Revolutionary War Soldiers Series: Remembering Joseph Adams

By Betty F. Crum and Pat Young
Waw-wil-a-way Chapter Daughters 
of the American Revolution, 250 Project

Note: This year, the United States of America will celebrate its semiquincentennial, its 250th anniversary. The semiquincentennial marks the first nationwide celebration of America's birth since the bicentennial in 1976. Of course, America's independence cannot be celebrated without also honoring the efforts of the Revolutionary War soldiers that led to independence. The Waw-wil-a-way Chapter of the National Society of the Daughters of the American Revolution, along with the Southern Ohio Genealogical Society, is presenting a series of articles featuring Revolutionary War soldiers who lived and died within the borders of Highland County.

Where was Joseph Adams during the American Revolution 1775-83? This information is taken from a case study compiled by the 4th great-grandson of Joseph Adams, Robert A. Fetters.

 According to Joseph Adams' recently re-discovered tombstone at Fairfield Friends (Quaker) Cemetery, in Fairfield Township, Highland County, Ohio, he was born in 1758. He would have been tithable (taxable) in Frederick County, Virginia as early as age 16, up to age 21. Therefore, he could have been listed in the Virginia tax lists as early as 1774, and by 1779, though he probably would have first shown in his Father, John Adams' household as a "tithable."  

However, though the earliest extant tax lists for Frederick County begin in 1782, Joseph Adams is not taxed in Frederick County, VA until 1786, and continuously after that until his removal to Ohio in about 1825. 
The Frederick County, Virginia, Quaker Hopewell Monthly Meeting (MM) records ,  first mentioned Joseph in 1766, as having been with his parents and siblings when they were "received on certificate," from Burlington County, New Jersey, a long established Quaker stronghold.  On "the sixth day of the first month 1778," Joseph Adams was among the subscribers to a collection for "the Meeting for Sufferings in Philadelphia . . . for the Benefit of the Indians, who were formerly the Native Owners of the Lands," etc.   

Though Joseph's subscription was small, this shows his presence and participation in Quaker affairs, at that date in Frederick County, Virginia.

Two records exist that might place Joseph in Frederick County between 1779 and 1785.  In 1781, Joseph was disowned by Hopewell MM, but never shows in the tax lists, or other Quaker records until 1785 when he marries the widow Mary Wright Thatcher (she was then disowned for marrying him).  During his own 1781 disownment proceedings at the Hopewell Monthly Meeting, Joseph ADAMS had "abscounded" [sic-absconded or run away to avoid charges] and was described as "having gone out of the way at present" (implying he was not in the county or area at the time of the disownment in 1781).  

In 1782, Joseph Adams is also listed in a Virginia state enumeration, as 1 white inhabitant , as are his father John Adams with 6 white inhabitants and his brother, John ADAMS, Jun. (a Revolutionary War soldier), with 5 white inhabitants, all in Frederick County.  However, no other record places Joseph in Frederick County, Virginia, from 1778 until 1785.  Further, the 1782 enumeration was not a tax list, and may have been just family registering his name in a household (he being unmarried, with no others in his family and possibly being absent from the county).  Supporting this supposition is the fact that Joseph is missing from the 1782 and following Personal Property Tax lists of Frederick County, Virginia, and until 1786.

The many Quaker communities tended to be close knit, and though one who was disowned no longer had the privileges of membership, they still worked, worshipped, and lived together in community.  Just because one was no longer a member of the Quaker Church, it did not lessen the family and friendship bonds, and those relationships were seldom disturbed or questioned within the Quaker Church---shunning was not a part of disownment.  The Hopewell Monthly Meeting of Friends (Quakers) in Frederick County, Virginia had received many from Burlington County, NJ, and there was a like connection between those two Monthly Meetings, and with those at Chester and Philadelphia Counties, Pennsylvania. Further, Pennsylvania, the Quaker State, was more tolerant of the pacifist Quakers, during the Revolution, than was the State of Virginia.

In Pennsylvania, the age for Freemen to be taxed was 21 years.  A Joseph Adams was taxed beginning in 1780 as a Freeman (unmarried, no household), and was taxed as such until he disappears after the 1783 tax lists, in Londonderry Township, Chester County, Pennsylvania. There are no other Adams in that location during that time period, and both before and after.  No other location in Virginia or Pennsylvania has been found that has a Joseph Adams of the right age to have been the Joseph ADAMS of Frederick County, Virginia, during the 1778 to 1783 part of the Revolution.  The close ties between the various Quaker communities and the greater tolerance of the Quakers in Pennsylvania would allow such a logical, temporary relocation.  

