John L. Adams

As printed in 1912

JOHN L. ADAMS

The entire life of John L. Adams, covering a period of sixty-one years, has been lived upon the homestead in Big Grove township, a part of which was taken up by his grandfather, John Lyon, about the year 1834. The farm now aggregates 500 acres and comprises the homestead of the Lyons family, of which the mother of our subject was a member, as well as additional purchases made from time to time during the past fifty years. It is one of the very fine farms of Johnson county, the pride of its owner and the object of admiration by the countryside.

The parents of John L. Adams were E. M. and Henrietta (Lyon) Adams, the former a native of Maine (born in 1811) and the latter a Pennsylvanian. At the age of sixteen Mr. Adams removed with his parents from Maine to Ohio. He lived in the Buckeye state eleven years, and married his first wife there, Miss Sarah Gleason, by whom he had one son, Decatur, now living in southeastern Kansas. His young wife having died, Mr. Adams removed to Johnson county, Iowa, where he settled upon a homestead in Pleasant Valley township in 1838. The trip to Iowa was made by way of the Ohio and Mississippi rivers. < )n reaching Burlington, he found himself comparatively without means. He was fortunate in securing employment, however, and soon pushed on to the township in which he elected to take up his homestead. There he began immediate and practical work as a farmer, an occupation which he continued until his death at the ripe age of eighty-nine years. Mr. Adams those for his second wife Miss Henrietta Lyon, who came with her parents from Pennsylvania to Iowa in 1839. Soon after their arrival at Muscatine the Lyon family were all taken sick, a calamity which resulted in the death of the father. The remaining members of the household pushed on to Johnson county and located upon the claim in Cedar township, which is now a part of our subject's farm. Mother Lyon spent the remainder of her life on this farm. It passed into the hands of our subject's father by purchase in 1852, and he and his wife moved thereon, our subject being at the time only a few weeks old. There, however, he has resided ever since. Five children were born to E. M. and Henri-

As printed in Leading events in Johnson County, Iowa, history (1912). See the original pages. Wording is the original; obvious scanning errors have been corrected, and a few may remain.