To begin the next phase of
my research, I visited the Boston Cemetery myself. As Ann had mentioned, at the
foot of Jack’s grave stone was written, “Captain US Army WWII 1941-46.” He was
laid to rest next to his grandfather, JC Adams.
The following month I
visited the Thomas County Museum of History to see if I could find out any more
about the town of Boston or the Adams family. I set up an appointment with the
Curator of Collections, Mr. Ephraim Rotter. Before I arrived he had gathered
several gray, acid-free paper boxes that held birth, death and marriage
records, photographs of several family businesses and newspaper clippings that
detailed some of the odd facts about the town— and the Adams family. I spread
out all the documents on a large oak conference table and scanned through every
artifact. Tom Hill, the former curator, happened to be volunteering at the
museum that day. He shared several compelling anecdotes about the town of
Boston.
Tom explained that when
the railroad was built through Thomas County, the people of Boston, Georgia,
decided to relocate the whole town closer to the tracks. This proved to be a
wise choice. For the better part of the 20th Century, Boston was a
thriving community with a bank, pharmacy, hardware store and other businesses
lining Main Street.
As a child
I used to walk to the railroad tracks
Not far
from my house
And watch
the trains passing through town
Sometimes
I would find bits of old sheet metal
And a
couple of rusting spikes
I would
set the strips of metal on a battered tie
And drum
away on my homemade trap set
To the
rhythm and hiss of the passing rail cars
One of the prominent
families to emerge at the turn of the century was the Adams. The name is of
English origin, derived from the Latin adamus,
which means, “earth.” James Caswell Adams, nicknamed JC, was a prominent
businessman who owned much of the land and buildings around Boston. He seemed
to have his hands in almost every business and real estate deal in town.
Records show that many people in Thomas County and the surrounding area borrowed
money and rented houses from him.
Around 1875, JC married
Mary Ann “Big Mama” Hallman. She got the nickname from her children in part
because she was the reining matriarch of the family, a formidable presence who
always got her way. Big Mama was also a rather large woman. She bore five
children, of which only Redden Whittaker and Denzil Roy survived.
Records showed the City
Drug Store of Boston was in operation from 1882 until 1905 when JC and his sons
purchased the business. The name of the store changed to JC Adams and Sons
Drugstore and so remained until the mid-1950s. The first few years of owning
the business were comparatively lean times for JC and his sons. Records from
this time reveal overdue bills and letters from creditors that indicate large
sums of outstanding debt.
Meanwhile, Redden became
one of the youngest pharmacists in the state. At the age of 20 he was licensed
and working as the primary druggist. He is credited with developing, and
patenting in 1906, a cure-all “blood purifier” called Blood Life. This eventually
became an incredibly popular product and they shipped it all over the
southeastern United States.
There is a long tradition of
Snake Oil salesmen and
Peddlers of liniments and cure-alls
Rolling through town after town
Receipts found in the
store’s ledgers, along with other artifacts, show a wide array of product sold
at the drugstore, such as Quinine and Calomel in small cardboard pill boxes,
salt, Camphor, teething powder, eye water, toothache drops, Aida Pomade, talc,
Atwood Bitters, sexual pills, roach powder, flavored oils, matches, cigars,
candy, postage stamps and eye glasses. Crates of glass bottles that would have
contained Blood Life were also left behind on the second floor.
In the files at the Museum
of History, I found handwritten pages stating JC and Mary were among the
fourteen original signers of the covenant for the Boston Primitive Baptist
Church on November 15, 1907. JC Adams was listed as treasurer from 1907 until
his death in 1937. Redden, at 21 years of age, was listed as a junior member.
The church held its first service on November 17, 1907. Elder Simms was the
minister for that first service.
During
the early years of the church, there was a large congregation. After the
morning services, around 1 o’clock in the afternoon, the families spread out a
potluck Sunday dinner on a fence wire table under live oaks in the church yard.
White
linen bonnets and whale bone fans
Pushing
thick air around in summer shade
Mosquitoes
lunch on pulsing jugulars beneath parasols
Fire
ants sneaking over stockings and trousers
A
symphony of casseroles spread out
Like the
bounty of loaves and fishes
In 1910, the Adams’ eldest
son, Redden, married Lily Livingston. She was from a well respected family in
town. Lily proved to be a strong
community leader, joining several civic organizations and asserting her
leadership to improve the community.
Lily was a member of the
20th Century Club. In 1913 this organization secured and oversaw a $6,000
grant by Andrew Carnegie toward the construction of a new library in Boston.
The Carnegie Library was completed and opened in 1914. JC, Redden and Roy were
all Honorary Gentlemen Members of this organization.
In 1913, Roy married
Blanchard Forster, who was the daughter of Ida and Willie Baily Forster. Mr.
Forster owned a construction company and was well respected in the community.
His lineage was traced back to William Shurtleff, who journeyed from England to
settle in Plymouth in the 1650s.
In 1916, JC and Mary twice
became grandparents. Redden and Lily had
a daughter whom they named Mary, after her grandmother. Roy and Blanchard had a
son together, Denzil Roy Adams, Jr. whom they nicknamed Jack.
JC and Big Mama must have
been thrilled to be grandparents. After the deaths of three of their children,
what joy the new babies must have brought them. Both Mary and Jack were born
healthy and bright.
Sadly though, that joy was
quickly replace by yet another tragedy. Blanchard suffered from complications
during her pregnancy. There is no record of what exactly happened. But, less
than six weeks after Jack was born, his mother passed away. This was the first
of many emotional burdens Jack would later bear in his life.
