JAMES WILLIAM ADAMS, one of the thoroughgoing agriculturists of Haddon township, Sullivan county, Indiana, is a native of the township in which he now resides, and was born November 17, 1864, a son of Isaac and Barbara (Summers) Adams. The father was born in Virginia and the mother in Haddon township. Grandfather Adams and family were among the early settlers. Isaac Adams was one of five children, as follows: Mary, deceased; Benjamin, deceased; James, deceased; Isaac; and one who died in infancy. Isaac was always a farmer and stock raiser. Politically, he was a Democrat. He and his wife were faithful members of the Christian church. The mother died in 1876, aged forty-three years, and the father in the spring of 1898, aged seventy-two years. The children of Isaac Adams and wife were: Thomas, deceased; the next two both died in infancy; Hannah, wife of Richard Hackett, residing in Haddon township; Rebecca, wife of William Clark, also residing in Haddon township; Belle, deceased; James W., of this notice; Jesse, a resident of Knox county, Indiana; Stonewall Jackson, residing in Oaktown, Indiana; Isaac, residing on the Adams homestead, on Shaker Prairie.
James William Adams remained at home on the father's farm until about fifteen years of age, when he began working by the month for various farmers until he was twenty-two years of age, commencing then to farm on his own account, on a farm which he purchased and where he lived one year. He then lived on and farmed the Samuel A. White farm for eight years, after which he bought the fifty-seven acres where he now resides, in the spring of 1898. Besides cultivating his own land he rents a large acreage from other farmers. He carries on general grain and stock farming, besides being an extensive grower of watermelons, planting out from thirty to forty acres annually. In his political choice, he is a stanch Democrat. Believing in the theory that every man should make some provision in the way of life insurance for the benefit of his family, he carries a membership policy in the Modern Woodmen of America, belonging to Camp No. 3332, at Carlisle.
Mr. Adams was married, September 27, 1891, to Isabelle Wolfe, born November 4, 1870, on the old Wolfe homestead on Shaker Prairie, in Haddon township, Sullivan county, Indiana. She was educated in the district schools. Her parents were William B. and Flora (Fry) Wolfe. Mr. and Mrs. Adams are members of the Christian church. Eight children have been born of this union: Orville E., born July 8, 1892, died November 28, 1897; Flora B., May 3, 1894, died August 14, 1906; Roy J., November 22, 1895; Mervin W., May 8, 1898; Joseph C., April 6, 1900; Edith G., May 23, 1903; Gracie G., born March 11, 1905; William B., born January 16, 1907.