lincoln County, Or.) 1893-1987, 1894-03-08
ROMANCE OF CRIME.
Singular Devotion of Wife and Daughter
to Chris Evans, the Bandit.

Singular Devotion of Wife and Daughter
to Chris Evans, the Bandit.
That there is plenty of romance left in
the mountains of California such as Bret
Harte found and utilized in his stories is
proved by the recent history of the efforts
made toimprison finally the notorious ban
dit, Chris Evans, for that history includes
fighting, lovemaking, flights, searches, cap
lures, trials and escapes, in all of which
two women-Evans' wife and l6-year-old
daughter-have been conspicuous, says the
New York Sun. 1t was Mrs Evans who
contrived the recent escape of her husband
from the Fresno county jail the details OF
which have been widely published.
Ii was Mrs. Evans and her daughter who
aided in the first escape of Evans and Son
tag when the bandits were surrounded in
Evans cottage soon after the famous Coli,
train robbery in the San joaquin valley
Then, during the nine months in which the
two thieves defied all the efforts of the law
officers to capture them in their mountain
retreat, it was Eva Evans, the daughter
who did the hard, fast riding over noun
tain trails when an emergency required 8
swift messenger
But at last the thieves became careless
they We're entrapped, Sontag was killed and
Evans captured, badly wounded But in
that capture, and in every attempt made
before the successful one, Evans and Son
tag fought desperately, killing or wound
ing one or more officers in every encounter
The crime for which they were wanted
included bloodshed On the night of Aug
3, 1892, the express train between San Fran
cisco ana los Angeles was boarded by the
Evans-Sontag gang at Coils, a little sta
tion out on the plains about 20 miles from
Fresno. The invaders stopped the train
fired volley to intimidate the passengers
and then, with the trainmen covered by
their guns, the robbers proceeded to blow
open the express car. Nine dynamite
bombs were used, one of them seriously in
juring the express messengers. The rob
bers secured three sacks of gold coin and
rode away.
One of them, George Sontag, was speedily
captured, but it took nine months to cap
ture John Sontag and Chris Evans, during
which time railroad, United States, state
and county detectives, Pinkerton men
Mohave Indians and many amateur mar
hunters were actively engaged in the search
for the rewards offered were large
The first encounter was on Aug. 6, foul
days after the robbery. SOntag and Evan'
met the posse at Chris Evans house anC
escaped TO the mountain after killing Dep
uty Sheriff Beaver and wounding severa
others. On Sept. l3 Evans and Sontag wer,
surrounded in II cabin at SIMPSONS Flat
In the encounter that followed Sontag wal
wounded in the arm by bullet DEPUTY
United States Marshal Victor c. Wilson
and Richard Olsen, volunteer man hunter
were killed, and a deputy sheriff was seri
ously wounded. The thieves again escaped
There We're several other minor encoun
ters, all Of them occurring during the trip
of the reckless thieves into the valleys ant
foothills, for the hunters gave up their at
tempts to follow the robbers into the noun