ADAMS OF ADAMSVILLE: - Marlboro County, SC -

William Mitchell Adams, Jr, (the first Adams to set foot on Marlboro County soil) son of William Mitchell Adams, Sr. and Obedience "Beadie" Leggett Adams of Richmond County, North Carolina, was born 18 January 1764 in Anson County (1779 Richmond County), North Carolina. William Mitchell Adams, Jr., a miller by trade, married first on February 3, 1794 in Marlboro County, South Carolina, to Mary Marine, daughter of Jonathan Marine and Mary Charles Marine. They had the following children: Jonathan, Hannah, Obedience, John P., William Branch, and Mary Adams. William married a second time on 18 August 1813 in Marlboro County, South Carolina to Julia Bullard of Marlboro County. They had the following children: Robertson C., Jackson, Jeptha, Martha Ann, and Julia Adams. William married a third time about 1828 in Richmond County (1899 Scotland County), North Carolina to Elizabeth Gibson, daughter of Nelson Gibson and Rutha Dawkins Gibson. They had the following children: Shockley Dodley, Wyatt H., and Kittie J. Adams. William married a fourth time about 1836 in Marlboro County, South Carolina to Martha Easterling, daughter of William Easterling and Elizabeth Sands Covington Easterling. They had no children. William died on 18 January 1859 in Adamsville, Marlboro County, South Carolina. He was buried in the Adams-Fletcher Cemetery, located in the woods on north side of the old Fletcher Memorial School, east of King Road #123 and west of Hwy 381 and north of Academy Road #17, in Marlboro County, South Carolina. According to William Jackson Adams, "William was the eldest of the three sons of William Adams. He was born in that part of North Carolina which was formerly embraced in Anson county and afterwards in Richmond when its territory was diminished by the formation of Scotland. I do not know the date of his father's removal to Marlboro district. He died on 18 January 1859, having lived more than four score and ten. He evidently inherited his father's share of devotion to his country." An obituary relates the following incident of his early life. After remaining in Anson County (1779 Richmond Co.) for some time, William moved into South Carolina in 1783, in the section of Marlboro County known as Adamsville. From his four wives descended a large and highly respected family whose progeny has spread to numerous other sections of South Carolina, and North Carolina as well. The obituary of William Mitichell Adams, Jr. said he died near Adamsville, Marlboro District, South Carolina on the 18th of January at the extreme age of nearly 100 years. He was born in Richmond County, North Carolina (at which time was not known) but removed to Marlboro about the close of the Revolutionary War when about 19 years old. He retained to the last a very distinct recollection of some of the events of the Revolution, one being of a personal nature, is here presented. A party of Tories passing through Richmond County in those lawless times encountered young Adams in the road. He was sitting astride his dog, so as to keep him from attacking the party. As they rode up, they ask him to tell them where a certain Whig was concealed in the neighborhood. He told them he knew nothing about the man, and perhaps said it rather saucily, for the exasperated feeling of the lawless bandits. They told him to let the dog go, which he refused to do, and one of them very artfully threw a rope over the youngster's neck and separated him from the dog and swung the boy up to a limb where his life would have ended, but for the timely interposition of his mother, who cut the rope before life was entirely extinct. As a man he was remarkable for his industrious habits and unyielding integrity. Always ready in every available way to promote the peace of the community and the interest of the church. For many years he worshipped with the Quakers though I do not know that he ever was formally connected with them. In October 1842 he joined the Methodist Church.