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BUCKS INDEX

THE ADAMS FAMILY

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The Adams Family Among the earliest members of the Adams family who emigrated to America were Henry Adams, of Braintree, Massachusetts, and Robert Adams, of Oxford township, Philadelphia county, and Walter Adams, his brother, all of whom it is said were descended from Lord John Ap Adams, son of Ap Adams, who “came out of the Marches” of Wales. Thomas Adams, brother of Henry Adams, of Braintree, Massachusetts, was one of the grantees named in the charter of Charles I, in 1629. He was high sheriff and lord mayor of London.

Henry Adams with his eight sons settled at Mount Wollaston, in Braintree, and Walter and Robert Adams were his brothers. It is thought, however, that they came to this country at a later date. They settled in Pennsylvania and, like the majority of the early colonists of that state, Walter was a Quaker.

The earliest record of the English branch of the Adams family is that of John Ap Adams, of Charlton Adams, in Somersetshire, who married Elizabeth, daughter and heiress to Lord Gowrney, of Beviston and Tidenham county, Gloucester, who was summoned to parliament as baron of the realm, 1226 to 1307. In the upper part of a Gothic window on the southeast side of Tidenham church, near Chopston, the name of John Ap Adams is still to be found, together with “arms argent in a cross gules, five mullets or,” of Lord Ap Adams. The design is probably executed on stained glass of great thickness and is in perfect preservation. This church originally stood within the boundary of Wales, but at a later period the boundary line was changed so that it is now upon English soil. The arms and crest borne by the family are described as argent in a cross gules; five mullets or, out of a ducal coronet a demi-lion. The legend is “Loyal au mort;” a motto commonly used by this branch of the family is "Aspire, persevere and indulgence,” all other “sub cruce veritas.”

The following is the line of direct descent to the Adams family of the Lehigh Valley.

(1).Ap Adams came out of the Marches of Wales. Lords of the Marches were noblemen who in the early ages secured and inhabited the Marches of Wales and Scotland, living there as if they were petty kings, having their own private laws. These laws, however, were subsequently abolished.

(2) Sir Ap Adams, knight, lord of Ap Adams, married Elizabeth, daughter of Lord Gowrney.

(3) Sir Thomas Ap Adam;

(4) William Ap Adam;

(5) Sir John Ap Adam;

(6) Thomas Ap Adams;

(7) Sir John Ap Adam, Knight;

(8) Sir John Ap Adam, who was the first to attach the letter “s” to his name;

(9) Roger Adams;

(10) Thomas Adams;

(11) John Adams;

(12) John Adams;

(13) Nicholas Adams;

(14) Richard Adams;

(15) William Adams;

and (16) Henry Adams, who is said to have emigrated about 1634. In February, 1641, he was granted forty acres of land near Boston, of which Braintree is a part. His brothers were Robert, Thomas and Walter. The last named came to America by way of the Barbadoes, West Indies, and after living there for a time took up his abode in Pennsylvania.

(1) Walter Adams married Elizabeth _____. Their children were: Richard, Anne, William, and Robert. Walter Adams was the brother of Robert Adams, of Oxford township, Philadelphia, who died in 1719, leaving no children; he devised the estate of his nephews and nieces, the children of his brother Walter and Elizabeth, his wife.

(2) Richard Adams, of New Providence township, now Montgomery county, Pennsylvania, died in 1748. His first wife’s name is not known. His second wife was Alice or Aishe Withers, and they were married in 1726. His children were as follows: Abraham, married Alse _____; William, of Braken township, Lancaster county; Isaac, of Coventry township, Chester county; Susanna, married Conrad Custard, or Kistard; Catharine, married John Morris; Mary, married Israel Morris; Margaret, married Paul Casselberry; Elizabeth, married Thomas Bull; Ann, married Jacob Umstadt; Hannah, married Owen Evans.

(3) Abraham Adams died in 1738, and letters were granted to Rachel, his daughter, a spinster. There is mention of two children, Ann and Abigail.

Walter Adams and his brother were brothers of Henry Adams, who came to New England and was a founder of the Adams family there, at Braintree, Massachusetts. Walter, his Son Richard, and his son Abraham were Quakers.

Conrad Custard, husband of Susanna Adams, (daughter of Richard), owned a large tract of land immediately adjoining the tract surveyed to Ensign John Adams, of Nockamixon township, in 1763.

