George W. Adair Jr. Research Notes

2. Per website http://home.att.net/~dtadair/georgewashingtonadair.html: had 11 children: George William, Leroy, Don Carlos, Bertha, Clarence Duane, Lenora Ann, Guy, Emily Printha, Betsy Olive, Alford Chestnut, and Blanche Grace.

3. Unpublished paper "Hammond History" by Don Smith of Bloomfield, New Mexico is a history of the Hammond, New Mexico where George Adair and his son George Adair, Jr. were part of the two dozen or so LDS families who settled in the area in the late 1890's. Many had come from the White Mountain aand Apache County area of Arizona. I have a copy of this history on file. The area was first settled by nonmembers of the LDS Church and was kind of a rough area at first. The area is on the San Juan river and was attractive because of the irrigation possibilities. The Hammond Ward was organized on 25 Nov 1900. George Adair, Jr. was named to the bishopric to replace second counselor Joseph W. White when White moved from the area a couple of months or so after the ward organization. The irrigation ditch was problematic with many flash floods continually washing away parts of it. So many families had moved away from the area by 1913, that the ward became a branch of the Western States Mission for the next several years. Don has copies of the ward and branch records and it appears therefrom that the Adairs were active members. In the very early days of the ward, Sunday services were held in the various homes of the ward members. In 1914, after about 14 years, a new church house was bult. It was small and built of cedar posts set upright in the ground,then stuccoed with adobe mud. This little building served for church, school, community meetings, and a dance hall. It was so small that there was only room normally for a stove, 12 student desks, and the teacher's desk. For dances, the men would have to take turns in the building. School was normally held for four months a year. The children were taught by some teachers who had but eight years formal education or less. Some of the students had to walk or ride hourse back as far as five miles to attend school. Recreational acitivities in Hammond were humble affairs. There were dances, house parties, and outdoor affairs such as baseball and footraces. Dances were a favorite recreation since they didn't cost much except for the passing around of a mason jar for donations to pay the local fiddler. Often there would be two or three dances a week. Even the little kids danced, but when it became too late the kids were put to bed in the wagon boxes while the adults continued to dance. One of the fiddlers was George Adair's son Rufus. Don Smith's son Grant still has the old fiddle in his possession as of 2003. The old leather case in which the fiddle was carried is very weathered and worn from being hooked to the saddle horn and rubbed back and forth on the side of the horse as Rufus rode horseback to play for the dances. In the summer, normally picnis were held in a large grove of cottonwood trees by the river. Every Fourth of July would be celebrated with camping in the grove in their wagons on the evening of the third. At daybreak campfires were built and the celebration began. In the mornings there would be an outdoor dance followed by pot luck at noon followed by baseball in the afternoon. There was always a patriotic talk by a member of the ward. The festivities would end with a dance lasting well into the night. The irrigation ditch never could bring enough land under cultivation and was constantly rebuilt for 20 or more years before being given up on. The water from the river was very muddy and usually had to be settled before being used domestically. The old timers used to say that "the water was too thick to pour but too thin to cut with a knife." Homes were painted with a mixture of water and soft rock mica. The mica was dug from the hillsides, washed clean, then put in an oven to bake. After baking, it was ground into a fine powder and mixed with water and applied to the walls. This homemade paint gave the homes a beautiful glitter. There never was a post office in Hammond and so they would go up the river to Largo. The water supply was always a problem leading to poor crops; consequently, the men would often go find work outside of the community. Some went to Colorado to work the timber and in the mills. Others helped lay track from Durango to Farmington for the Denver Rio Grande Southern Railroad. Some of the old ward minutes in Farmington fefer to times when most all of the men of the ward were gone. In one case in 1909, there was only one brother left temporarily and he did all the ward [home] teaching by himself. In Hammond in 1909, priesthood quorum meetings were held Monday evenings every week. By 1928, most of the Hammond settlers due to hardships and hard times had given up and moved away. Rufus Adair was one who remained. Later in 1928, Hammond was combined with Bloomfield and was organized as the Bloomfield Branch which was in turn a dependant branch of the Burnham Ward in Kirtland. All that is left of the settlement is one old home from 1893 and the Hammond cemetery with a few old stones and at least twenty unmarked graves. George and Emily Tyler Adair are buried in this cemetery. George Jr. is also buried in Hammond and Rufus is buried in Farmington.

