San Joaquin County Biographies
Ref: Page 1216
Transcribed by: Linda Diane Jackson 9/25/2009
WILLIAM HENRY ADAMS
A pioneer who has both witnessed and participated in the development of the Golden State, observing the great economic changes, is William Henry Adams, who resides about one mile due north of Acampo. He was born in County Fermanagh, Ireland, on December 29, 1867, the son of William and Rebecca (Elliott) Adams, farmer folk there. His father died when he was very young, but his mother lived to be eighty-five years of age. There were six children in the family. Robert lives at Lodi; Mrs. Fannie Pritchard resides in New York; Jennie died at the age of sixteen years; Mrs. Maggie Parker lives at Oakland, Cal.; Rebecca lives in Lodi; and William Henry is an orchardist and vinyardist near Acampo.
William Henry Adams attended the common schools—as often as he was able; but educational opportunities in Ireland then were limited. When seventeen years old, he came to the United States, arriving in San Joaquin County in 1884, where he has been ever since. He took out his citizenship papers in Stockton, and worked a year for his uncle, Henry Adams, on the Dry Creek road. He then worked for William Hickey in the Elliott district for two years, and after that for W.R. Strong in the Christian Colony, where he was engaged in the nursery line for nine years. After this he came to the Ogden ranch.
On November 16, 1898, Mr. Adams married Miss Florence L. Ogden, a native of Williamsburg, Iowa County, Iowa, and the daughter of Henry T. and Augusta (Smith) Ogden, natives of Ohio and Iowa, respectively. Her father was a farmer, and lived to be seventy-eight years old, while the mother attained her sixty-first year. There were five children in the Ogden family: Addison, Elmer, Vernon, Florence (Mrs. Adams), and Leon. When Florence was nine years old her parents came to California and lived for a short time in Oakdale, Stanislaus County. Then they moved to Snelling, in Merced County, where her father bought a half-section of grain land; and she was sent to the Snelling schools. In 1894, her father traded his grain land for seventy acres of land on the Cherokee road, one mile north of Acampo, and this he set out to almonds and a vineyard. Mr. Adams bought ten acres from one of his brothers-in-law, and for the last six years he has also rented and operated the seventy acres, living on it at the same time. In April, 1920, his father-in-law died, and the estate was sold to W.C. Petsinger, who now lives in the old home. Then Mr. Adams re-purchased seventeen and one-fourth acres of the old Ogden estate adjoining his ten acres, making the present holdings of his ranch twenty-seven and one-fourth acres. He remodeled the home he now lives in, and in November, 1921, moved into it. He has an electric motor of ten-horsepower and a four-inch pump, and is able to command an abundant supply of good water. He has six children: Violet, at home; Elliott, a student at Reno, Nev.; Norma, a student in the State Teachers' College, San Jose; and Leon, Raymond and Harold, pupils in the Houston grammar school.
Mr. Adams has twenty acres of almonds, and is a member of the California Almond
Growers' Exchange. He also has seven acres of Tokay grapes, and is a director of the Acampo Fruit Growers' Association. He is a stockholder in the Coast Tire & Rubber Company, and also in the Samson Tire Company of San Diego. Mr. Adams is a Republican in matters of national political import. Fraternally, he is a member of Woodbridge Lodge No. 131, F. & A.M. He has always been a hard-working man. When he came to California, for example, he worked from sunrise to sunset driving a six-mule team, and received only seventy-five cents for his labor. Recalling his own hard experiences, he tries to do the right thing by those who work for him.
History of
SAN JOAQUIN COUNTY
CALIFORNIA
With A
Biographical Review
of
The Leading Men and Women of the County Who Have Been
Identified with Its Growth and Development
from the Early Days to the Present
HISTORY BY
George H. Tinkham
HISTORIC RECORD COMPANY
LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA
1923
San Joaquin County Biographies ~ Archive Biography Index ~ Archive Index
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