Newsletter - July 2000
Reunion
2000 - The Tradition Continues
The annual Hiram A. McAdams family reunion was held on
Sunday, April 30, 2000 at the McAdamsReunion Grounds in Walker
County. The Ruth McAdams Cole family hosted the event.
Family and guests started arriving at 9:00 A.M., and by the time the
program began at 11:00, 140 members of the McAdams clan were
present. The program consisted of a brief look at the genealogy of
the McAdams family, going back to John McAdams, Sr., who was born in
Ireland in 1779 and arrived in Texas in the early 1830’s.
After the usual reunion feast and much visiting, the focus moved
across the road to the McAdams Cemetery where the Huntsville SAR
chapter marked the grave of Kelly Edgar McAdams.
On the day before the reunion, two family members found and
photographed the burial site and what is possibly the original home
site of John McAdams, Sr. (See the related article in this issue.)
The picture above should be evidence enough that the reunion was a
huge success. It just doesn’t get any better than corn, fried
chicken, cold milk and a reunion nap!
John McAdams, Sr. Burial Site
By Thomas Hiram McAdams
John McAdams, Sr. and his family moved to Texas in February, 1834,
after months of travel by ox wagon from Alabama. They settled on
land in Shelby Municipality, Department of Nacogdoches. Shelby
Municipality at that time contained all the land which now is
Shelby, Harrison, Marion, Upshur, and Panola Counties. John McAdams
Sr., and his oldest son, Joseph, were granted one and two-thirds
League and Labor of land in Panola County. The family remained there
until the fall of 1838, shortly after son John Jr. and Hester White
were married, when they were attacked by rustlers and ruffians from
the “Neutral Ground”, the lawless area between the new country of
Texas and Louisiana. The son, James, was killed in the fight. John
Sr. and his neighbor, the Robert White family – Hester’s family,
gathered their remaining possessions and traveled by ox wagon to
present Walker county. John Sr. settled on the Rube Allphin place on
Roark Prairie, with Robert White, Hester’s father, setttling on an
adjoining tract of land.
John Sr. lived on this land until February 1850 when he died at the
age of 71. He was buried in a little grove of trees in an old field
on the Rube Allphin place. Later, daughter Drucilla and her baby,
and her husband, Hugh Stephenson, along with Hugh Roberts, a friend
of the family, were buried by the side of John Sr. in that grove of
trees. Two years after John’s death in Walker county, his wife,
Martha, returned to Panola county to visit with her two daughters,
Martha McAdams Ragsdale and Jane Evelina McAdams Smith. She became
ill with pneumonia and died in 1852. Since transportation then was
slow and crude, she was buried in an old cemetery in Jacksonville.
The small cemetery where John Sr. was buried was later neglected as
the land passed on to other owners and the older members of the
family who had knowledge of the site grew old and died. In the
mid-1960’s, Kelly McAdams asked Joe Horn McAdams where his
great-great grandfather, John Sr., was buried. Since Hiram McAdams
had shown Joe the burial site when Joe was a young man, he was able
to take Kelly to the site and point out the burial place. Kelly had
a concrete slab and stone tombstone erected on the site in memory of
John Sr. and his wife, Martha. Because the site was isolated and
located on private property, Kelly later decided to move the
tombstone marker to the McAdams cemetery in 1971. It is currently
located at the main entrance of the McAdams cemetery. However, John
Sr.’s body was not moved.
On Saturday, April 29, 2000, Jo Beth McAdams Stutts, communicated
with the current owners of the land on which John Sr. is buried and
arranged for a visit to the burial site. Charles Cole and Thomas
McAdams traveled to the site on private property on Roberts road, a
side road of FM1696. The current owners were very helpful and
directed us to the burial site about ¾ mile into a cow pasture. The
burial site is currently marked by the concrete slab that Kelly
McAdams had poured in the middle 1960’s near three live oak trees.
There is no indication of actual grave sites. Time, weather, and
cows have removed any traces of the graves located there. It is a
beautiful site. It is located in the middle of an open cow pasture
under three oak trees.
The current owner mentioned that the 1/4 acre grave site has been
reserved to the McAdams family in the many deed transactions that
have occurred over the years.
