Daniel Adams

Susannah McCrary

Judge Daniel Adams, son of John and Abigail Adams, was born December 18, 1813 in Roaring River, Wilkes, North Carolina, and died February 07, 1892 in Warrensburg, Johnson County, Missouri. He married Susannah McCrary January 28, 1840 in Johnson County, Missouri, daughter of Elijah McCrary and Elizabeth Yates. She was born November 17, 1821 in Howard County, Missouri, and died June 03, 1911 in Warrensburg, Johnson County, Missouri.

Daniel moved from North Carolina to Missouri with his family in 1834. He bought one warrant entitling him to 160 acres of the N.E. qt. of N.E. qt. of section 15 Warrensburg township 45. He then entered 300 acres of land from the Government located in Sections 14 and 15 where he built a log cabin, hewing and hauling the logs on a solid wooden wheel wagon drawn by oxen. The country where they settled was open prairie with no trees. The logs were two feet square at ends and as long as he laid them. There was a double fireplace in the two rooms he built, with two closets, one on either side of the fireplace. You could walk in the closets and see these large logs. The rooms were a story and a half. The ceilings had great wide beams above that shone like they were waxed. Later, when they had children, they added onto each side of the house, making a porch and kitchen and a bedroom on the north side. On the south side, there were two rooms and a porch. The southeast room was Daniel's study or office(1)

The following is from the wife of Solomon McCrary - given by Margaret Shields McCrary:

"Daniel Adams and Susan McCrary were married 28 Jan 1840 and went to house keeping in a brand new log house, March 1, 1840. Daniel and Susan went from Grandpa Adam's on Saturday, February 27th, to Grandpa McCrary's and stayed over Sunday. Sunday they went to church at Shiloh. She was wearing a bottle green dress and dress bonnet and he was wearing a dark blue broad cloth suit. Rev. Sam King preached that Sunday. Then they rode back seven miles to Father Elijah McCrary. Then the next morning, her youngest brother, Solomon McCrary, harnessed up to our horse wagon to bring her to her new home. The household goods of the young bride, the furnishings of new house very simple, but ample for those times. She brought to the new home 1 chair, 2 feather beds, 2 home made quilts, and 6 quilts. He brought one feather bed, and 2 bedsteads were purchased by the groom. And the purchase price being a cow and a calf.

The young couple followed the household goods on horseback, riding double. She wearing a homespun cotton dress, a blue and yellow medium check. They milked seven cows and by October had a barrel of butter to send to Lexington, Missouri, where the annual trip in wagons across the county was made to exchange the products for annual supply of groceries."

Daniel was elected Justice of the Peace in 1852 and served 4 years. He was re-elected and served 2 years.

During the Civil War, Daniel kept a barrel of whiskey for the many soldiers that were passing through. Daniel had two boys fight for the North (John and William). The Confederates were always looking for the Union boys who might be around, but the family was never bothered (they fed both sides). (1)

In 1866 he was elected county judge, serving 2 terms (3 years), and the end of which time he resigned. He was township clerk several years and has held the office of school director subsequent to the free school systems establishment in this Missouri. Daniel and Susan were members of the Cumberland Presbyterian Church. "Mr. Adams is one of those sterling pioneers whose force of character coupled with his industry has wielded a powerful influence in his neighborhood for good; hospitable and generous in nature, he has secured a large circle of friends." (2)

His granddaughter, Effie, remembered him walking over his farm with his two dogs, Sanka and Moody, always at his heels. After Daniel and Susan died, Abbie and Bob lived on the place until they died in 1917 and 1921, respectively, when the farm was sold to a distant relative. While they were in Warrensburg one day, the house burned to the ground (1)

Daniel and Susan had twelve children:  John Albert, Anna Elizabeth, William Preston, Jane Abigail, Christina Caroline, Elijah McCrary, Susan Ellen, Clara Emeline, Thomas Roland, Mary Frances, Robert Henry and James Linn.

(1) Effie Adams Fitzgerald's journal

(2) The History of Johnson County, Missouri, 1881