Evant developed from the earlier settlement of Langford Cove, founded in 1855 by Asa Langford adjacent to and partly within the south boundary of the present town. A United States post office was authorized there in 1876 under the name Cove, and that same year Evan T. Brooks and his family arrived in the area. In 1881 Brooks platted a townsite filed in Hamilton County as Brooksville, and the same plat appeared in Coryell County records in 1884 as Evant, a name formed from Brooks’ first name and middle initial. Its streets and blocks were carefully planned, including a town square, and the Cove post office was transferred there and renamed in 1885. Education began with a one-room plank schoolhouse erected in 1878 on land Asa Langford had donated in 1875, and in 1888 it was replaced by a stone structure that, with additions and modifications, served Evant Independent School District until 1976. Over the years businesses were established and churches and community groups were organized, and in December 1976 the citizens voted to incorporate.