Talking to the current owner, we inquired about any old home sites
present in the area. He directed our attention to a lone tree on a
hill site about ¼ mile west of the grave marker. We walked to the
top of the hill and located several huge stones, the kind that were
used as foundation stones for homes in the 19th century. We surmise
that this location was the original home site of John Sr. and Martha
McAdams in Walker county, and later was given to his daughter,
Drucilla, for taking care of them in their declining years.
The old home site is very picturesque. It is located on the highest
point in the surrounding countryside. You can see for long distances
in each direction. It is a natural place to be selected for a home
site because of its height, both for defensive purposes and for
providing access to the cooling breezes of hot summer time. A lone,
small tree was located at the home site among the foundation stones.
Neither the owner or ourselves could identify the small tree. Later,
from pictures of the tree, Alvin Stutts identified it as a “soap”
tree, one that is rare in this area. We wondered if it was
deliberately planted in this location by John Sr. or his daughter
and where it originated.
It was a very meaningful visit to Charles and Thomas. Standing there
by the burial site and at the old home site, it made us think back
160 years to the time that John Sr. and his family first settled in
Walker county. That site was the start of the McAdams family in
Walker county.
Burial
Site
Looking northeast - The burial site consists of about 1/4 acre
underneath the three trees.
Burial
Site
Looking east - Note the concrete slab in the foreground where the
marker was placed in the 1960's.
Possible
Original Home Site
Looking southeast - the burial site is about 1/4 mile in the
background. Note the large foundation stone in the foreground.
Bedias Homecoming
By Thomas H. McAdams
On Saturday, June 3, 2000, the Bedias Homecoming 2000 occurred in
Bedias, Texas, at the Civic Center. A large crowd of Bedias natives
and friends gathered to enjoy the festivities and to reminisce about
earlier days. Festivities began at 9:00 a.m. with a parade down the
main street of Bedias.
There were several booths that sold art, crafts, antiques, jewelry,
refreshments and books. Reprints of My Home Town and the new book,
My Home Town, Too, were on sale by the Bedias Civic Club. A program
of entertainment was presented under the pavilion. The Bedias
Volunteer Fire Department sold Bar-B-Q lunches and the Bedias
Women’s Club sold desserts, coffee and tea in the civic center
building.
There was a reunion of the Williamson-McAdams families under the
large oak tree next to the Post Office. Stuart and Beth Williamson
planned and organized this effort. Members of the McAdams family
present were: Cuyler Gayle Thompson and wife Donna, Dale and Marilyn
McAdams Sibley, Ruth McAdams Ralston and her daughter Becky Ralston
Dorn and family, Bob Dorn, Ralston Dorn, Christian Dorn, and son
Robert Ralston and wife, Sherrie Ralston, with their son Garrett
Ralston, Ray Sparks with daughters Kim Sparks Milner and Cynthia
Sparks Zemanek, Anita Glynn McAdams Taylor, W. V. McAdams, Jr., Jo
Beth McAdams Stutts, and Thomas McAdams.
The oldest Bedias native present at the reunion was Emory Barrett,
the maternal uncle of Marilyn Sibley, Ruth Ralston and Dorothy
Sparks. He rode in the parade in a car with Dale and Marilyn Sibley.
Robert Ralston and son Garrett and Bob Dorn and sons Ralston and
Christian rode on horseback during the parade. Emory Barrett is 98
years old and in wonderful physical and mental health. He drove
himself from Brownwood on Friday to Dale and Marilyn Sibley’s home
(4 hour drive), attended the reunion on Saturday, and drove himself
back to Brownwood Saturday afternoon. What a living testament to
good genes and careful living! He wore a hat with the insignia
“Genuine Antique Person” to the reunion.
Emory graduated from Bedias High School in 1917, attended Sam
Houston State Teachers College and obtained a First Class Teacher’s
Certificate. He taught one year at Round Prairie in the early 1920’s
in a small school located near Stuart and Beth Williamson’s place.
