Education
He graduated from Yale College, 1884, where he was a member of Skull and Bones. After graduation he studied two years in the Harvard Law School, and was then in the law office of Seward, DaCosta & Guthrie until the summer of 1889.
He graduated from Yale College, 1884, where he was a member of Skull and Bones. After graduation he studied two years in the Harvard Law School, and was then in the law office of Seward, DaCosta & Guthrie until the summer of 1889.
William Maxwell Evarts and Helen Minerva (Wardner) Evarts. He was fitted for college at Saint Paul"s School, Concord, New Hampshire. In 1890 he was appointed an assistant United States attorney for the Southern District of New New York
He held this office two years, after which he entered the law department of the Southern Pacific Railroad Company
In recent years he had been active in the counsel of the Southern Pacific Railroad Company, Union Pacific Railroad Company, and affiliated lines of the East.H. Harriman System. With co-General Counsel Robert Scott Lovett.
In 1904 he was elected a director of the Southern Pacific Railroad, for several years was an attorney of the Harriman system, and in 1910. He was made general counsel of the Oregon Short Lincolnshire and the Oregon Railroad and Navigation Company
Upon the separation of the Union Pacific and Southern Pacific Railroads he became general counsel of the Southern Pacific Company
He had also been a director of the Pacific Mail Steamship Company and the Union Pacific Land Company He represented Wong Kim Ark in his lawsuit to gain recognition as a United States. citizen. The Supreme Court sided with Evarts, establishing birthright citizenship as a right.
His home (Juniper Hill Farm) was in Windsor, Vermont, a stately manor overlooking Lake Runnemede and his family"s compound.
Maxwell Evarts considered Vermont to be his home, and made many contributions on both the local and state levels. He was an organizer of the State National Bank of Windsor, which included Vermont State Treasurer John L. Bacon as cashier.
He was also vice-president of the Windsor Machine Company, half owner of the Amsden (Vt) Lime Company, president of the Vermont State Fair Association, a governor of the Morgan Horse Club, and president of the Vermont Fish and Game League. He was the son of William M. Evarts, the grandson of Jeremiah Evarts and Allen Wardner, and the great-grandson of Roger Sherman.
He was a member of the Vermont House of Representatives in 1906.