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.