Author: Will T. Hale

WILLIAM MOORE ADAMS. One of the substantial citizens of Erin, Tennessee, is William Moore Adams, who has been engaged in various lines of business enterprise in this place since his early manhood. He was born in Houston county, District No. 6, Tennessee, on the 16th day of July, 1872, and was the fourth child in the family of five children of his parents, John Isaac Johnson Adams and his wife, Nannie Moore. John Isaac Johnson Adams was the son of William and Sarah (Hill) Adams. The father was born in Virginia and there reared, coming to Dickson county, Tennessee, in his young manhood, and there establishing a home in the farming district of the county. He reared a family of six children, of which number John Isaac Johnson Adams was the eldest. He was an extensive slave owner in Dickson county and reached a position of considerable wealth prior to the war, but the ravages of that long and unhappy conflict spelled financial ruin for the widow of the Tennessee planter and his family. He died in 1850, and thus was spared the knowledge of the loss his family suffered in that season of war. His son, John Isaac Johnson Adams, was born in Dickson county, on the 3d of November, 1841. The strong and forceful character of this man was indicated in his extremely early marriage, being but sixteen years of age when he was united with Nannie Moore in the year 1857, she being his senior by three years. During the years that followed John Adams was to be found successfully engaged in farming, teaching and preaching, with occasional ventures into the mercantile business. He was a man of industry, penetration and no little enterprise, and his life from its earliest period to the close of his career was one of the busiest and most active. He enlisted in the Eleventh Tennessee Regiment, and served until the battle of Murfreesboro, when he was severely wounded and sent home, but did not recover in time to return to the scene of the conflict. He was taken prisoner while at home, but was released soon after. In 1871, when he was thirty years old, he came to Houston county, there engaging in farming, which he followed until the early nineties.

Mr. Adams and his entire family were Methodists and for many years in his younger life he enjoyed considerable prominence and distinction as a local preacher. He was also a pioneer school teacher and until he went into office in Houston county was engaged in teaching. He was a man who was always concerned about the affairs of the community in a public way and took a considerable interest in Democratic politics. His ability was recognized in his election to the office of clerk of Houston county, in which he served for twelve years continuously, and with the most entire satisfaction to his fellow townspeople. He was also trustee of the county for one term, and upon the close of his service in the latter named office he engaged in the mercantile business at Erin, Tennessee. He died March 28, 1911. Mr. Adams was a member of the Masonic fraternity and the Knights of Pythias. In the former he was affiliated with the blue lodge of Masons at Erin and the Armstrong Chapter, of Cumberland City. William Moore Adams was the fourth child of his parents, the others being James Joseph, who died in 1907 at the age of fifty; Laura A., the widow of William Adams; Sallie S. Stanfield, who died in 1894, at the age of twenty-eight years, and Eddie B., a resident of Erin, Tennessee. The public schools of Houston county and the high school of Erin gave to Mr. Adams a fair education, and when he was twenty years old he started in the mercantile business as a member of the firm of Adams & Hussey. His connection with this business did not prove altogether to his liking, and he accordingly withdrew from the firm and entered the employ of a clothing house as a salesman on the road. For twelve years thereafter he continued in that capacity, and in 1908 he severed his connection with the Knights of the Grip and engaged in the bottling business at Erin.

The plant of which Mr. Adams is the proprietor and owner is one of the prosperous establishments of the town and does a volume of business aggregating $15,000 annually. He has in his management of the place shown his business capacity to be of a high order, and the plant is on a solid basis, continually expanding and giving promise of a much larger growth and prosperity than it has yet experienced. Mr. Adams has taken a more than ordinarily active part in local politics and in 1910 he was elected mayor of the city, succeeding himself in the office in 1912, his election coming through the Democratic faction, of which he is a stanch and true member. During his two administrations Mr. Adams has seen the construction of a fine high school building, aggregating in cost some $10,000; street lights have been installed -in the city, a private electric light plant furnishing the service, and concrete sidewalks are also in course of construction throughout the town,—all of which indicates with striking force the tenor of Mr. Adams’ service in his office of chief executive of his town.

Mr. Adams is a member of the Methodist Episcopal church, South, in which he is a steward and trustee in his home town. He is a member of the Masonic fraternity, affiliating with Armstrong Chapter of Cumberland City and the Blue Lodge No. 300, Wisdom, of Erin, and he is also a member of Emerald Lodge No. 58 of the Knights of Pythias, of Erin. In addition to his other interests, Mr. Adams is a director of the Bank of Erin, and has a fine farm of one hundred and sixty acres in Houston county, which claims a generous share of his attention, and in the care of which he has proven himself to be a farmer of no mean ability. In 1893 Mr. Adams married Miss Hattie Abernathy, the daughter of Col. G. T. Abernathy, of Montgomery county, and they have seven children: Sadie Brown, Roscoe S., Pauline, Barfield, Annie Laurie, Woodward, and William M., Jr. Additional

Comments: From: A history of Tennessee and Tennesseans : the leaders and representative men in commerce, industry and modern activities by Will T. Hale Chicago: Lewis Pub. Co., 1913

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