My Genealogy Hound

W. Spencer Adams, a farmer and stock raiser of Liberty Township, was born in Clark County, Ky., in 1827. His father, Elcanah Adams, was born in Culpeper County, Va., in 1806, and was married in Kentucky in 1825 to Margerie Tredway, who was born in Clark County, Ky., in 1804, and was a daughter of Joel Tredway, whose wife was a sister of Judge William and Col. John Thornton, two prominent citizens of Northwestern Missouri. After their marriage the parents of our subject removed to Ray County, Mo., where the mother died in 1881. The father was a soldier in the Mormon War in Missouri, and died in Kansas in 1865. The latter was a son of J. Spencer Adams, of Virginia, an early settler of Kentucky, a soldier in the War of 1812, and a large slave-holder. He lived to be over one hundred years old, and was of English descent. W. Spencer Adams was the eldest of seven children, of whom five are now living. He was reared in Ray County, Mo., and received his education in the common schools. In 1851 he married Martha A. Phillips, daughter of Jesse and Polly Phillips, natives of Kentucky and early settlers of Ray County, Mo., where Mrs. Adams was born. Six children have been born to Mr. and Mrs. Adams, all of whom are living, viz.: Rufus, Thomas Luther, of Laclede County, Mo.; Nancy Jane, wife of Franklin Miller; Margerie Catherine, Mollie L., wife of Joseph Miller, and Stacy, who married Albert Harrison, of Laclede County. Having lost his property during the war Mr. Adams moved to Pulaski County, then a comparatively new country, and as a reward of honest industry and enterprise he has been successful in the pursuit of agriculture, now owning a good farm of 160 acres on the Gasconade River. During the war he served two or three years in the Missouri State Militia, and, though formerly a Whig, has been a Democrat since the war. In 1849 he crossed the plains to California, but was unable to mine, and returned the following year by way of the Isthmus of Panama. Mrs. Adams is a member of the Baptist Church.