KSGenWeb Digital Library Biographical Sketch of James H. Adams Brown County, Kansas

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The following transcription is from a 750 page book titled "Genealogical and Biographical Record of North-Eastern Kansas, dated 1900.  These have been diligently transcribed and generously contributed by Penny R. Harrell, please give her a very big Thank You for her hard work!

James H. Adams dates his residence in Brown county from 1881 and his connection with the public affairs of Powhattan and of Mission townships has made him one of the valued and representative citizens of the community.  A native of Indiana, Mr. Adams was born in Parke county on the 18th of March, 1842.

His father, Daniel Adams, was a native of Kentucky, born February 14, 1809.  The grandfather, William Adams, claimed Tennessee as the state of his nativity and was a representative of an old Virginia family, whose ancestors came from England, locating in Jamestown, Virginia, prior to the Revolutionary War.  Representatives of the name were Whigs in their political views and during the Revolution they bore many hardships inflicted by the Tories.

Patriotic and earnest, they defended the cause of independence and hesitated not in upholding their honest convictions.  Daniel Adams was reared in Kentucky and when a young man of twenty-one years removed to Parke county, Indiana, where he worked on the national pike road, then being built from Washington, D. C., to St. Louis, Missouri. 

In July, 1835, he was married, in Parke county, to Miss Mary Beauchamp, whose birth occurred September 8, 1817, in Richmond, Wayne county, Indiana. She died September 2, 1847, leaving a family who greatly mourned her loss.  Her father, Henry Beauchamp, was born in Maryland, September 6, 1776, and is descended from French ancestry who crossed the Atlantic to America in colonial days, taking up their abode at Guilford, North Carolina.

He married Miss Catherine McLain, who was of Scotch descent.  Her birth occurred September 16, 1784, and her death in 1866. Daniel and Mary Adams had four children, namely: Henry S.; Phoebe E., the wife of G. W. Davis, of Baker, Kansas; James H.; and John Z., now deceased, who served as a member of the Fourth Indiana Cavalry during the Civil War.

He died at Antioch (now Andrews), Huntington county, Indiana, leaving a widow and two children.  After the death of his first wife the father of this family married Mrs. Indiana Hart, and to them were born five children, two sons and three daughters, namely: Mrs. Elizabeth House, deceased; Thomas, of Levi, Polk county, Iowa; Mrs. Mary Vernon, of Cass county, Indiana; Mrs. Orinda Griffith, of Kappa, Howard county, Indiana and Wesley, deceased.

The father was a farmer by occupation and following that pursuit was enabled to support his family.  He lived an honorable and upright life and was consistent member of the Baptist Church.  In politics he was a Whig until the dissolution of that party, when he became a supporter of the Democracy.  He died in Kappa, Howard county, Indiana, July 19, 1898, at the age of ninety years.

James H. Adams, the subject of this review, was reared in the counties of Howard and Cass in Indiana, obtaining his education in the district schools there.  He conned his lessons while sitting on a slab seat, and a heavy slab, mounted upon pins in the wall, served for a desk.  All of the furnishings and everything connected with the school were of the most primitive type, but the scholars were required to thoroughly master the "three R's."  Mr. Adams assisted in the cultivation and development of the home farm during his youth and after the inauguration of the Civil War he responded to the country's call for troops and, with patriotic ardor, enlisted at Andrews, Indiana, on the 24th of October, 1861, under Captain Wintrode, for three years' service.

He became a member of the Forty-seventh Regiment of Indiana Volunteers and with his command went to the south, where he participated in several important engagements.  He took part in the siege of Vicksburg, under General Grant, and was present at the time of its surrender, on the 4th of July, 1863, when the stars and stripes were planted over that city.  He was also in the battle of Baton Rouge, Louisiana. He was very fortunate in that he was never wounded or ill, and with the rank of sergeant of his company he was honorably discharged at Baton Rouge on the 23rd of October, 1865, after which he returned to his home in Indiana.  For about eighteen months Mr. Adams was employed in the lumber camps at Osceola, Michigan.

He was married, October 1, 1867, in Huntington county, Indiana, to Miss M. E. Randolph, who was reared and educated in the Hoosier state and is a daughter of Rhodes and M. E. (Fish) Randolph, both of whom were natives of Indiana.  Their union has been blessed with five children, namely: Schuyler, now of Bloomington, Illinois; Ina May, the wife of C. Zimmerman, of Powhattan, Kansas; Ora R., a railroad man now in the employ of the Santa Fe Company and residing at Wellington, Kansas; Charles H., a clerk in L. B. Perkheiser's general mercantile store; and Mary Emma, who died at the age of ten months.

Upon his removal to Brown county, in 1881, Mr. Adams took up his abode upon a farm in Mission township, eight miles southwest of Hiawatha, and since 1889 he has been a resident of Powhattan, where he is now acceptably serving as the police judge.

In his political views he is a stalwart Republican and on the 29th of October, 1890, was appointed postmaster of Powhattan, in which position he served until February, 1894, proving a genial and accommodating public officer.  Both he and his wife are members of the Methodist Episcopal Church and in its welfare and progress take considerable interest.  In civil and military life has demonstrated his loyalty to duty, and at all times his career has been that of a man who holds that the deserved respect of his fellow men is preferable to wealth.

Last update: Friday, July 18, 2003 20:22:15

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