4. From the book "Nutrioso and Her Neighbors," by Nina Kelly and Alice Lee [bracketed notes by myself]: p. V: "Nutrioso has never been a large town, perhaps no more than 800 at any one time." [Photo of Nutrioso in 1896 is included with article.] p. 31: "Alpine is about 8 miles southeast of Nutrioso, elev. 8,000', at the head of the San Francisco River. It is on the SE side of the Continental Divide while Nutrioso is on the NW side of the watershed." pp. 37-39: "[In speaking of Willard Lee] While they were living in Clarkston, not far from Kanab, a call came for settlers for Arizona. Late in the summer of 1879, a company started for Arizona. Besides Willard Lee's family were Abner Martin [married to dau. of James Mitchel Mangum], Samuel Neuton [Newton] Adair, John Will Mangum [son of James Mitchel], James Mitchel Mangum, Charles Y. Webb, Abe Winsor, Jacob Hamblin's wife Priscilla, Lora Brown (a widow), and others joined the company as they traveled along.[I believe Samuel J. Adair was with his son Samuel N. on this trip but I cannot prove it.] The road from Kanab led across a barren expanse into the Kaibab Forest. After ascent of the Buckskin Mountains, the trail road wound in and out through the tall pines and cedar trees, then down, down, down they went as if descending into a pit. Trees were left behind. High jagged sandstone cliffs of the Colorado Plateau loomed higher and higher. Camp was made where there was water. Often this necessitated traveling far into the night. Water barrels were carried on the sides of the wagons which furnished sufficient water for domestic use. On they traveled and camped by Houserock springs. On the vermillion colored walls they etched their names and date of trip close by other names and dates of earlier travelers who had passed that way. As they continued their journey, the cliffs began to close in. Emmit Wash and Soap Creek were passed and camp made about one mile from the huge crack in the plateau where ran the mighty muddy Colorado River... Down to the Ferry crossing. The approach to Lee's Ferry was rough and lay in a hollow at the lower end of Glen Canyon. The rapid waters emerge from the canyoun upon a reef of hard rock which slows the stream where it ripples, eddies, and sparkles in its slower course approaching the rapids just below the crossing. Just below the rapids, the Paria Creek flows into the Colorado River... The large float boat was long enough to carry two wagons at one time. The boat was propelled by oars with three men. The boat was towed upstream by horses on the bank pulling it alongside the bank for a short distance then headed up the stream at an angle and driven by oars, aided by the current that forced it across to the opposite side some distance below where it started. Two rowboats were also taken up the side of the bank above the crossing and turned into the stream leading some good swimming stock to decoy the rest of the stock to the other side. With shouts and maneuvering of the boats and swimming stock the stock swam across to the south side... The rough, rocky ascent of Lee's Back Bone was crossed and down on to the rolling plains at the foot of Echo Cliffs they went. There were the hot dry rolling plains with little vegetation and the long dusty trail of the Indian Country, the land of the Navajos... The men were always alert for Indians. When the Little Colorado was reached, all were relieved... In crossing the river, some of the stock got stuck in quicksand... In the settlements of Sunset and Joseph City, they found friends who come three years before. After a few days rest, they continued on south up the Little Colorado River. The river was a slow, sluggish stream winding its way throuht the sandy bed during the hot dry summer months but was a roaring muddy torrent during floods in the upper reaches of the stream. Through the petrified trees, up and down, in and out, the trail led on and on deeper into the untamed wilderness of the high mountains of snow-covered pine trees... Most of the company remained that winter at Springerville... The next spring Willard moved up on Little Nutrioso Creek. Nutrioso was a sparsely-settled valley in June 1880... In what later became the Lower town in the newly acquired Jones Valley were... George Adair, his wife and six children, and George Jr., his wife and one child." pp. 60-61: "George Washington Adair (son of Samuel Jefferson and Jamima Catherine Mangum Adair) b. 1837, Pickens County, AL, buried 1909, Hammond, NM. He married Ann Catherine Chessnutt, b. 1844, Missouri; d. 1863, Washington, Utah." Their children and spouses: George Washington, UT, 1861, Almira Hamblin. Jamima Ann, UT, 1863, Charles Henry Hale [Hales]. George Washington Adair married 20 Emily Tyler. (The following was taken from US 1880 census on Nutrioso Creek, Apache County.) [Census follows.] George Washington Adair Sr. and George Washington Adair Jr. were both in the U.S. census of 1880 at Nutrioso, but they did not stay. They went to Alpine and stayed until Samuel Neuton Adair and his father came to Nutrioso in 1883, then George W. Jr. moved his family to Nutrioso for a few years. p. 61: "George Washington Adair (son of George Washington and Ann Catherine Chessnut Adair) b, 1861, Santa Clara, Utah; died 1934, Bloomfield, NM. He married Almira Hamblin (dau. of Wm. Haynes and Betsy Leavitt Hamblin) b. 1860, Gunlock, Utah; d. 1941, Mesa, AZ." Children and their spouses: George Wm., b. on the trail before Lee's