Ezra Adams
Ezra Adams came to DeWitt County several years ago and identified himself with its farming population. Since then he has developed a good farm in Santa Anna Township, upon which he has placed a good class of improvements that make it one of the most desirable pieces of property in this locality. Mr. Adams was born October 23, 1834, in Columbiana County, Ohio, within two miles of the place where Col. Morgan, the celebrated rebel raider was captured. He is a son of Thomas Adams who was born in Redstone, Pa., January 29, 1809. He was a young man when Thomas Adams Sr., his father, removed to Jefferson County, Ohio, in 1814, in the early days of its settlement. The grandfather of our subject lived in that State until 1854 and then went to Missouri, where he died at the age of seventy years. He had been twice married and Thomas Jr. was the son of his first marriage. The father of our subject received an early training as a farmer on his father's pioneer homestead in Ohio. He became of age and was married in Brush Creek Township, Jefferson County, Miss Elizabeth J. Cashall becoming his wife. She was a native of Maryland and was born June 26, 1811. She was but a child when her parents took her to Ohio, where she grew to a noble womanhood amid the pioneer scenes of Jefferson County. After their marriage Mr. and Mrs. Adams lived for some time in Jefferson County, but finally removed to Columbiana County and later from there to Richland County, Ohio. There the wife and mother died February 14, 1879. She was a woman of devout Christian character and held to the faith of the Christian Church. Thomas Adams is yet living in Richland County, and though he is eighty-one years old he is still active mentally and physically. He has led an upright life during all these years and is greatly esteemed by the people in his community.
Our subject is the eldest of five sons and two daughters. The years of his life until after he attained manhood were spent in the State of his nativity and there he was married in Richland County in 1860 to Miss Isabel Alexander. His wife was born December 12, 1838 in Ray County, Mo., but she was reared chiefly in Ohio. Her parents, John and Mary (Phipps) Alexander are now both deceased. Her father was born in Pennsylvania and died in Illinois at the age of fifty-four years. Her mother was likewise of Pennsylvania birth and she died at Bloomington, Ill., in 1886, aged seventy-five years. Mr. and Mrs. Adams are the parents of five children, of whom Thomas and Myrtle are deceased. Those living are John C., who married Flora Dawson and lives on a farm in DeWitt Township; and George A. and Jessie who are at home with their parents. In 1863 Mr. and Mrs. Adams came to Illinois from their old home in Ohio and first settled in McLean County. In 1869 they took up their residence in Piatt County, whence they came to DeWitt County two years later. Mr. Adams first purchased eighty acres of land on section 20, Santa Anna Township, and subsequently bought forty acres more on section 19, to which he afterwards added eighty acres on section 20, and now has in all two hundred acres of land. This forms a finely developed farm, and it may well be the pride of our subject that it has been the work of his hands to place it under such excellent improvements. He is a good farmer and understands well how to carry on his operations to advantage so as to make money. He has been a useful agent in advancing the growth of Santa Anna Township and is in prosperous circumstances. He takes an intelligent view of the political situation of the day and gives hearty support to the Republican party. He is a man whose genial qualities and obliging manners have gained him many warm friends, and he and his amiable wife are very highly thought of by their neighbors and all who know them.
From Dewitt Co., Ill., Biographical Album - 1891