John Adams and James Adams, possibly and probably brothers, lived in Nockamixon township, Bucks county. There are a few records at Doylestown, Pennsylvania, which bear James Adams’s signature. He was also an ensign in the provincial service, Associated Companies of Bucks county, in 1747. (See Colonial Records, vol. v., p. 209; also Pennsylvania Archives, second series, vol. ii, p. 505). This was nine years before John Adams held a like commission in the provincial service in the Associated Companies of Bucks county. There is nothing to establish that James Adams and John Adams were related, neither can be found any data of their former residence or whose children they were. The only solution is that they were both possibly sons of Abraham Adams; the latter having died intestate no list of his children is obtainable. The fact that John Adams held land adjoining that of Conrad Custer is a possible solution, he having been raised by his aunt Susanna.

Richard Adams, of Providence township, Philadelphia, whose will is dated February 1, 1847-8, and probated March 24, 1747-48, mentions son Abraham’s children, Ann and Abagail, then letters were granted to Abraham’s daughter Rachel. There at once seems to be some discrepancy which is most difficult to explain.

James’ commission in the provincial service, as above stated, was dated in 1747, which tends to show that he might have been disinherited by his grandfather. Then, again, there is a possibility that James and John Adams are one and the same man, but this is very doubtful, as their names are mentioned distinctly and separately in the old records.

(1) John Adams, ensign, Provincial Service, of Nockamixon township, Bucks county, Pennsylvania, died in Nockamixon township, May 22, 1807. He married Mary _____. He was buried in the old Nockamixon church graveyard His will dated March 21, 1807, proved June 8, same year, is recorded in Will Book No 7, p. 278, in the register of wills office, Doylestown, Pennsylvania.

John Adams, of Nockamixon, served in the provincial service in 1756. He held a commission as ensign in one of the companies of the Associated Companies of Bucks county. (See Pennsylvania Archives, vol iii., p. 19; also Pennsylvania Archives, second series, vol. ii. p. 531). Captain William Ramsey was captain of the company in which John Adams served and held his commission as ensign in 1756, and was also from Nockamixon township, Bucks county. John Johnson was the lieutenant of the company. John Adams of Nockamixon, and Mary his wife, had the following children: Mary, Elizabeth, Margaret, George, Henry, John Jacob.

George and Henry, sons of John Adams of Nockamixon, served in the Nockamixon Company of Associators in 1775. George was sergeant of the company, and the son, John was a soldier in the Continental army during the Revolutionary war.

The first record that we have of John Adams of Nockamixon owning any land is a warrant that was granted March 26, 1754, to John Adams, for land in Nockamixon township, Bucks county, upon which a survey was returned for fifty-four acres and 113 perches. A patent for this same land was granted April 26, 1726, to Abraham Fryling. John Adams had some trouble with this land, for on May 19, 1763, he entered a caveat against the acceptance of a survey made for Archibald Merrin, which took in the above mentioned land and improvements. (See Pennsylvania Archives, third series, vol. ii., p. 275) The above land was surveyed by J. Hart, for which he gave a receipt, June 26, 1763, which is recorded in Doylestown, Pennsylvania, in Deed Book No. 32, p. 169. This receipt also mentions the date of the warrant, March 26, 1754.

(II) John Adams, private in Captain Samuel Watson’s company, of Durham township, Bucks county, Pennsylvania, was a son of John Adams of Nockamixon township, Bucks county, Pennsylvania, born in Nockamixon township, November 3, 1759, died in Durham township, November 12, 1826. He married Christina Klinker, December 15, 1789, at the Tohickon German Reformed church. Some time after the Revolutionary war he moved into Durham township, where he lived until his death. He is buried in the old Durham church graveyard. Christina Klinker, the wife of John Adams, of Durham, was born in Nockamixon township August 15, 1770, died in Durham township October 2, 1847, and is buried in the old Durham church graveyard. She was the daughter of John and Mary Klinker of Nockamixon township, Bucks county, Pennsylvania.

