History :
Back in the early 1800s, Osceola County came to be known as "The Land of Green Gold." The area was given this title because of the beautiful timber located in the county. Located right in the heart of all the timber sat a little village, which would soon come to be known as Evart.
Mr. Delos Blodgett and Mr. James Stimson were the first two people in this territory in 1850 - other than a few Indians and trappers. They came by canoe up the Muskegon River as far as Doc and Tom Creek (just below the Muskegon River Bridge on M-66). The creek was named after these two adventurous men. They looked over the beaver meadows, cut hay for the coming winter, and walked back to Muskegon.
When they returned, they brought oxen, supplies, and camp equipment and hired a crew of men. From Big Rapids it was an unbroken wilderness at that time, and they drove their oxen through the thickest of woods, without any road or trail to the mouth of the Doc. and Tom Creek, their future lumbering camp.
In the spring of 1851, they constructed canoes, and when the river broke up, they put in their camp and started down, driving logs before them. Delos Blodgett and James Kennedy selected the village site. Mr. Kennedy built the first sawmill in Evart Township. The second sawmill was built by Charles Lambs; the third by Barlow Davis.
Evart was named in honor of the first soldier who settled in the area, Perry Oliver Everts. On April 3, 1867, Civil War Veteran Perry O. Everts married Harriet A. Whiting, daughter of Nathan and Harriet Whiting, in Van Buren County, Michigan. The City of Evart, Michigan, is named after this man. Perry O. Everts (also known as "Frank") enlisted in the Union Army July 24, 1861, in LaGrange County, Indiana and fought in the Civil War. He served with the 1st Indiana Heavy Artillery Company "A" as a private and mustered out January 13, 1866. After the war, he came back to Michigan, where he was born in 1843,and purchased 80 acres where the town of Evart now stands. At the town's organizational meeting in 1870, they wanted to name the township for the earliest settler and a Civil War veteran. John Smith was the choice, but Smith was such a common name that he passed to Frank (Perry) Everts as the next settler in the township.
Everts' name was misspelled and that misspelling was allowed to stand. Lumber Baron Delos A. Blodgett officially platted the town in 1872, the same year it was officially organized as a village. Evart was a strategic point for sorting timber that was floated down the Muskegon River. It was later organized as a city in 1930.
Everts was a farmer and a well liked man by all accounts. Perry and Harriet had 8 children. Perry died in a barn raising accident in his early 40s.
