Townsend-Evans Insurance marks 100 years with Parsons celebration

Townsend-Evans Insurance marked its 100th year in Parsons with a public celebration at the Parsons Municipal Building, turning a company milestone into a community event. The anniversary put one of Decatur County’s longest-running local businesses at the center of a story about family ownership, hometown service and the kind of stability that matters in a small county.

The agency began in 1926 as the Townsend Insurance Agency, founded by four brothers: Leonard, Raymond, Hobart and Wilburn Townsend. Wilburn Townsend later bought out his brothers and ran the business until his death in 1969. That same year, Janell Evans and her husband Jim Evans took over, and the business became Townsend-Evans Insurance. Jim Evans remained active in the agency until his death in 2022, and current listings identify Alan Evans as principal agent.

Today, Townsend-Evans Insurance operates as an independent insurance agency from 20 West 2nd Street in Parsons and represents Erie Insurance. Its continuing presence in town reflects the role local insurers still play in a place where families and businesses depend on someone nearby to help navigate auto, home, business, life and health coverage when a storm, accident or policy change hits.

The centennial also fits into Decatur County’s broader history. The county was formed in 1845 from Perry County, and the Tennessee Secretary of State notes courthouse fires in 1869 and 1927, reminders that local institutions here have had to rebuild before. Parsons, the county’s largest municipality, grew in the late 1800s around the Tennessee Midland Railroad and now has a population near 2,400, while Decatur County’s 2020 census population was 11,435.

That scale helps explain why a 100-year-old Parsons business drew attention beyond the insurance trade. The celebration, held June 10 from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m., was treated as a civic occasion as much as a corporate one. In a county where longtime institutions are easy to count and hard to replace, Townsend-Evans Insurance’s century in business stands as a marker of continuity for Parsons and the people who have relied on it across generations.