Continuing
Alan McAdam's story of his mysterious uncle, James McAdams. You can read the first part here.
One
of two scenarios takes place here. Either James had told
something of a tall tale to his brother, with respect to this Indian
story, or Gum and Robert were attempting to pull a fast one, as I
found out later on (keep reading), that James was just a hired driver
for this trek – the losses were not his, personally.
Then
I found a probate report from Madison County, Montana. This
record makes for some pretty good reading. The court
appointed administrator determined that James owed quite a bit of
money and his assets were not worth that much. He had
stake in two different gold mines, but the administrator could not
get bids on either holding. There are genealogical goodies
in this report though. At one point the administrator
writes: “Refusing to retire from the contest bootless, I
contacted a cousin of the deceased, Robert Renshaw of Deer Lodge,
MT.” This would be Robert McAdams Renshaw, son of Hosea
Renshaw and James’ aunt, Nancy.
What
little personal property James had went to his landlord. Charges
of the newspaper were settled with an old buffalo robe belonging to
James.
Again,
I wonder if James inflated his gold mining success to his
brothers. Newspaper articles at the time said that Gum and
Robert T. went to Montana to settle his estate. Surely
they would not have made that trip had they known that their brother
had no estate worth exploring. Maybe James had borrowed
money from them after inflating his own wealth? There were
unpaid doctor bills and a claim against the estate by Robert McAdams
for $245.00.
Here
comes the good part in my research on old James: I was
just doing some idle “Googling” on the internet, and had plugged
in James McAdams, Mules, and Freight. I came up with
excerpts from an autobiography written by a Utah pioneer named L. H.
Kennard. This man was a Civil War veteran from
Ohio. After the War he came west, first to
Missouri. Along the way, he became friends with our James
McAdams, and together they made a trek from Sonora MO., via
Brownsville and Omaha, NE to Salt Lake City. Our James
went from Salt Lake on to Montana. Mr. Kennard at first
intended to follow him, but ended up staying in Salt Lake, marrying a
Mormon woman and converting to that faith.
Mr. Kennard’s story tells of when he and James
McAdams shared travel time together. His arrival in St. Joseph makes some
good reading. He walked from St. Joe to Atchison County to save
travel expense, spent some time teaching school, and made a foolhardy
trek across the Missouri River on thin ice!
What
I love about this story is that it comes close to bringing our James
to life! When Mr. Kennard decided to go west, he had no
idea how he was going, he just took off. He took a
steamboat from Sonora up the river. At the Nebraska City
wharf, he found James McAdams, the only familiar face in sight. James
had been in Nebraska City a few days boarding. One gets
the sense that if you weren’t working a steamboat whistle would
draw all the locals to the wharf to see who was getting off the
boat. You can almost hear James speak as he invites L. H.
Kennard to come west with him and share expenses.
I
sometimes wonder why James stayed so long in Montana. According
to what I’ve studied, the gold rush began playing out in the
1870s. James is found in the 1870 census. There
are long lists of Chinese people. The census taker
evidently gave up understanding them, because there are pages where
all that is written is “Chinaman”, no age, no names, followed by
endless ditto marks. Many other trades are in Virginia City,
Stage coach drivers, watch makers, wagon makers, and wheel
makers. The sheriff, jailers are listed as well as the
inmate population.
By
the 1880 census, the population had pared down quite a bit. The
census taker has even started recording some of the Chinese
names. Several women are recorded with their trade;
prostitute. James is here, in a cabin in a residential
neighborhood, families around him, still listed as a placer miner.
I
suspect one of those life experiences where James manages to eke out
enough gold to make a meager living, and just becomes too comfortable
with neighbors to try moving on. He must have stayed in
contact with relatives, however. In the early 1880s, I
found a brief blurb in a Rock Port, MO newspaper. It
details how Thomas McAdams and Frank Shaver are leaving town for
Virginia City, Montana. Thomas would be Gum’s oldest
son, the one who would go get his body in St. Joe in another 10
yrs. Later on the same paper announces a letter from
Thomas: The boys have arrived in Virginia City, find work
to be plentiful and high paying. Their spirits are “way
up yonder!” In a few more weeks though, the boys are
back home. Maybe they did not like the Montana winters?
Wish
I had a picture of James. I have a couple copies of
unidentified photos I’ve received from fellow researchers that may
well be James; but they are not identified – just found with other
McAdams photos.
Hope
you enjoy these stories of a man that used to be largely forgotten –
his only memento being an “old buffalo robe”.
Note - Alan refers to an autobiography written by L. H. Kennard. The book, Leonidas Hamlin Kennard - his family : a selection of narrative histories, is available through the Family History Library. It has also been microfilmed.
