Hon. Thomas Scott Adams.  East Feliciana Parish, Louisiana
Submitted by Mike Miller

*************************************************
Submitted to the LAGenWeb Archives


**********************************************
Copyright.  All rights reserved.
http://usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm
http://usgwarchives.net/la/lafiles.htm
**********************************************
 .


Hon. Thomas Scott Adams, state commissioner of agriculture and ex-president of
the Farmers' State Union of Louisiana, was born in Richland District, S. C. ;
in the year 1840, and is now fifty-one years old. His father purchased a
plantation near Clinton, East Feliciana parish, in 1853, and moved on it with
his family, consisting of a wife and four sons, in the winter of that year.
Mr. Adams has therefore been a citizen of Louisiana some thirty-nine years. In
1859 he was sent to Furman university, S. C., where he stood premature
examinations, graduating from that school in the early part of 1861. Sheriff
Lake of Caddo was both his college and classmate, and the two were always the
warmest friends. Mr. Lake introduced him to Miss Holloway, whom he
subsequently married. She was a grandniece of Colonel Travis of Texas fame,
while her great-grand-father fell in the Revolutionary war, fighting with the
patriots around old Cambridge, known in some histories as Ninety-six. From
this marriage were five living children, the eldest of whom, a son, married
the granddaughter of Judge MeGehee of Mississippi. Mr. Adams is of old English
stock, his paternal ancestor having served as admiral in the British navy
prior to the Revolution, and at the inception of the late war his cousin was
lieutenant-governor of South Carolina. When scarcely of age the subject of
this sketch entered a South Carolina regiment known as the Hampton Legion,
organized by Colonel, now Senator Hampton. Serving through the entire war in
the eastern army, he was in many hard-fought battles and rose from private to
captain. After the surrender at Appomattox he returned, like many confederate
soldiers, with shattered health and the remnant of his fortune scattered.
Nothing was left him but the brave woman he married and two bright baby boys, 
born during the war, but he summoned resolution to his heart, went manfully to
work, and in a few years acquired competency and comfort. He is now the
owner of the old plantation home in East Feliciana and is engaged in cotton
and general farming and stockraising. At the general election in 1884 Capt.
Adams yielded to the solicitation of friends and permitted his name to go
before the people of East Feliciana for the lower house of the general
assembly. He was elected by a large majority over four competitors, running
ahead of his ticket. During the sessions of 1884-6 Capt. Adams introduced in
the legislature many measures of reform, chief of which was "an industrial
school for white girls of the state," "making dealing in futures a felony,"
and a joint resolution "remodeling the judiciary system of the state." But the
crowning act of his public career was securing the United States barracks at
Baton Rouge to the state, whereby turning over to Louisiana nearly if not
quite a quarter of a million dollars. This important measure he not only
conceived, but planned and successfully executed by passing a memorial through
both branches of the Louisiana legislature and securing the co-operation of
members of congress. At the close of his public life, Capt. Adams returned
home disgusted with the corruption in politics, and though time and again
importuned by his constituency, has persistently declined allowing his name to
go before the public. Capt. Adams was elected vice president of the State
Union at Opelousas in August, 1888 and was elected its president at the annual
meeting held in Alexandria, re-elected in 1889, and again in 1890. He has

been elected twice president of his subordinate union, and is also now filling
out his fifth term as president of the Parish Union, and is now commissioner
of agriculture of this state. A man of sincere, honest convictions, courteous,
modest and educated, and above all zealously devoted to the great progressive
movement of the Farmers' Alliance, it is confidently believed by his many
friends that his administration of the State Union will be a brilliant
success. He is greatly beloved by all the members of the order. He possesses
their confidence to an eminent degree, and they will press his claims for the
governorship with a warmth and a zeal that will be irresistible. 

From Biographical and Historical Memoires of Louisiana, volume 2, pp. 246-247.