The records at the Frederick County, Virginia, Hopewell MM indicated that Joseph had absconded to avoid that 1781 disownment (and possibly for other unknown reasons).  Further, there is no military record for this Joseph ADAMS, Freeman in Chester County, Pennsylvania, consistent with Quaker beliefs---even for a disowned Quaker (and perhaps he did not even know of the actual disownment).

In 1782, Joseph may even have been on a visit back to Frederick County, Virginia from Chester County, Pennsylvania.  Movement between the two locations was common along the "Great Valley or Wagon Road" that originated in Philadelphia and continued south up the Shenandoah Valley from Frederick County, Virginia.  In any case, Joseph was not taxed in Frederick County until 1786, after his marriage there in 1785, and well after his 1783 disappearance from the Chester County, Pennsylvania tax lists.  Joseph ADAMS and his wife Mary began appearing frequently as witnesses in the Hopewell marriage records  in 1788, though Joseph was not reinstated to Quaker membership until 1796. This, of course, was well after he began appearing in the Frederick County, Virginia tax lists, in 1786.

Conclusion:

All of the indirect evidence supports a conclusion that Joseph Adams, a single male in Chester County, Pennsylvania, 1780 thru 1783 is the same Joseph Adams before and after the Revolution in Frederick County, Virginia.  No other candidate for this Joseph Adams was found, during that time frame in either Pennsylvania or Virginia, though Joseph can be proven in the Quaker community of Frederick County, Virginia, both before and after the Revolution.  All times and locations are compatible with this hypothesis, and nothing disputes the case that cannot be explained.

The author contends:
The conclusion is based upon a comprehensive and exhaustive search.
All of the evidence consistently supports the conclusion, and no unexplainable evidence contradicts it.
No alternative conclusion seems plausible.
Although other possibilities might exist, no evidence supports them - and any other theories are purely speculative.
Description of the evidence, documentation of sources, and explanation of the reasoning enable others to replicate the researcher's investigation and logic to verify the conclusion.
This conclusion meets the tests for the credibility of indirect evidence, and current genealogical proof standards (GPS) .

IS THE CASE PROVEN?
Comments, suggestions and critique are invited.
Robert A. Fetters, 215 Dun Road, Chillicothe, OH 45601-1173
Hopewell Friends History, 1734-1934, Frederick County, p.293.
Hopewell Friends History, 1734-1934, Frederick County, p.503.Thomas W. Jones, CG, "Five Ways to Prove Who Your Ancestor Was" (presented at the National Genealogical Society Conference in the States, May 2000) 00-S-182.  (or "Five Elements Leading to a Proper GPS"---Genealogical Proof Standard---proofs "leading to reliable genealogical conclusions.")

A memorial service was held in 2005 at the Fairfield Friends Cemetery, Leesburg Ohio where Joseph Adams was recognized as a Revolutionary War Veteran.  Although  the evidence is not sufficient to prove service for DAR or SAR.  He was a disowned Quaker during the Revolution for (un-Quaker-like activity) and by law had to serve the County militia.  However, no militia lists have survived for Frederick Co., Virginia.

In the 1790's he and his wife were re-instated in the Quaker Church,  before they migrated to Highland County.  The interesting part of the story is Joseph's cemetery stone:  In the 1950's when the McBrides read the tombstones at Fairfield Friends Cemetery, his wife's Mary's stone was read, but they did not find a stone for Joseph, though the Meeting Minutes noted his death at FF.  During 2005 when Robert Fetters was working at the cemetery, he found the long buried stone of Joseph Adams and the stone was re-set.

The known children of Joseph and Mary Wright Adams are:
(1) Hannah Adams 1785 Va-1845 Oh; married John Hansel 10/31/1811 Va; buried Fairfield Quaker Cemetery.
(2) Phebe Adams born 1787 Va 1853 Oh; died in Iowa; married Joseph Bonsell 1805 Va; married John Crispin 1824 Oh.
(3) Isaac Adams 1791 Va-1836 Oh; buried Fairfield Quaker Cemetery. 
(4) Joseph Adams 1795 Va-1824 Oh; married Edith Lupton; buried Fairfield Quaker Cemetery.
 (5) John M. Adams 1793 Va-1872 Oh; married Catherine Derk in Va; buried Fairfield Quaker Cemetery, 
(6) Ruth Adams 1797 Va-1874 Missouri; married David Lupton 1816,  in Virginia.
 (7) Jonathan Wright Adams 1800-1838 Oh; married Anna Maria Hamilton; died in Warren Co., Ohio.
(8) Soloman Adams 180Va-1870 Oh; married Elizabeth Terrell 1827 Oh; married Ann M. Johnson 1851 Oh; buried Sugar Grove Cemetery, Clinton Co., Ohio.