Peter Taylor Adams (11/22/1834 -12/3/1924) was born in Collierville, Shelby County, Tennessee. He was the ninth and final child of Peter and Sarah (Walton) Adams, both natives of North Carolina. When Peter was 2 years old the couple moved to what would become Harrison County, Texas. In 1849, when Peter was fourteen years old, the family moved to Bexar County, near San Antonio, and began a cattle ranching empire. The senior Peter Adams died in 1854 leaving the ranch in the care of Sarah and the Adams boys.
West Texas before (and after) the Civil War was considered Indian Territory and Peter Adams and his brothers were members of the Texas Rangers, guarding the scattered settlements against raids from Native American warriors and chasing down cattle rustlers. His brother Henry Clay Adams was a Lieutenant commanding a Ranger unit when he was killed in a skirmish with Indians along the Nueces River in Uvalde Texas on February 22, 1861. Another brother, Martin Van Buren Adams, was shot and severely wounded in a clash with Indians but recovered.
The Adams brothers opposed secession and voted against it, but when Texas joined the Confederacy all seven remaining Adams brothers served as officers in the Confederate army. Peter Adams was a Texas Ranger at the outbreak of the war when he joined an outfit known as McCord’s Frontier Regiment. Commanded by Colonel James McCord, the regiment was tasked with guarding the western settlements against Native American raids. Adams was commissioned a second lieutenant in the Frontier Regiment. His brother Martin also achieved the rank of Lieutenant.
When the regiment was transferred to regular Confederate service in March 1864 it was re-designated the 46th Texas Cavalry regiment. The regiment served in the Trans-Mississippi Department, encompassing Louisiana, Mississippi, and Texas. While in Texas the regiment continued to serve as a buffer against Native American incursions. It was while serving with the 46th Texas Calvary that Adams was put in command of Company B and was addressed as Captain.
Years later Adams would be honored for his Civil War service, receiving the Southern Cross from the Emma Sansom Chapter 449 of the United Daughters of the Confederacy, a group based in Santa Ana, California.
Returning to ranching after the war, Adams married Elizabeth “Henrietta” Downs (3/9/1848-5/5/1892) on October 25, 1865. He was 30 and she was 17. They had six children. Henrietta was the daughter of Edmund and Caroline Downs. (See separate Family Profile) The Downs came to Texas from Iowa. Edmund was a physician. Their son Edwin was included in the Adams cattle business and also joined Texas Calvary. In partnership with his brother Martin, the Adams family herd numbered between 100,000 and 125,000 head of cattle. The herds were driven from the ranch north to the cow-towns and railheads in Kansas. In 1875, Peter Adams brother, David Green Adams, was killed at Pena, Texas on November 29, 1875 in a clash with Native Americans.
In 1876 P.T. Adams sold out and moved his family to California. He spent a year searching for the right location and in November 1877 settled in Tustin where Henrietta’s parents had moved. The Downs were some of the first settlers in Tustin and are credited with building the first house in town. In 1878 Adams had a house built in Tustin and he lived in for the rest of his life. The house was off Main Street, west of Tustin Avenue at 15522 Williams Street, and sat well back from the street. Adams neighbors were Henrietta’s sister (Hiram and Cynthia Snow) and the Jefferson Williams family. (See separate family profiles).
When Adams bought the property there was small one-room house on the lot. Samuel Tustin, son of town founder Columbus Tustin, claimed it was the house his father built and lived in when he first moved to the area.
P.T Adams brother, Martin (10/1/1932-3/27/1908) and wife Elizabeth Adams also moved to Orange Township about the same time. Their farm was located on north Main St near West Chapman. They had no children, and he was a farmer. He died at age 75 of a heart attack.
Adams initially grew oranges and limes on his property but soon became one of the first walnut growers in the area. Eventually eighteen of his twenty-four acres were planted to walnuts, and he was consistently able to harvest over forty-thousand pounds of walnuts each year.
He served several years as the president to the Santa Ana Walnut Growers Association. He was an investor in the Pacific Coast Soda Company, a mining operation that extracted phosphates, sulphates and salt in the Mojave Desert, along with James Irvine, John McFadden, A.D. Bishop, Daniel Hallway and Dr William Wall.
