Hugh Q. Adams

Nature has been lavish in her gifts to America. Each section of the country has been provided with at least one source of income. New England has its splendid lumber regions, Pennsylvania its coal fields, the south produces cotton, the west has its rich mineral deposits and the broad Mississippi valley is the agricultural district of the country, and it is upon the agriculturist more than any other class of citizens that the prosperity and upbuilding of the country depends. Iowa is one of the best cereal-producing portions of the entire land, while its rich pasture lands afford ample opportunity to the stock-raiser. Mr. Adams is among those who are devoting their time and energies to farming, his valuable homestead being located in Bluff Creek township. He was born in Beaver county, Pennsylvania, on the 14^th of April, 1844, and is a son of Alexander M. and Harriet ( Quinn ) Adams, natives of Allegheny county, Pennsylvania, where the former died at the age of seventy-six years and the latter when she had reached the age of forty years. This worthy couple became the parents of fourteen children, eight of whom are still living.

From his early youth Hugh Q. Adams has been identified with agricultural pursuits. When he was eighteen years of age the Civil war broke out and he offered his services in defense of the Union cause, entering Company H, One Hundred and Fortieth Pennsylvania Infantry, under the command of Captain Orman. His military career covered a period of three years, on the expiration of which he received an honorable discharge at Washington, D. C., for the war had ended and the country no longer needed his services. Returning to his old home in the Keystone state, he there resumed the more quiet duties of the farm and was thus engaged until about twenty years ago, when, in 1882, he came to Iowa. His valuable farm of two hundred acres is located six miles north of Albia, in Bluff Creek township, and all of the many and substantial improvements thereon stand as monuments to his thrift and excellent business ability. He is engaged in diversified farming and stock-raising, and in both lines of endeavor is meeting with a high and well merited degree of success.

The marriage of Mr. Adams was celebrated on the 8^th of October, 1868, when Miss Mary Martha Clever became his wife. She, too, was born in the old Keystone state, in Allegheny county, and is a daughter of Martin and Elizabeth ( DeGroft ) Clever. Her paternal grandparents were Martin and Mary Magdalene ( Minick ) Clever, while on the maternal side she is a granddaughter of Adam and Eve DeGroft. Martin Clever, the grandfather, survived until about eighty-three years of age, and his wife reached the age of seventy-five years, both dying in Pennsylvania. Martin Clever, the father of Mrs. Adams, was born near Allegheny county, that state, six miles northwest of Pittsburg. In the spring of 1869 he came to Iowa, first locating north of Albia, but subsequently removed to that city, and there he still resides. His wife, a native of Westmoreland county, Pennsylvania, died in Allegheny county, that state, at the age of thirty-seven years. Ten children were born of this union, and with one exception all are still living, are married and have families of their own.

Mrs. Adams remained on the old home farm until her marriage, and she, too, has become the mother of ten children, one of whom, LeRoy, died at the age of four years and three months. Those living are as follows: Martin H., who is married and has two children, and the family reside in Chicago, Illinois; Alexander George, whose wife died in Albia, leaving two children, and they are being reared by our subject and his wife; Elmira F., who is married and has two children; Robert L., who also has two children and is engaged in business in Albia; Mary M., who is married and had two children, one of whom is now deceased; Glen L., who is engaged in operating the home place; Nannie C., who is married and has one child; Ethel G., who is married and has one child; and Avis A., at home. The children reflect much credit upon the parents, and the family is one of prominence in the locality in which they reside.