Adams House

Duane's take

Here's my telling of what the official marker says about the Adams House in Harrison County. Pull up a chair, because this piece of land has seen more than one chapter worth of living. It starts with a man named Chesley Meredith Adams, born in 1813, an attorney and plantation owner who came along and bought this property sometime in the 1850s.

He put up a log house, the way folks did back then, solid and practical. But Chesley Meredith Adams was gone by 1859, and that log house passed into the keeping of his widow, Martha. Now, Martha was not a woman who stood still.

She remarried, to a Reverend, a man by the name of J. F. Riggs, and together, Martha and the Reverend Riggs built something new.

In 1880, they raised a proper frame residence right here, replacing that original log structure. New chapter, new walls. Then, in 1889, Martha and Reverend Riggs transferred the property to Martha's son, Chesley Francis Adams, born in 1856.

The name Chesley runs deep in this family, and so does the drive to do something with a life. This Chesley was a lawyer and an educator. In 1891, he married a woman named Alice Chandler Stuart, and the two of them got to work filling this house up.

Eight children, raised right here on this land. Born 1856, gone in 1940, Chesley Francis Adams had a long stretch of years to watch that family grow up around him. One property, two log-to-frame generations, and eight children carrying it all forward.

The Adams House has been holding stories a good long while.

What the marker says

Attorney and plantation owner Chesley Meredith Adams (1813-1859) bought this property in the 1850s and constructed a log house. His widow Martha and her husband the Rev. J. F. Riggs built this frame residence in 1880 to replace the log structure. They transferred the property in 1889 to Martha's son Chesley Francis Adams (1856-1940). A lawyer and educator, Adams married Alice Chandler Stuart in 1891 and here they raised their family of eight children. Recorded Texas Historic Landmark - 1979