Adams Family
Source List.
George Adams
George Adams was born on 3 Sep 1805 in North Carolina. He was on the census for Franklin County, Missouri, in 1830. He was a farmer.
On 9 Mar 1835, when George was 29, he married Charlotte Carty, daughter of Moses Carty (1794-after 1860) and Elizabeth Harris (1795-after 1860), in Ripley, Missouri.
Charlotte was born on 25 Apr 1816 in Kentucky. George and Charlotte were on the census for Reynolds County, Missouri, in 1850 and for Black River, Reynolds County, Missouri, in 1860.
George and Charlotte died of smallpox in 1862, in Reynolds County, Missouri. George was 56 when he died. Charlotte was 45 when she died. Four of their children died in 1862, most likely of the smallpox as well. Those children who died in 1862 were Eliza, age 26; Richard, age 18; George, age 8; and Daniel, age 3. The loss of six family members in such a short timeframe must have been tragic. George and Charlotte are buried in Rayfield Cemetery, Lesterville, Reynolds County, Missouri.
In 1862, the Civil War ravaged the country, as did diseases that accompanied war at the time. In particular, smallpox, a serious, highly contagious, and sometimes fatal disease, was rampant in the winter of 1862 and 1863. A smallpox infection would begin with a high fever, head and body aches, and sometimes vomiting. A rash followed that would spread and progress to raised bumps and severe blisters. The blister scabs fell off after about three weeks, leaving pitted scars. Smallpox would practically immobilize a person until it passed.
The disease was passed through direct human-to-human contact, or by contact with clothes and bedding harboring the virus. A person was no longer contagious after the last scab fell off; however, three out of every ten people who contracted smallpox would die from the disease. The disease was so frightening, that often the wagon that carried its victims would be buried with the dead. The last smallpox case in the United States was in the 1940s. Smallpox was eradicated from the world in the 1970s thanks to aggressive mass vaccinations, a luxury unknown in the 1860s.
See George’s Tombstone.
George’s Family Tree
Father
David Adams
Mother
Rachel Koonce
Wife
Charlotte Carty
Children
1. Eliza Jane Adams
(b. 1836 Missouri d. 1862)
2. William J. Adams
(b. 1838 Missouri d. 1900 Fayette Co., Texas)
m. Annie Amy McNail
3. Mary Ann Adams
(b. 1840 Missouri d. 1919)
4. Rachel Adams
(b. 1842 Missouri d. 1933)
5. Richard Adams
(b. 1844 Missouri d. 1862)
6. Martha Adams
(b. 1846 Missouri)
7. Moses Ekel Adams
(b. 1852 Missouri d. 1928)
m. Malisa Campbell
8. George Adams
(b. 1854 Missouri d. 1862)
9. James Adams
(b. 1857 Missouri)
10. Sarah Adams
(b. 1858 Missouri)
11. Daniel Adams
(b. 1859 Missouri d. 1862)