Horace G. and Mabel (Warren) Adams In
Maple Hill News Items
The following are mentions of Horace G. and Mabel G. (Warren) Adams extracted from Maple Hill News Items in the two Wabaunsee County Newspapers. The first mention begins in 1882 and continue through their deaths in 1934 and 1940 respectively. Other news items have been included for context and interest. My notes and additions are in [].
August 10, 1882 The Maple Hill Church will be dedicated on August 17 at 2:00pm.
Mr. Alex Adams has returned home from Illinois.
Mr. Horace Adams [son of Alexander] has bought a dazzling new buggy pulled by his high stepping and beautiful dapple gray.
May 4, 1884 A cyclone destroyed the tenant house on J. H. Durhams Ranch on Sunday evening. The house was occupied by the H. M. Lister family. Everything was lost. [Durhams Ranch was located about three miles east of Maple Hill. It was the first piece of property purchased by Horace G. Adams, Sr., and was more recently owned by George Hunterfund and Roy Kemble.]
[Horace G. and Mable Gertrude Warren were married in 1885, but I found no mention of it in Maple Hill News Items.]
February 19, 1888 The first wedding to be solemnized in the new Maple Hill town site was that of David Boyd to Miss E. Pringle in Taylors Hotel.
George Oliver has sold his market in the west end of town to William Jones and Charley Stevenson and has gone to look after his ranch in southern Kansas.
Horace G. Adams has returned from a trip to Trinidad, Colorado, where he bought cattle and is at home with his father Alexander.
The first child born in the new town of Maple Hill is the daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Tom Oliver. She was christened Isabella Maple Hill Oliver in honor of the circumstances.
September 2, 1894 Horace G. Adams has gone west to buy cattle.
J. W. Tod of the Fowler Ranch has gone to New Mexico to buy cattle.
February 22, 1895 Horace G. Adams shipped a car of coal the first of the week. [For a short time, a shallow vein of soft coal was discovered and mined by the Adams Family in their pasture on the north side of what was then #10 Road and is now Warren Road, about 1.5 miles west of Maple Hill. The coal was not of good quality and the vein played out quickly.]
April 5 Congratulations to Horace G. Adams on the arrival of a new girl.
The Sunday School has been reorganized at the Eliot Stone Church after a long absence. [The daughter mentioned was Mary M. (Adams) Dougan, who was born March 28, 1895. The Adams families attended the Eliot Stone Church and very likely the Sunday School organized. The were not charter members because the church was organized in 1875 and they moved from Illinois to Maple Hill in 1879. However, the Adams families were members and active participants from the time of their arrival in 1879. In fact, the church services were held in the District #39 School House, which was just across the road west of the Alexander and Mary Jane (Porter) Adams home. The school house still stands and is the southern most house on the Adams Ranch.]
October 20, 1899 Alex Adams is putting steam heat in his home.
Horace G. Adams unloaded 18 train loads of cattle this week at the Maple Hill Stockyards. [ I have done some research on how many cars of cattle would comprise a train load. From what I can find, I believe it would be 20-25 cars. H. G. Adams was an active member and board member of the American National Livestock Association in 1899 and for many decades afterwards. One of the resolutions he introduced and pushed through the membership was the humane treatment of cattle being shipped long distances. He proposed standards for cattle cars and also provisions for feeding and watering the cattle.]
January 16, 1904 Alexander Adams, one of the pioneers of our community, passed away at his home from pneumonia. He leaves his widow, Mary Jane Adams, two sons, Franklin and Horace, and two daughters Emily and Alice. Many grandchildren, and a large family join in mourning his death. Services and burial were held at the Old Stone Church.
March 29, 1909 Horace G. Adams has a new $4,000 auto and it is a honey. He bought it in Kansas City. [Franklin Adams, older brother of H. G. Adams, was the first to own an automobile in Maple Hill. He purchased his Great Smith auto in 1907. Maple Hill insurance and real estate agent Jesse D. Weaver bought an auto soon after H. G. Adams, followed by the towns two doctors J. M. Kemper and Dr. Silversmith.]
