Clark-Montgomery County KyArchives Biographies.....ADAMS, Isom February 21, 1831 - ************************************************ Copyright. All rights reserved. http://www.usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm http://www.usgwarchives.net/ky/kyfiles.html ************************************************ File contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by: J. Robison normadeplume@wmconnect.com October 22, 2008, 9:48 pm Author: Unknown 1880 History of Christian County, Illinois ISOM ADAMS This gentleman, one of the old settlers of Prairieton township, is a native of Kentucky and was born in Montgomery county of that state, February 21, 1831. His ancestors were early residents of the state of Kentucky. His father, Ellington ADAMS, was born in Kentucky and raised there, and married Elizabeth GORDEN, born in Montgomery county, Kentucky, six miles from Mt. Sterling, February 17, 1810, who was the daughter of Randal GORDEN, born in Virginia in the year 1784, and came to Kentucky in 1796, when twelve years old, and settled in Clark county, and lived there until his marriage, when he moved to Montgomery county, where he died. Isom ADAMS was the second son of a family of ten children, when he was three years old his father left Kentucky and moved to Illinois; they came to Sangamon county in the fall of 1834 and settled in Loami, southwest of Springfield sixteen miles, where they lived until 1837, and then moved to Christian county, where his father, Ellington ADAMS, lived until his death. Mr. ADAMS' mother still survives, and is now living in the old place where the family first settled on coming to the county; at the time of their arrival there were only a few families who had settled on the Flat Branch in Prairieton township. The country was inhabited only along the timber, and people generally thought that the prairie would never be cultivated. The family located about a mile north of the Flat Branch timber in a grove, which form that time to the present has been called "Adams Grove." As the country settled up schools were established. The schools were the old-fashioned subscription schools, and offered few advantages for obtaining an education in comparison with the present time. After Mr. ADAMS got old enough to derive much benefit from schooling, he was obliged to remain at home and help improve the farm; so that his schooling embraced only a short period in the winter months. He lived at home until his first marriage, which occurred November 28, 1851, to Elizabeth JACOBS, who was born in Sangamon county and raised mostly on the Flat Branch in Prairieton township, as the JACOBS were early settlers in Christian county. She died January 29, 1854, leaving one child, Nancy Isabelle. After his marriage Mr. ADAMS went to farming for himself. His second marriage took place on the 27th of April, 1859, to Lydia BILYEU. She was born in Sangamon county, and was the daughter of John H. BILYEU. The BILYEU family settled on the Flat Branch in Prairieton township at an early date. The family were from Kentucky, moved from there to Tennessee, and from there to Sangamon county, where they were among the Early settlers. Mr. ADAMS' grandfather, Peter BILYEU, was one of the pioneers of Sangamon county. Mr. ADAMS moved to his present farm, a view of which is shown on another page, in 1859. This farm he improved himself; he owns four hundred acres in Prairieton township. Mr. ADAMS is one of the representative and substantial farmers in the township, and a man who has attended closely to his own business affairs and has participated but little in politics. He is, however, a democrat, and has always voted that ticket since he was old enough to vote. Mr. ADAMS has had twelve children; Isabelle, who married Wm. R. GORDEN, Ellington died in infancy, Joseph who died at the age of sixteen, Elizabeth, John A., Lucy Jane, Sallie A., Varinda, Wilbin, James, Minerva and Thomas. Mr. ADAMS' life occupation has been that of a farmer; he has lived to witness a great change in the "Flat Branch settlement." When he first looked upon that country, when a boy, it was one vast uncultivated plain covered with tall prairie grass, and here and there a lonely cabin in the timber's edge; now the entire settlement is under a good state of cultivation, with fine crops of wheat and corn growing where but a few years ago naught but the open and uncultivated prairie was to be seen; and now substantial farm-houses and barns stand dotted here and there in every direction over the land, surrounded with orchards and fine ornamental shade trees. File at: http://files.usgwarchives.net/ky/clark/bios/adams486gbs.txt This file has been created by a form at http://www.genrecords.org/kyfiles/