John Adams, of Durham township, Bucks county, Pennsylvania, was a soldier in the Continental army during the Revolutionary war. He served as a private in Captain Samuel Watson’s company of the Second Pennsylvania Battalion under Colonel Arthur St. Clair. He enlisted February 12, 1776. (See Pennsylvania Archives, second series, vol. x, p. 98). Several of the members of his company were from upper Bucks county. Captain Watson died at Three Rivers and was succeeded by Thomas L. Moore, who was promoted to major of the Ninth Regiment, May 12, 1779, and was succeeded as captain by John Henderson. The company was transferred or became a part of the Third Battalion, Twelfth Regiment, July 1, 1778, and thus became associated with other companies of Bucks county. For his services he received from the state of Pennsylvania two hundred acres of “donation land” in Robinson township, Westmoreland county, Pennsylvania, which was returned for patent October 9, 1786. (See Pennsylvania Archives, third series, vol. vii, p. 723). This land he sold to Hugh Hamill, November 4, 1786, for £37 10s. The witnesses to this deed were Thomas Delap (Dunlap), John Donnell and Jacob Glassmyer, all residents of Nockamixon township at that date. (Recorder’s office, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, deed book D-17, p. 322.) John K., son of John Adams of Durham, was a soldier for some time during the war of 1812-1814, private in Captain John Dornblaser’s company (Pennsylvania Archives, second series, vol. xii, p. 105).

John Adams of Durham and Christina, his wife, had the following children: Elizabeth, Mary, Margaret, John K., Henry, Jacob, Samuel, Susan, married Joseph Retschlin, and Daniel.

John Adams of Durham was quite a large land owner. In 1706 he owned one hundred acres of land and a grist and a saw mill in Nockamixon township, Bucks county, Pennsylvania. April 20, 1799, he bought of Solomon Lightcap 263 acres of land. (Bucks county deed book 30, p.310). April 11, 1808, he bought two tracts, one of 155 acres and the other of twelve acres. (Bucks county deed book 39, p.135). John Adams of Durham died without making a will. It is impossible to give the date when John Adams was mustered out of the service, for the muster rolls of the Twelfth Regiment have practically never been found.

Tax lists of Nockamixon township show the holdings of John Adams, the father of the above John Adams, and his sons George and Henry, elder brothers of John. John Adams appears as a “single man” first in the year of 1785, notwithstanding that he was of age in 1780. He therefore served, in all probability, up to about that date (1784-1785) in the Twelfth Pennsylvania regiment. Captain Samuel Watson’s company records date to November 25, 1776, only.

(III) Henry Adams, of Durham township, Bucks county, Pennsylvania, son of John Adams, was born in Durham township June 17, 1806, and died there December 15, 1838. He married Elizabeth Bitz, August 25, 1828, at her home in Springfield township, Bucks county, Pennsylvania. He is buried in the old Durham church graveyard. Elizabeth Bitz, the wife of Henry Adams, of Durham, was born September 18, 1811, in Springfield township, Bucks county, Pennsylvania, and died March 28, 1878, in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania. She was the daughter of John Bitz and Susan Riegel, his wife, of Springfield, Bucks county, Pennsylvania. Henry Adams’s will is recorded in Doylestown, Pennsylvania. It is dated April 28, 1838, and is proved December 22, 1838. Henry Adams of Durham and Elizabeth, his wife, had the following children: John, Hannah, Catharine and Samuel. After the death of Henry Adams in 1840, Elizabeth Bitz was married a second time to Christian Nicholas. She had no children by this union. Christian K. Nicholas was born in Nockamixon township, Bucks county, Pennsylvania, January 23, 1817, and died in upper Saucon township, Lehigh county, Pennsylvania, November 3, 1893, and was buried in Friedensville November 7, 1893, and body removed to Nisky Hill Cemetery, Bethlehem, December 16, 1899.

(IV) Samuel Adams of south Bethlehem, Northampton county, Pennsylvania, son of Henry Adams of Durham township, Bucks county, Pennsylvania, was born in Durham township July 25, 1837, and died in South Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, February 22, 1902. He married Susie Weaver, September 14, 1865, at her home in Allentown, Pennsylvania. He is buried at Nisky Hill Cemetery, Bethlehem, Pennsylvania. Susie Weaver, wife of Samuel Adams, was born in Allentown, Pennsylvania, May 5, 1847. She was a daughter of Joseph Weaver and Salome, his wife, of Allentown, Pennsylvania. Samuel Adams and Susie Weaver, his wife, had the following children: John, Joseph W., Henry and Susie.

