R. C. Evans

Who was R. C. Evans?

Richard Charles Evans was a Canadian apostle and member of the First Presidency in the Reorganized Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints who became the leader of a schismatic sect that separated from the RLDS Church in 1918.

Evans was born in St. Andrews in Argenteuil County, Province of Canada, in present-day Quebec. On November 5, 1876, at the age of 15, Evans was baptized in the Thames River in Ontario by RLDS Church preacher J. J. Cornish. In 1882, Evans became a priest in the church, and in 1884 and 1886 he became an elder and a seventy, respectively.

On April 12, 1897, at a general conference of the RLDS Church, Evans was made an apostle and a member of the Council of Twelve Apostles. On April 20, 1902, Evans became a counselor in the First Presidency to Joseph Smith III, the Prophet–President of the RLDS Church. In 1909, Evans was released from the First Presidency and was ordained to the office of bishop. As a bishop, Evans was given a specific jurisdiction over the church in Canada. Evans had been upset considerably when Smith designated his son, Frederick M. Smith, as the foreordained successor to the church presidency in 1906. When Joseph Smith III died in 1914 and Frederick Smith took control of the church, Evans' frustration over being overlooked as a worthy successor continued to grow.