Nelson Wiley Evans will forever be remembered for his magnum opus, A History of Scioto County, Ohio, Together with a Pioneer Record of Southern Ohio, which he published in 1903. With notes and index, Evans' history ran to 1322 pages. Evans made his living as an attorney, but he was a historian by profession. The title page of his history, notes that he was a "Life Member of the Ohio State Archaeological and Historical Society, Member of the Virginia Historical Society, and of the American Historical Association." Evans was the first local historian to research Portsmouth's history of runaway slave advertisements and, more generally, aspects of the city's black history.