June 25, 1913 The social event of the season occurred at the beautiful country home of Mr. and Mrs. Horace G. Adams, when their daughter Mabel Rae and James Todd were united in marriage. Jim is the son of J. W. and Margaret (Saunders) Tod. Rev. H. M. McDowell officiated. Helen Adams was her sisters matron of honor and James Kelly of Yale University was the groomsman. Mary Adams played the wedding march. [With the marriage of James Todd and Mabel Rae Adams, the families of the two largest ranchers in Maple Hill were united. With the lands owned by J. W. Tod and H. G. Adams, the two families may have owned more land than any others in Kansas.]
July 27, 1915 Horace and Mabel Adams are making substantial improvements to their country ranch home. New sleeping porches are being added, an indoor bathroom, and an electric lighting plant are among the features. No more modern home exists in our community.
March 23, 1917 Grandma Adams Passes To The Other Side
Mrs. Mary Jane Porter Adams, Grandma Adams as she was known in Maple Hill and Rossville, by her friends, died at the home of her daughter, Mrs. Eugene Miller in Los Angeles on March 2, at the age of 89. Services were held at the Maple Hill Congregational Church conducted by Rev. Willis Goldsmith, District Superintendent of Kansas Congregational Churches of Topeka. Those surviving are sons Franklin Adams and Horace G. Adams of Maple Hill and Mrs. Tom Andrews and Mrs. Eugene Miller of Los Angeles, California.
Miss Ava Sells sang, Beautiful Isle of Somewhere. The quartet rendered Abide With Me, and Where He Leads Me I Will Follow. The quartet was made up of Mrs. O. E. Winkler, Mrs. J. D. Weaver, Mr. A. B. Black, and Mrs. John Turnbull, Jr. Mrs. David Stewart was organist. Pall bearers were Frederick L. Raymond, F. C. Bradley, Rossville, W. J. Tod, J. W. Thompson, F. M. McClelland and David Stewart of Maple Hill. [Miss Ava Sells and Mrs. O.E. Emerald (Jerrue) Winkler were both graduates of the Kansas City Conservatory of Music. Emerald (Jerrue) Winkler also studied voice in Chicago and performed with several opera companies. For a decade or more, the Maple Hill Congregational Quartet was well known in the community and county. They traveled to other churches and to many social events for performances.]
February 10, 1933 Horace Greeley Adams, Sr. died in Los Angeles at the age of 71 of pneumonia. He was born in Mendota, LaSalle County, Illinois on October 21, 1862 and came to Kansas with his father and mother, Alexander and Mary Jane Porter Adams, in 1879. He is survived by three sons: Alexander and Raymond of Maple Hill and Horace G. Adams, Jr. of the XI Ranch at Plains, Kansas. Four daughters survive: Mrs. Bessie Robert, Mrs. Mabel R. Tod, Mrs. Helen Olney Miller, Mrs. Mary Dougan.
He was married to Miss Mable G Warren, daughter of Benjamin and Gertrude Warren, in 1885. She survives at their Maple Hill home. Rev. J. B. Gonzales, Topeka, conducted the services at the Maple Hill Community Congregational Church. [In another post, I will print more extensive obituraries which appeared in Topeka papers.]
November 29, 1940 A well known and much loved lady left us early Saturday morning when Mrs. Horace Greeley Adams, aged 76, of Maple Hill died.
Mable Gertrude Warren was born in Connecticut in 1864, the daughter of Benjamin and Gertrude Warren and moved to Maple Hill in 1876 with her parents. She attended Washburn University in Topeka and was married to Horace G. Adams in 1890.
Mrs. Adams was a member of the Maple Hill Community Congregational Church, the Daughters of the America Revolution, the Order of the Eastern Star, the Topeka Womens Club, the Maple Hill Research Club, and the America Legion Auxiliary.
Four daughters survive: Mrs. John E. Robert, Hollywood, California; Mrs. James Tod, Phoenix, Arizona, Mrs. Helen Miller, Long Beach, California and Mrs. Mary E. Dougan of Topeka. Three sons survive; Horace G., Jr., Alexander A., and Raymond E. of Maple Hill. [ As you will note, Mabel G. (Warren) Adams and her family became Maple Hill residents three years before the Adams. Mabels father, Benjamin Warren, was the brother of William Henry Warren, who with his extended family moved from the East to Maple Hill in 1874. According to Mrs. Adams’ obituary, the Benjamin Warrens came two years later in 1876. William Henry was the grandfather of Jack and Bill Warren. I intend to detail the Warren Family next in my writings.]