Black Hawk County >> 1904 Index

History of Black Hawk County, Iowa
Ed. by Isaiah Van Metre. Chicago: Biographical Pub. Co., 1904.

A

Unless otherwise noted, biographies submitted by Dick Barton.

HORACE G. ADAMS, editor and proprietor of the La Porte City Press, was born in Freeport, Illinois, February 4, 1852, and is a son of Capt. James C. and Mary (Curran) Adams.

Capt. James C. Adams was born at Newport, Orleans County, Vermont, and died at La Porte City, Iowa, April 12, 1899, aged 69 years.  He married Mary Curran, who was born in New York, July 29, 1833, and now resides with her only child, Horace G., at La Porte City. Captain Adams moved to Freeport, Illinois, in 1848, and later to Horicon, Wisconsin, where, in 1861, he enlisted in answer to the President's first call.  After the expiration of the first three months' term, he re-enlisted and became captain of Company C, 10th Reg., Wisconsin Vol. Inf.  With his command, he participated in many of the most severe battles of the Civil War, including Chickamauga, Lookout Mountain and Perryville.  after the war, he returned to Illinois and followed farming until 1874, when he located in La Porte City and engaged in business.  He was a stanch Republican in politics, and a member of the G. A. R. Post of the city.  For a considerable period, he was a member of the La Porte City Improvement Company.

The subject of this sketch lived in Freeport, Illinois, until he reached the age of 20 years.  He attended school and assisted on the farm, and then took a position as brakeman on the Chicago & Northwestern Railway.  He continued in railroad work for many years, serving with several systems and in a number of States.  He was on the Burlington, Cedar Rapids & Northern road for 20 years, in Iowa, Minnesota and South Dakota, in the station service, his last seven years being spent at Armstrong, Iowa; he resigned in 1899.  He was next engaged in the drug business at La Porte City, and then purchased the La Porte City Press, which he has since ably edited as an independent sheet.

Mr. Adams was first married to Cora a. Berry, a native of Freeport, Illinois.  His second marriage was to Edith Smith, on October 21, 1884.  She was born at West Franklin, Pennsylvania, September 1, 1862, and is a daughter of Charles W. and Susan (Allen) Smith, both natives of Pennsylvania.

Mr. Adams is prominent in Masonry, being a Knight Templar and Shriner.  He is a Republican but believes in the free coinage of silver, and it is on these lines that his paper is conducted.