“One of the leading citizens of Blytheville, AR is C.J. Evrard, president of the Evrard Abstract Company and the Blytheville Insurance Company. He was born in Perry county, Indiana, a son of Godfroid and Pauline (Lambert) Evrard, the former a native of St. Medard, Belgium, and the latter of Libramont, Belgium. C. J. Evrard’s birth occurred just eight days [ s/b abt 28 days later ] after his parents landed in Derby.
In the acquirement of his early education, C. J. Evrard attended the district schools near the home farm and prior to his seventeenth birthday he began teaching school. For more than thirty years he was engaged in educational work and won a widespread reputation in that connection. He is a highly educated and intellectual man and speaks French fluently. At one time he was offered the chair of French at Notre Dame University but his health would not permit such close confinement. In 1902 Mr. Evrard came to Blytheville and engaged in the abstract and loan business, which he is now actively conducting under the name of Evrard Abstract Company. In 1920 he established the Blytheville Insurance Agency and he is achieving well merited success in both connections.
On the 9th of February 1881, was celebrated the marriage of Mr. Evrard to Miss Sarah Jane Ballard of Perry county, Indiana, and to their union eight children have been born: Daisy is the wife of S.C. Moore, a successful farmer of Mississippi county; Gordon is railroad agent at Black Oak, this state; James B. is a despatcher at Wynne, Arkansas. He served for twenty-seven months in the navy as wireless operator during the World war and crossed the ocean ten times; Marcus, who is associated with his father in business, served as first-class yeoman in the navy for twenty-seven months during the World war. The other children are deceased.
Extract in part from; Volume 3 of the Centennial History of Arkansas (Dallas Tabor Herndon, published 1922 by S.J. Clark Publishing Company), pages 871 and 872