Sedgwick County KSGenWeb

Portrait And Biographical Album of Sedgwick County, Kan.

Chapman Brothers 1888

Pages 892 - 893

ERASMUS D. ADAMS. The interesting points in the history of this representative citizen of Clearwater are essentially as follows: A native of far New England, he was born in the State of Maine, Dec. 31, 1814, and is consequently now quite well advanced in years, having more than numbered the sum of threescore and ten. His long and useful life has been marked by those elements of character which have constituted him a useful citizen, and a man regarded with confidence and esteem by all who have known him. He is now in the enjoyment of a good home and a competency, and has little reason to be ashamed of the record which he has made during a period of years exceeding the average life of man.

            Joseph and Betsey (Farnum) Adams, the parents of our subject, were natives respectively of Massachusetts and New Hampshire, the former of English ancestry, and the progenitors of the latter natives of Wales. The first representatives of this country participated in the struggle of the Colonists for their independence, and the whole history of the two families has been eminently creditable and one of which their descendants have reason to be proud.

            Mr. Adams was reared to manhood in his native State, and completed a good education in the Maine Wesleyan Seminary at Kent's Hill, from which he was graduated at the close of the higher English and scientific course. For twelve years thereafter he was engaged as a teacher mostly in the public schools. He left New England in 1836, making his way westward to Cleveland, Ohio, and later to Muscatine County, Iowa, whence five months later he recrossed the Father of Waters into Warren County, Ill., where he resided several years. He next took up his residence in Johnson County, Iowa, and from there removed two years later to Black Hawk County, where he was one of the earliest pioneers, and settled near what is now the flourishing little city of Cedar Falls. He continued his residence there from 1845 until 1870, then proceeded southward, going into Newton County, Mo., and was there engaged in farming a period of fifteen years.

            When a boy Mr. Adams learned chair-making, in which he occupied himself for several years at Cedar Falls, Iowa, but in Missouri he turned his attention to farming and fruit-raising. He came to Clearwater, this county, in the fall of 1885, where he has since resided. To the faithful companion of his long and worthy life, who in her girlhood was Miss Catherine Sturgis, he was united in marriage on the 1st of August, 1841, in Johnson County, Iowa, and this union resulted in the birth of five children, of whom but four are living, namely: John S., of California; Henry F., of Stevens County, this State; Amos D., of Prescott, Ariz., and Della, who remains at home with her parents.

            Mrs. Adams was born in Monroe County, Mich., July 24, 1821, and is the daughter of John and Della (Miller) Sturgis, the former of whom was one of the first settlers on the prairie in St. Joseph County, that State. He was a man of much ability, served first as Justice of the Peace and Postmaster, and finally as Associate Judge. The town of Sturgis was named in his honor, and he passed his last days there, dying in 1873. Mrs. Adams was seven years of age when her parents became residents of St. Joseph County, and she lived there until the twentieth year of her age, when she moved to Iowa with a brother, and it was there she first met our subject. John Sturgis and his wife were natives respectively of Philadelphia, Pa., and New York State. Mr. S., politically, was a decided Democrat and an intimate friend of ex-Gov. Cass, of Michigan. His father, Amos Sturgis, served as a Captain in the Revolutionary War, in which he distinguished himself by his bravery, and was the close friend of Gen. Washington. Upon laying down the sword he took up his residence in Mt. Pleasant, Canada, where he spent the last years of his life, and was gathered to his fathers at a ripe old age.

            A member of the Democratic party during his early manhood, Mr. Adams identified himself with the Republicans after their organization, in 1856, and has since been one of the warmest adherents of this party. While in Iowa be served as Trustee of Cedar Falls Township, and was also Justice of the Peace there a number of years.

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