One breath is given at the expense of
another
All the clichés of cycles and balance
Cannot soothe the ache
Itself the cruelest cliché of them
all
When Blanchard died it was
obviously devastating to Roy in a very conscious way. Later, of course, it was
hard on Jack as he grew up and was able to comprehend what had happened. The
family did what they could to provide a mother to Jack at the family house
where all the Adamses were living. Three generations: JC and Big Mama, Redden
and Lily, Roy, Mary and Jack all lived under the same roof.
We crossed the ocean together
I have been thirsty for your voice
Wanting a whisper of promises
The same year Jack and
Mary were born, President Woodrow Wilson declared United States involvement in
World War I. Many of those who did not fight overseas joined the war effort in
other ways.
In another file of the
museum’s archives, Redden was listed as the Chair of the Membership Committee
for the Ozell Auxiliary of the Red Cross. Lily was a member of the Executive
Board. This was an organization that raised money and sent supplies to areas of
need during the war. In 1918, Redden Adams traveled to Greece as part of a
special envoy of the Red Cross. For his service he was awarded the Silver
Cross. In 1919, the Ozell Auxiliary raised $2,300 and sent boxes of clothes and
supplies overseas.
The Treaty of Versailles
was signed on June 28, 1919, ending World War I and dissolving the Ottoman and
German Empires. The formation of new countries throughout Europe and Middle
East followed.
During the years of the
war, Roy courted a local socialite, Dean Rountree. She came from a very wealthy
family in the area. It took considerable effort on the part of Roy to woo Dean
to his side. However, in 1919, Roy and Dean were married.
What is it like to witness your
father
Attempting this gesture of
replacement
Four years later Dean gave
birth to Evelyn Adams, Jack’s half-sister. By then, Jack and Mary were seven
years old. Around the time Evelyn was born, Roy and Dean decided they needed to
move out of the family home. In the process, the decision was made to leave
Jack in the care of his grandmother. Big
Mama had looked after Jack from the moment he was born and was very attached to
him. She had already endured the loss of three children. As the story goes, Big
Mama said, “I’ve lost too many children. You can’t expect me to take this one
and raise him and then take him away from me.” Jack’s father, stepmother and
half-sister moved out, leaving Jack in the family home. Redden, Lily and Mary
remained in the house with JC and Big Mama. Since Jack and Mary were the same
age, they were raised as brother and sister.
Photographs from this time
show Mary and Jack wearing similar dresses and having the same style haircut.
The convention of dressing toddler boys in dresses was fashionable during the
Victorian era. By around 1905 this practice was no longer in favor. However,
Big Mama raised her two sons during the last years of the 19th
century. She was likely the primary caregiver of Jack and Mary since Redden was
running the business and Roy was trying to start over his life. Therefore, it
makes sense that the two kids were dressed alike.
“I think Dean may have
been a tough person to know, not very likable.”
–Mary Ann
Mayo Brown
“Maybe it felt fine to
[Jack] to stay with his grandmother, but I’m sure it didn’t feel fine that he wasn’t
going with his father. I do think he felt much closer to Mary. It was kind of
like they were twins because they were the same age.”
–
Penelope Penland
This push-pull
This timid rage
This love-grief
This sagging sunlight
Blanchard’s father, Willie
Forster, built the house that Roy and Dean moved into. It was on the corner of
Stephens and Jefferson streets. The house had an interesting architectural feature.
There was a peddler’s cove on the right-front side. If a door-to-door salesman
was passing through town, he was told to go by the house. If a light was
burning in the window of the peddler’s cove, he was welcome to stop and stay
the night.
Jill and Rankin Smith,
former owners of the Atlanta Falcons, now own the house that once belonged to
Roy and Dean. After purchasing the house, the Smiths moved it from Boston to
their property, Seminole Plantation, located south of Thomasville.
I was able to arrange a
visit with the Smiths and see the house for myself. It was immaculately
restored with additions of trim and gingerbread along the sweeping front porch.
Inside, the fireplaces were tiled with Majolica. A grand staircase led to the second
floor. The original hardwood floors led from room to room, and the plaster
walls were filled with hunting trophies and artifacts.
Ashes twist out of the chimney
Soaked in Brandy wine
While Redden was the chief
pharmacist at the family drugstore, Roy was a prosperous farmer. A list of
properties revealed the Adams family owned at least 1,400 acres of land, cane
and turpentine mills, the local John Deere franchise, and Adams, Rountree and
Co., the dry goods and hardware store in Boston, located across the street from
the drug store.
According to the Thomas
County Record of Deeds, in 1930 Standard Oil signed a two-year lease for
property located on the corner of Jefferson and Stephens Streets from the Adams
family for the sum of two cents for every gallon of gasoline sold.
The children of Redden and
Roy grew up in Boston. They attended the local public school during the year
and probably spent summers working for their parents and learning the family
businesses. Photographs of Jack, Mary and Evelyn from this time show them
playing together and dressing up in costumes. All evidence suggests the
children’s formative years were relatively normal, living in the security of
moderate wealth and privilege. The whole family was very close, residing across
the street or in the same neighborhood for a number of years. There is no
indication that the Adamses were significantly affected by the Great Depression
that swept across the country during the 1930s. For Evelyn and Mary, life was probably
focused on education and preparing for a domestic life. For Jack, life would be
taking a dramatically different course.
Will you sip my life from this Mason
jar?
Can you unravel the flesh from my
face?
Do you resent me in some secret place
in your heart?
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