Evans James 1801-1846 Born In Kingston-upon-hull England


Emigrated to Canada; opened a school near L'Original, and about 1828

moved to Rice Lake, where he entered the Methodist ministry, and began

his life-long Work among the Indians. In 1840 given charge of missionary

work in the North-West, with headquarters at Norway House. Had already

devoted much time to the study of the native languages, and while at

Norway House invented the Cree syllabic characters, a simple, phonetic

system, by means of which the Indian was taught to read with surprising

facility. At first cast his own type, built his own press, and printed

on birchbark. Later obtained more effective materials, and set up

catechisms, hymn-books, and portions of the Bible in syllabic. =Bib.=:

Young, The Apostle of the North; McLean, James Evans, Inventor of the

Syllabic System; Carroll, James Evans in the Methodist Magazine,

October, 1882; Pilling, Bibliography of the Algonquian Languages.



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