Samuel Adams when quite a young man started out in farming, and then in iron ore mining. He entered the employ of the Thomas Iron Company of Catasaqua, Pennsylvania, and was given charge of their mining interests. Mr. John Fritz induced him to come to Bethlehem and accept the position as his assistant in the Bethlehem Iron Company. Here he remained for nearly thirty years, and then had to resign on account of his health. He then organized the Ponupo Mining and Transportation Company, Limited, and went to Santiago de Cuba as general manager of the company. Here he bought a railroad for the company, the Ferro-Carril de Santiago de Cuba, and became its president, and also built an extension to the railroad to connect with the company’s manganese mines. He remained in Cuba with his family for over two years, when he resigned and returned north. He was in Cuba part of the year 1892, all of 1893, and part of 1894. After returning from Cuba he assisted in forming the Sheffield Coal, Iron and Steel Company of Sheffield, Alabama. He stayed in Sheffield with his family one year, then sold out his interest and came north. While with the Sheffield Coal, Iron and Steel Company he held the position of general superintendent and assistant treasurer, and also director of the company. He then retired from active business and devoted himself to farming, having a tract of one hundred acres near Friedensville, Pennsylvania, about 130 acres above Bingen, Pennsylvania, and a tract of woodland along the P. & R. of forty acres, above Bingen, Pennsylvania. He was also interested in and a director of the following companies at the time of his death: Ponupo Mining and Transportation Company, Cuban Mining Company, Jones and Bixler Manufacturing Company, South Bethlehem National Bank.

Henry, son of Samuel Adams, was a soldier during the Spanish-American war of 1898. He organized the first volunteer company in the state. He and his company were taken into the Ninth Pennsylvania Regiment to help make up the Third Battalion of that regiment. He was commissioned as captain of Company K, Ninth Pennsylvania Regiment, United States Volunteer Infantry. The regiment was in the Third Brigade, Third Division, First Army Corps.

(V.) Joseph W. Adams, of South Bethlehem, Northampton county, Pennsylvania, son of Samuel Adams, was born in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, January 19, 1872. He married Reba Thomas, of Pittsburg, Pennsylvania, daughter of David J Thomas and Susanna Edwards, of Pittsburg, June 14, 1899, at her home. Reba Thomas, the wife of Joseph W. Adams, was born in Pittsburg, November 11, 1877.

Joseph W. Adams was educated at the Moravian parochial school of Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, the Hill school of Pottstown, Pennsylvania, and the Lehigh University of South Pennsylvania, where he joined the Delta Upsilon fraternity. He started to work in the drawing rooms of the Bethlehem Iron Company. He went to Cuba with his father and was treasurer of the Ferro-Carril de Santiago de Cuba, 1892-93. He went to Alabama as assistant to the general superintendent of the Sheffield Coal, Iron and Steel Company in 1895, and part of 1896. He returned home and took up his studies again at Lehigh University in metallurgy and mineralogy, and then read law for over a year. In 1899 he and his brother Henry formed the Cuban Mining Company, and he was elected secretary and treasurer of the company and also a director. He is connected with the following companies: Director and vice-president of the South Bethlehem National Bank; director and president of La Paz Mining Company; director, secretary and treasurer of the Cuban Mining Company; director and executive committee of Delaware Forge and Steel Company; director and committee of Guerber Engineering Company; director of Lehigh Valley Cold Storage Company; director, secretary and treasurer of the Roepper Mining Company; director of Valentine Fibre Ware Company; acting trustee of the estate of Samuel Adams. He is a member of the following clubs and societies: Society of Colonial Wars in the State of New York; Empire State Society; Sons of the American Revolution; Pennsylvania Society of Sons of the Revolution; Pennsylvania German Society, and the local town and country clubs; and of Masonic bodies—Bethlehem Lodge, Zinzendorf Chapter, Bethlehem Council, Allen Commandery, Caldwell Consistory, and Rajah Temple. He is captain of commissary, Fourth Regiment Infantry, N. G. P. His children were: John, born January 23, 1901; David Samuel, born March 15, 1903.