He later held the office of County School Superintendent in Grimes
County. He moved to Brownwood in 1940 and has lived there until the
present. He married Willora Stuart of Bedias, sister to Nevada
Stuart. Emory grew up in Bedias along with the McAdams family
members. He knew all the Hiram McAdams children and many of the
inhabitants of Bedias in the early part of the 20th century.
McAdams
Men in 1937
Front (from left): Floyd Roberts, Kelly McAdams, Emory Barrett,
Edgar McAdams.
Rear (from left): G.B. McAdams (behind Floyd), Horace McAdams,
Vernon McAdams, Joe McAdams.
East Texas Cattlemen Share Stories from
Earlier Days
Reprinted from Livestock Weekly,
page 4, March 18, 1999
(Editors note: This information was
provided by Jo Beth McAdams Stutts. This article is about the Doyle
McAdams ranch located on highway 75 between Huntsville and
Madisonville. Doyle Frederick McAdams, Jr., is a descendant of Hiram
McAdams’ older brother, William Francis McAdams.)
Huntsville – Doyle McAdams and Alvin Stutts have ridden many a mile
together, roped more than their share of outlaw steers, and have
wild tales to share for each and every escapade. The two have been
friends since Stutts went to work for McAdams’ grandfather (James
Washington McAdams) when he was about 14, and they’ve worked
alongside each other on and off ever since.
Alvin Stutts was born right around the bend from the McAdams
homestead and has lived in the area his whole life.
The McAdams family migrated to Southeast Texas following the Texas
Revolution. They came from just east of Nacogdoches, in the area
that many referred to as the “outlaw strip” between the Neches and
Sabine rivers. Outlaws killed one or two of the young kids, so the
family moved south and settled along Bedias creek (pronounced
Bead-eye). The stream derives its name from the Bidai Indians, who
inhabited land that is now in northern Grimes and southern Madison
counties in the early 19th century.
Later, a McAdams, Texas, was established. The post office, opened in
1888, used to sit right where the McAdams homestead is today (east
of the McAdams cemetery on FM1696). History books record that the
town was likely named for John McAdams, Jr., who served as a member
of the St. Augustine Volunteers under Captain Bradley in the Texas
Revolutionary Army. The John McAdams home became the center of the
rural community and the village soon supported a church and school.
Sam Houston is reported to have been a frequent visitor in the
McAdams home.
The Texas Gazetteer estimated the 1896 population of McAdams to be
about 15; in 1914, the community has a population of 60, two cotton
gins and three general stores. The post office closed in 1917. In
1935, a schoolhouse, a church and a cemetery remained. Today, only a
cemetery still exists.
Doyle McAdams’ grandfather, James Washington McAdams, was the eldest
boy of several children. His friends called him “Wash,” and he used
J.W. for business. His mother died when he was seven and his father
remarried. The young McAdams didn’t like his new setup, so he went
to live with an uncle (Hiram McAdams).
The 12 Bar brand, which is still in the McAdams family today,
originated with his grandfather along about 1877.
“They were working cattle one day. My grandfather was just a young
boy. When they got through, his uncle (Hiram McAdams) said, “Wash,
what’s your brand”? To which my grandfather replied that he didn’t
have a brand because he didn’t have anything to brand. His uncle
told him he had a heifer now, and took his “12” brand and used the
“1” to put a bar underneath the 12.”
In those early days, East Texas was predominantly farm country and
cattle were mostly a sideline. Farmers raised lots of cotton, some
corn, peanuts, and a few other crops.
“Each family might have 40 acres, maybe less, depending on the
number of boys they had,” McAdams says. “They’d farm a place until
they burned it out.”
“My uncle used to say that he got pretty wealthy on a $6 cow and
30-cent cotton,” Stutts adds. “He bought quite a bit of land on a $6
cow.”
McAdams says his grandfather was always a farmer at heart. “He loved
hogs and loved to farm and take care of the equipment,” he recalls.
“My dad didn’t care for farming, so he tended to the cattle. He kind
of kept pushing Papa to quit farming. When a field played out, it
went to pasture.” The last field that went to pasture is marked
symbolically with an old cultivator and planter.
