The McAdams Community

In February 1830, a caravan of ox wagons rolled into the Mexican department of Nacogdoches. Among the travelers was Rev. John McAdams Sr., a Methodist minister from Scotland, his wife Martha Rodgers from Ireland, and their children. The youngest son was fourteen.

Texas Revolution

John McAdams Jr. returned to Tennessee briefly in 1833, then came back to Texas. On April 30, 1836, he enrolled in the Texian Army from Shelby Municipality and served in the San Augustine Volunteers under Captain John M. Bradley, then under Captain William Scurlock through October 1836. He arrived at the San Jacinto Battleground too late for the April 21 engagement, but served thirteen campaigns — four years and four months — with Houston’s army. For his service he was issued one pair of brogans and twenty-four dollars.

He later received land grants totaling 1,600 acres.

The Raid

Late one night in 1838, outlaws from the “neutral ground” across the Sabine — the lawless strip between Texas and Louisiana — raided the McAdams-White settlement. They killed two of John’s brothers, Joseph and James, and took nearly everything the families owned. The survivors packed what remained into ox wagons and headed west, seeking Sam Houston.

Building a Community

In 1844, McAdams purchased 1,042 acres and built a home near what is now the McAdams Cemetery in Walker County. He married Hester White in 1838. She bore him five children before her death on January 16, 1849.

“John, when I die, I want to be buried under this hickory tree.” He honored her wish. That lone grave became the beginning of McAdams Cemetery, still in use today.

His second wife, Mary Frances Bankhead, was fifteen when they married on November 14, 1849. She was the daughter of Richard Bankhead and Sarah Leah Nobles — whose second husband, George A. Lamb, was killed at the Battle of San Jacinto. John and Mary Frances had seven children, including Margaret “Tommie” McAdams.

Patriarch

At his peak, McAdams owned 10,000 acres and 2,000 head of cattle. He took in twenty-nine orphan children over the years, donated lumber for churches and schools, and personally paid a teacher’s salary for a year. Sam Houston, a friend since Tennessee, made frequent weekend visits to the McAdams place near Huntsville.

In 1887, McAdams became the first postmaster of McAdams, Texas.

Legacy

McAdams died on September 11, 1892, at seventy-seven. He was buried beside Hester, under the hickory tree.

Tommie married Thomas Jefferson Thompson. Their daughter Ethel Arrine married James Walter Morris, the barber of Huntsville. Their daughter Margaret wrote it all down in Stories and Poems — and Margaret’s daughter Barbara Jean married William Burl Ledbetter, joining the McAdams line to a new family.