Evalena M. Donovan (b. Robinson) (1826-1895) was born in Oxford, Maryland, and died in St. Joseph, Missouri. She married John Donovan, Sr., in Talbot County, Maryland, in 1850. He served in Company I, 3rd Regiment of the Maryland Infantry of the Union Army in the American Civil War. By 1870 the Donovans had moved to St. Joseph, Missouri, where John was employed as an attorney in a real estate firm. In 1886, Evalena wrote to Mary Baker Eddy mentioning that she had been reading Eddy's works and inquiring about Christian Science treatment.

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