The William Smith Adams Family
By: Donald B. Wigley

From the Cumberland Gap to San Saba County, Texas

The Adams surname has contributed some very famous individuals to the history of the world. American history just before and immediately after the Revolutionary War has provided such patriotic names as Samuel Adams, as well as two Presidents: John Adams (cousin of Samuel Adams) and his son, John Quincy Adams.

But there were many other Adamses who were not so well-known, except in the frontier areas where they eventually made their homes. They came with large families and a willingness to work hard to provide for them, and to fight for their security if need be. These Adamses made significant contributions to the settlement and development of the American frontier when it was most needed. One of these men was William Smith Adams, whose great-grandfather closely followed Daniel Boone through the Cumberland Gap into Kentucky. From his early home in Lincoln County, Kentucky, William Smith Adams followed the lure of available land for more than a thousand miles by ox-drawn wagon to San Saba County, Texas, by way of Missouri, braving the hardships and dangers of the wilderness all along the way.