It was not all work for Adams. There is an account of a two-week camping trip in the nearby Santa Ana Mountains in December 1890. His companions on the trip were fellow Tustin rancher T.C. Matheny and Dan Baker, editor of the Santa Ana Standard newspaper. The trio traveled through Silverado Canyon, checked out local mining operations, camping out each night, and eventually ended their trip in San Juan, soaking in the hot springs.
Peter Adams became a widower when Henrietta passed away at the age of 44. Adams never remarried. Adams was a Democrat in a largely Republican County. He always served as a delegate to the conventions and his advice was often sought on political matters. He was also a charter member of the Santa Ana Elks Lodge and at the time of his death was its oldest member. Peter T. Adams passed away at his home in Tustin at the age 90 outliving his wife and two children. He was buried at Fairhaven Memorial Park beside Henrietta, who had preceded him there by thirty-two years.
The Adams had four children born in Texas; Henry (1866), Anna (1869), Frank “Cood” (1871), and Edward (1876) and two more children after moving to Tustin. The first born in Tustin died in infancy in 1879. The life story of their children follows:
Henry Martin Adams (7/24/1866-3/29/1948) was born in San Antonio, Texas. He married Katherine Blanche Fall in 1897 in Orange, California. He was 31 and she was 20. They had two daughters, Kathryn and Martha.
Henry founded the Tustin Water Works with Hiram Willard but eventually sold out his interest and for many years operated Adams-Bowers Lumber Company which later became known as Adams Lumber Co in Anaheim.
He died on March 29, 1946, in Orange, California, at the age of 79. Katherine died at the age of 81. They are both buried at Fairhaven Cemetery, Santa Ana CA.
Anna Darling Adams (1869-1/12/1911) was born in San Antonio, Texas. She married John Emery Gowen (12/25/1862-10/15/1938. He was 27 and she was 20. They had two children: Frank and Henrietta Ideala.
John was the son of Reverend Lorenzo and Angeline Gowen who arrived in Tustin in 1885. John was a partner with Charles F. Willard in Gowen & Willard Fruit Packers.
Anna died at their home on Lyon Street when a gas iron exploded. She was badly burned and the house was set on fire. She was 42 years old. He died at age 75. Both are buried in Santa Ana Cemetery.
Cood Adams (9/15/1871-5/16/1950) was born in Texas. He married Elizabeth Fall in 1910. They had one son: Charles. Elizabeth was the sister Frank Adams wife.
Cood raised Oranges on several parcels of land he owned, leased land on the O’Niel ranch to raise grain and was in partnership with Charles Willard establishing a packing house at Aliso Station.
He died in Santa Ana at age 78. She died at age 85. Both are buried at Fairhaven Cemetery in Santa Ana.
Edmund Adams (1876-7/24/1902) was born in 1876 in Texas. Edmund died at the age of 26 in the home of his father.
Frances Lela Adams (6/16/1888-10/31/1978) was born in Tustin, California. She married Hugh Julius Plumb.
Hugh was Orange County Tax Assessor for many years until his retirement in 1965. The couple lived in the old Adams home in Tustin where Frances was born. When they sold the property, the new owner had the Fire Department burn down the house to clear the land for new construction. The Plumbs had three sons: Donald, Ralph and Hugh, Jr. Their son Ralph was the first Tustin man to die in WWII when his ship was struck by Japanese bombers during the Battle of the Coral Sea, May 7, 1942. He was an ensign in the Navy and survived the attack on Pearl Harbor only to be lost in the first great carrier battle of the war. Hugh Jr became a physician as did his son.
Frances died in Orange, California, at the age of 91 and Hugh died at age 77. Both are buried in Fairhaven Cemetery in Santa Ana CA.
The Adams family is also related to Daniel D Adams and family who resided in Tustin.
See the Tustin Area Museum file for the sources of this Family Profile
Researched by Timothy Zierer and Vicki Gray
Created: 12/4/2021
