Stephen Douglas Adams of Meade, Kan., who has served two terms in the Kansas state legislature, has been a resident of Meade county twenty-five years and from the time of his coming has taken a prominent and useful part in the public life of his community. He is a native of Illinois, born on a farm in Ogle county, of that state, on Aug. 27, 1858. Stephen Adams, his father, was born in Washington county, Maryland, on Aug. 1, 1823, of parents that were Germans and, in 1844, removed to Illinois, where he was a successful farmer and carpenter until 1871, when he retired. Removing to Polo, he resided there until his death, on Aug. 1, 1904, his eighty-first birthday, passing away as he had lived, a devout German Lutheran. Stephen Adams, the father, was twice married. His first marriage was in 1843 to a Miss Welty, who died in 1844. To this union one child was born, who died in infancy. In 1846 he married Miss Isabel Miller, a daughter of Jacob Miller, a German farmer of Washington county, Maryland. She was born June 29, 1829, in Washington county, Maryland, and died at Meade, Kan., Jan. 8, 1911. Five children were born to this marriage, four sons and one daughter, as follows: Elias and Albert, both of whom died in infancy; Mary Alice, born May 17, 1854, who s now the wife of F. A. Geeting, a merchant at Polo, Ill.; Stephen Douglas Adams, the subject of this record; and Samuel O. Adams, born Jan. 27, 1867, who is now a jeweler at Polo, Ill.

Stephen Douglas Adams completed his education in the public schools of Polo, Ill., and, in 1876, became a salesman in a general store at Polo, where he remained three years. For some years afterward he worked with his father at carpentering; then, in 1883, he went to Chicago, where he worked one year in a railroad office. During 1885 and 1886 he was again a salesman. In March, 1887, he removed to Kansas, locating on government land in Sand Creek township, Meade county, and that county has since remained his home. He became deputy clerk of the district court of Meade county, in January, 1889, and held the office four years. In 1893 he was elected sheriff on the Democratic ticket, to which office he was reëlected in 1895, holding it altogether four years. He then engaged in the livery business at Meade but, in 1900, he was once more called to public service, when he was elected a representative to the state legislature and, in 1906, was reëlected to that body. He was elected mayor of Meade, in 1902, and still holds that office, his repeated reëlection being of itself a convincing testimony of the high esteem in which he is held in his city. He is a director in the Meade State Bank and is the proprietor of the National Hotel at Meade, also owning other valuable property in Meade county.

On Jan. 27, 1898, Mr. Adams was united in marriage to Mrs. Belle M. Peed, the widow of M. B. Peed, who was well known in Meade county and served as its first county clerk in 1885. Mr. and Mrs. Peed had two children: Ralph, born in 1885, and India, born in 1887. Three children have blessed the union of Mr. and Mrs. Adams, namely: Alice, born July 1, 1899; Helen L., born Feb. 3, 1903; and Katherine, born Nov. 17, 1905. Mrs. Adams was elected register of deeds of Meade county, in 1893. She was reëlected to that office, in 1895, and was the first woman to hold office in the county. Both Mr. and Mrs. Adams stand high in the respect and esteem of their community.