The Gibbs Brothers, who came into the Huntsville area around 1835,
were the biggest ranchers in the area at the time. Back then it was
free range. The brothers had a mercantile store, and when farmers
couldn’t pay their bill, the Gibbs brothers would take their land.
They accumulated more than 200,000 acres in East Texas and had the
largest bank in Huntsville. Early on, the Gibbs brothers
concentrated on managing their land for timber.
McAdams’ father, Doyle Frederick McAdams, Sr., came back to the
ranch in the mid-1930’s after teaching school for a couple of years.
Shortly thereafter he began leasing up considerable acreage. He
leased land from the Gibbs Brothers at Durden Bend. Durden Bend was
located in Polk County, west of Livingston. Much of the 25,000 to
30,000 acres was Trinity River bottomland that was heavily infested
with brush. He leased another 10,000 or 12,000 acres near the
McAdams homestead from the Gibbs brothers.
During World War II, big steers were a hot commodity and McAdams
took advantage of this and built a business from the ground up. He
bought yearlings and two-year olds and kept them until they were
four years old.
“In the fall we would buy all the three-year olds we could, because
we had a bunch of country down on the coast around Hitchcock and
Liverpool. It was just one big open country. The average weight of a
four year-old steer, McAdams says, was close to 650 pounds. “You
kind of just warehoused them. They would weigh 500 to 525 pounds
when they came in as two year-olds.”
“They would do real well in the spring, but during the winter they
had to make it on their own without any extra supplement. They’d be
just as poor as rails when they came out of the winter,” McAdams
recalls.
McAdams came home to Huntsville when he got out of the service in
1946, but he didn’t go back to cowboying full-time. Instead he
worked in his dad’s dry goods store in town for a while. When he did
come home to the ranch, his father was still running the big four
year-old steers.
“One year we would work this country and get the steers out of here.
The next year we would work down on the Trinity River at Durden
Bend,” McAdams explains. “You had to always work the wind in your
favor,” McAdams says, “try to be downwind. Those early cattle were
like deer. You had to ride slow and easy and be quiet, and most
important try to spot them before they spotted you.”
“Once you saw them, you stopped and waited until they kind of
accepted you and then you pointed them in the general direction you
wanted them to go, allowing them to graze along the way.”
McAdams bought a few steers out of auction barns, but in those days
they didn’t have many auction barns. “I remember one in Madisonville
that didn’t even have seats. You stood around a big round pen. The
buyers would get up on the rail and others would peek through the
cracks.”
Mostly McAdams depended on country traders who put together groups
of 25 to 30 head at a time. “Those buyers would come through the
country horseback, bunching them up by buying one or two here and
there and then driving them on down to the next place where they
bought more.”
The 66th John McAdams, Jr. Reunion
On Sunday, June 4, 2000, a number of descendants of John
McAdams, Jr., gathered at the McAdams reunion grounds to visit,
discuss association business, view a program and enjoy a noon meal.
Dale Sibley, Vice-President of the McAdams Cemetery Association
board of trustees, presided over the meeting. Two board members were
elected by the adults present at the meeting. Eddie McAdams, son of
Louis Edward and Evelyn McAdams, was one of the new board members
elected. Gus Schultz was elected to another term. Board member terms
are 3 years in duration. The seven current members of the board of
trustees of the McAdams Cemetery Association are: Dale Sibley,
Vice-President and acting President, Carl Luther McAdams, President,
John Hughes, Eddie McAdams, Gus Schultz, Jerry Woods, Frankie Davis.
This year the descendants of Mattie Ethel McAdams Roberts, the
youngest child of John McAdams, Jr., and Mary Frances Bankhead,
presented a program honoring the only two living grandchildren of
John McAdams, Jr. They are Sally Roberts Zulch and Edward Lewis
Roberts.
Next year the tradition of having descendants of each child of John
McAdams, Jr. present a program will continue with the descendants of
Margaret Annaliza McAdams responsible for the program.
It is our hope that all of you will be able to attend the meeting
next year on the first Sunday in June, 2001, at the McAdams reunion
grounds. You may send your contributions to the McAdams Cemetery
Association to: McAdams Cemetery Association, 2321 Robinson Way,
Huntsville, Tx. 77340-5526.