The municipality of Evje was created on 1 January 1877 when the old municipality of Evje og Vegusdal was divided into Evje (population: 870) and Vegusdal (population: 935). During the 1960s, there were many municipal mergers across Norway due to the work of the Schei Committee. On 1 January 1960, Evje (population: 1,646) was merged with the neighboring municipality of Hornnes (population: 1,280) to form the new municipality of Evje og Hornnes.[5]
Name
The municipality (originally the parish) is named after the old Evje farm (Old Norse: Efja) since the first Evje Church was built there. The name is identical to the word efja which means "backwater" or "mud" (likely referring to a shallow, backwater part of the local river Otra).[6]
The municipal council(Herredsstyre) of Evje was made up of 17 representatives that were elected to four year terms. The tables below show the historical composition of the council by political party.
^Kiær, Anders Nicolai; Helland, Amund; Vibe, Johan; Strøm, Boye (1904). Norges land og folk: Nedenes amt (in Norwegian). Norway: H. Aschehoug & Company. p. 368. Retrieved 19 December 2020.