Henry Adams, captain of Company K, Ninth Pennsylvania Regiment, U. S. V. I., son of Samuel Adams, of South Bethlehem, Northampton county, Pennsylvania, was born in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, November 2, 1873. He married Annette Talbot Belcher, of New London, Connecticut, July 9, 1902

Henry Adams, mining engineer, was educated at the Moravian parochial day school of Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, the Hill school of Pottstown, Pennsylvania, and the Lehigh University of South Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, where he joined the Delta Upsilon fraternity. He started to work with Thomas Edison at Edison, N. J. He went to Cuba and was assistant superintendent and then superintendent of the Ferro-Carril de Santiago de Cuba. He went south to Alabama and was in charge of the coal and coke department of the Sheffield Coal, Iron and Steel Company at Jasper, Alabama. He went to Mexico and erected an electric light plant for the Mexican National Railroad, and then was supervisor of a division of that road. He resigned and was made constructing engineer for Tumer Nunn & Company of Mexico, Mexico, with headquarters in Pueblo. In December of 1897 and January of 1898 he was in Cuba in the city of Santiago and the surrounding country, and visited the insurgents several times.

When war broke out with Spain in 1898 he raised the first company of volunteers in the state, with the assistance of Colonel Wilson and Captain Juett of Bethlehem. He and his company were mustered into the United States service, and he received his commission as captain of volunteers on July 6, 1898. His company was attached to the Ninth Pennsylvania Regiment, United States Volunteer Infantry, as Company K, to help complete the Third Battalion. The regiment was in the Third Division, Third Brigade, First Army Corps. Company K, of the Ninth Pennsylvania Regiment of the United State Volunteer Infantry, is thus mentioned in the “Record of Events which may be Necessary or Useful for Future Reference at the War Department.”

“This company was organized in July at South Bethlehem, and mustered in at South Bethlehem, July 6, 1898, which company left by rail for Chickamauga Park, July 7, 1898, arriving in camp July 19, 1898. Remained in camp until August 26, 1898, when company left by rail for Camp Hamilton, Lexington, Kentucky, arriving in camp August 28, 1898. Left Camp Hamilton for regimental headquarters at Wilkesbarre, September 17, 1898, arriving there September 19, 1898. Company left by rail for home station, September 20, 1898, arriving same day, when company was verbally furloughed for thirty days”.

The above is taken from the muster-out roll of the company. The company was mustered into service on the 6^th day of July, 1898, and was mustered out of the service on the 29^th day of October, 1898. It was the first volunteer company formed in the state of Pennsylvania, and was taken to help fill out the Third Battalion of the Ninth Pennsylvania Regiment. The other companies were Captain Green’s, of Reading; Captain Mercer’s, of Summit Hill, above Mauch Chunk; and Captain Moor’s, of Towanda.

On Friday evening, April 22, 1898, there was a meeting held in the Fountain Hill Opera House, and a call for volunteers made. These met in Doxon’s Hall afterward and elected Henry Adams, captain; Leighton N. D. Mixsell, first lieutenant; and Dick Enright, second lieutenant. Mr. Enright failed to pass his physical examination and was re-elected. A. Alison Mitchell, of Wilkesbarre, was appointed in his place. The South Bethlehem Market Hall was used as an Armory by the company.

Henry Adams is a member of the Pennsylvania German Society, 1899; a member of the Society of Foreign Wars, Pennsylvania Commandery, 1899; general manager of the Cuban Mining Company at Neuvitas, Cuba, 1899-1902, and the mines of this company were discovered by him; a member of the Empire State Society of the Sons of the American Revolution, and was presented a medal of honor by the society for service in the Spanish-American war; and of Masonic bodies—Fernwood Lodge, No. 543, Philadelphia, and Caldwell Consistory, 32d degree. He was vice president and general manager of the San Domingo Exploration Company and San Domingo Southern Railway Company, San Domingo, R. D., West Indies, 1902.

Text taken from pages 77-81 of:

Davis, William W. H., A.M., History of BucksCounty, Pennsylvania [New York-Chicago: the Lewis Publishing Company, 1905] volume III

Transcribed June 2000 by Earl Goodman of  PA as part of the Bucks Co., Pa., Early Family Project, www.rootsweb.com/~pabucks/bucksindex.html

Published July 2000 on the Bucks County, Pa., USGenWeb pages at www.rootsweb.com/~pabucks/