Fellow Researchers,

I am curious who this "brother" was that he was in business with. I have traced brothers Jacob, Charles, William H., and Henry Porter - none of whom came to Wisconsin. He also had one sister Maria Eleanor Adams Roup. I have traced this family back 2 more generations - and yes they were Free Persons of Color in Pennsylvania.

Margaret's maiden name is incorrectly noted as Wilson. There was a family history of sorts (not found online) written by a grandson of theirs that incorrectly stated her name was Wilson. Also, although Jonathan's middle initial was "K" he is actually buried under a stone in Eugene OR that reads "Q". It might be an interesting part of the story to tell in the bio.

It may take me a while but I am certainly interested in writing a bio for this family. Their grandson married the daughter of Charles H. Sheldon - Stan was very helpful in the past with some info about Charles Sheldon. I will be back to the site soon as I may have a comment or two about the county jail #2 at Neillsville. I did not hear the stories first hand but my Aunt & cousin heard my grandmother tell about living in the house when her father was the Sheriff and about the actual jail being located just off the kitchen of the house. I will see what short statement I can get from either of them about that.

Back to Adams family - while John & Margaret Adams left Clark County in 1901 for the west coast, my grandparents were just married and living in Taylor county on a farm that belonged at the time to Charles Sheldon. My mother, Lorene Adams, born 1923, was the youngest of 9 Adams children and though her father died when she was 5 some of the children and my grandmother remained on the farm until 1937 when they left for Seattle.

The Adams family has a fascinating story as my ancestors crossed the color line when they left Pennsylvania and apparently never looked back since at least 3 generations never knew the story until I started researching the family history. Some of my cousins had a hard time believing it (I think there are some that still don't).

I will get working on it! And I will see what I can do about photos of a few other family members who were in Clark County.


These are my 2nd Great Grandparents - I am also a direct descendant of Jonathan's brother, William H. Adams mentioned in the article.

Jan Slater