LAWRENCE COUNTY OHIO - BIO: ADAMS, Robert Ferguson (published 1923)
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The History of West Virginia, Old and New
Published 1923, The American Historical Society, Inc., 
Chicago and New York, Volume III, 
pg. 167-168

ROBERT FERGUSON ADAMS is a native of Lawrence County,
Ohio, having been  born at Ironton, June 2, 1874.
He comes of distinguished old stock, his father, Hamlin
Miller Adams, being a direct descendant of the famous old
Adams family of Massachusetts, and also of General Tup-
per, renowned Indian fighter of pioneer days. The pater-
nal grandfather of Hamlin M. Adams was a cousin of
John Quincy Adams, and his grandmother, Luvica Tupper,
was a niece of General Tupper. Volney Adams, the pa-
ternal grandfather of Robert F. Adams, came to the Mus-
kingum Valley from Massachusetts and settled at Marietta,
Ohio, where Hamlin M. Adams, the father of Robert F.
Adams, was born. Later the family removed to a point
near Beverley, Ohio, where Volney Adams engaged in farm-
ing. He died in the evening of life, in the State of Wash-
ington.

Hamlin Miller Adams was born in 1840 and died in
March, 1905, at the age of sixty-five years. He spent his
boyhood days upon the farm. He received his education
at Marietta College, from which institution he was grad-
uated in 1866. In the winter of 1863 he left college to
enter the Union Army, remaining therein until the close of
the war. In the fall of 1864 he was severely wounded in
a skirmish at City Point, now Petersburg, Virginia. He
returned to college in 1865 and graduated therefrom in
1866, having received a good classical education. Several
years later his alma mater conferred upon him the hon-
orary degree of Master of Arts. In 1867 he entered Lane
Seminary at Cincinnati for the study of theology, but be-
ing without funds and too proud-spirited to accept aid he
left the seminary and engaged in teaching at Ironton,
Ohio, being connected with the public schools at that point.
Later he left the schools and became editor of the Ironton
Journal. Still later, in 1877, he became president of Au-
gusta College, Augusta, Kentucky, removing from thence
to Huntington, West Virginia, in 1879. Here he established
a private school, but later disposed of it to enter the gro-
cery business in Huntington with his brother Gus M.
Adams, under the firm name of Adams & Brother.  He
took a prominent part in the political affairs of the state,
being a staunch republican in politics, and in 1889 was
appointed postmaster of Huntington by President Harri-
son. It was under his administration that free delivery
service of mail matter was begun in Huntington. He was
an elder in the First Presbyterian Church and a member
of the Odd Fellows and the Masonic fraternity. In 1873,
at Ironton, Ohio, he was united in marriage with Miss Jennie
Ferguson, daughter of James M. and Elizabeth J. (Wood)
Ferguson, the latter of whom survives and is a resident of
Los Angeles, California. Miss Jennie Ferguson was born
in 1852. Four children resulted from this union: Robert
Ferguson, of this review; Augustus Hamlin, of Huntington,
a merchandise broker specializing in mining machinery;
Frances, a sister, who is unmarried and resides with her wid-
owed mother; and Norton Meredith, who is engaged in the
newspaper business at New Orleans, Louisiana.

Robert Ferguson Adams received a high school education
in the public schools of Huntington, but was obliged to
leave school on account of his health shortly before the
completion of his senior year. In the fall of 1892, at the
age. of eighteen, he became a letter carrier at Huntington,
having worked his way up to this position, starting as er-
rand boy, then working as special delivery messenger and
night clerk at the Post Office. He occupied the position of
a letter carrier for eighteen years, during which time he
rose from the lowest paid to the highest salaried position
attainable in this branch of the postal service. In 1904
he became interested in a small weekly newspaper estab-
lished in Huntington, with which he acted as advertising
manager, giving to this work such of his time not required
for his postal duties. Later he disposed of his interest in
this publication and devoted such spare time as was available
to the study and practice of the work of an advertising
agent. In 1910 he resigned his position with the Post
Office department to engage in a mercantile business, with
which he was identified for about one year, having carried
on simultaneously his advertising business.  In 1911 he
severed his connection with all other business ventures to
devote his time exclusively to his chosen profession of
advertising. In 1911 he founded the Adams Advertising
Agency, the pioneer enterprise of its kind at Huntington,
which under his management and direction has attained the
position of leadership in its field, he having been engaged
in the study and practice of advertising since 1907. His
plant and offices are located in the Miller-Ritter Building,
Huntington, where he plans and executes advertising cam-
paigns, places accounts in newspapers and magazines, does
commercial multigraphing and direct-by-mail advertising,
and handles theatre and screen advertising.

Mr. Adams is a republican. With his family he belongs
to the First Presbyterian Church of Huntington, in which
he is an elder. He is a thirty-second degree Mason, be-
longing to Huntington Lodge No. 53, A. F. and A. M., and
to West Virginia Consistory No. 1 of Wheeling, and being
secretary of the Scottish Eite bodies of Huntington. He
is also a member of Beni Kedem Temple, A. A. O. N. M. S.,
of Charleston, of Marshall Lodge No. 121, I. O. O. F.. of
Huntington, of the Guyan Country Club, and of the Rotary
Club of Huntington, in which he has held the post of sec-
retary since 1916. During the great World war Mr. Adams
took an active part in all local war movements. Liberty
Loan drives, etc. He was chairman of the U. S. Navy
Local Advisory Committee, and chairman of the War Sav-
ings Advertising Committee of Cabell County, a capacity
in which he handled and produced the advertising for the
sale of War Savings Stamps throughout the county. For
his work in this capacity Mr. Adams received letters of the
highest commendation from the National War Savings
Advertising Bureau and the bureau drafted for reproduc-
tion nationally and for the assistance of other War Sav-
ings advertising committees, a numerous portion of the ad-
vertising matter having been prepared by Mr. Adams.

In 1895 Mr. Adams entered Marshall College for addi-
tional study, arranging his daily occupation so as to be
able to engage in the classes in the branches of study de-
sired. It was during this year that he met Miss Mamie
Baker, a daughter of Dr. Morgan and Annie (Marcum)
Baker, the latter of whom resides at Huntington, where
Doctor Baker, now deceased, was a well-known physician
and surgeon. Miss Baker graduated from Marshall College
in 1895 and was united in matrimony to Mr. Adams in
April, 1898, shortly after the recovery of Mr. Adams from
a sickness of nearly a year, which resulted from injuries
received in the letter carrier service. Two daughters have
blessed this union: Mary Elisabeth and Virginia, the for-
mer of whom graduated from Wooster College, Wooster,
Ohio, in 1922, with the degree of Bachelor of Arts, and the
latter of whom is a student at the same college.


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