Ferry, 1880, d. in 1880 in Alpine. Leroy, Alpine, AZ, 1882, Martha Black. Don Carlas, Nutrioso, 1884, d. in 1886 in Nutrioso. Bertha, Nutrioso, 1886, 1) Thos. Finch; 2) John Finch. Clarence Duane, Nutrioso, 1888, Ruth Gardner. Lenor Ann, Overton, NV, 1891, d. in 1906. Guy R., Nutrioso, 1892, Pearl Irene Fairchild, d. 1959 in Mesa but bur. in Nutrioso. Emily Parentha, Paria, UT, 1894 Joseph Rulon Ashcroft. Betsy Olive, Overton, NV, 1896, Scheyler Edward Fuller. Alfred Chessnutt, Price, UT, 1898, Helen Victoria Hill. Blanche Grace, Hammond, NM, 1900, d. in 1920, unmarried. pp. 222-223: "Judge George H. Crosby wrote a coumn in the St. Johns Observer for a time and among his articles was a lovely one on Nutrioso 40 years before. He calles it Nutrioso As It Was." [Some quotes follow:] "Then there was George Adair, the best hunter of all those mountain settlements, and incidentally one who always knew all the community news. And Mrs. Lucinda Wilkins and Aunt Francis Mangum, who soon after, became widows and who have spent their lives caring for the sick -- both had hearts of gold." pp. 251-256: Hand drawn plot and block land map with the following comments: "John Staniford from Alpine built Jerry Harradence's house on Block 18, Lot 2. When George Adair moved, he sold the field east of town to Jim Webb. Jim built a large barn. He sold his place to Jerry Harradence, who established a tannery south of the barn." " George and Em Adair had 6 children. They lived in the field east of Block 17. The house was a 2-room sawed dove-tailed with logs 6 inches by 10 feet. He sold to Jim Webb all of the field east of the creek when George moved to Utah [New Mexico?]. George's father lived with him. Samuel Jefferson Adair was born in 1806 in South Carolina. He died in July 1889 at Nutrioso and was buried at St. Johns. Part of the time Samuel Jefferson lived with his son Nute." "Wesley and Rebecca Adair lived on 9-2, a one-room log house bouth from Lime Hamblin. Wesley had been in the Mormon Battalion. He lived 20 years in Nutrioso and died in 1903." "James Mitchel and Frances Mangum lived on 10-2. He moved in after Joe Lewis moved away." "Jim and Fred Wilkins were sons of Wilson Wilkins by a previous marriage. They were not married and lived in a 1-room log house on 10-4. Billy Hamblin built the house. Fred went ot Utah and Jim married Caroline Mangum. There were 2 houses on this lot and Jim and Fred lived in the east one. Mary Ann [Adair] Mangum and her son Neuton [Newton] lived in the west house. It was a 1-room log."

5. In the excerpts cited above from the book "Nutrioso and Her Neighbors," there are some things that appear to be hearsay and anecdotal. The following excellent excerpts prepared by Don Smith help clarify when the Adairs came from Utah to Arizona: a. From Gennett (Adair) Clark Story [daughter of Samuel Newton Adair]: "So on the Eleventh day of November 1879 we left Washington on our way to Arizona. I thought then that we were going so far away that we would never see Utah or our home again. At Kanab my father' s brother George W. Adair and his family joined us. In my father's family there was father, mother, my brother Charlie, myself, Abe, Minia, Mary and the baby Anna then six months old. In my uncle's family there was Uncle George, Aunt Emily, their daughter Emily, sons Daniel, William, John, Newton and baby Ruth and Aunt Emily's brother John Tyler. They were daughter and son of Daniel Tyler of the Mormon Battalion. Each family had two wagons and each had a few head of cattle besides teams and riding horses... We landed in Concho on the eleventh of January 1880. Concho was a little town, mostly mexican. One family there was William Pulsifer another Mormon Battalion man and Uncle to Aunt Emily. He had bought a place there with three small rooms, flat dirt roof and facing the north and built like this (rectangle). They let Uncle George live in the East Room, my folks had the middle room and they lived in the west room. Pulsifers had three or four children so there was seven grown people and fifteen or sixteen children, but we managed to get along until spring, then Uncle George decided to move to a place called Nutrioso. The stories he had heard of Elk, Deer and Wild Turkeys interested him." b. From Almira's Life Story [Almira Hamblin Adair, wife of Geo. Adair, Jr., son of Geo. and Ann Chestnut Adair]: "Both the Adair family and my family answered the call. The Adair family was to leave a few months before our family, so, we decided we would get married as we didn't want to be separated... There were 45 families in our company. Our Captain was Mr. John Mangum. A man of great courage, he had crossed the plains in earlier days.We were on the road seven days before we reached Lee's Ferry, on the Big Colorado. We were compelled to travel very slowly as we all had our cattle with us. In mother's herd there were about 250 head... The snow was about two feet deep by this time, but not so very cold. The next morning after the baby's birth we traveled on toward Sunset and arrived there the third day. This was a little Mormon settlement on the Little Colorado. The people who had come the year before had raised a crop so the travelers could get supplies. This little settlement was just across the Little Colorado from where Winslow is today. Just two weeks after our baby's birth, sister Jane's baby arrived, a girl. We stayed in Sunset two weeks and during that time my brother and brother-in-law put up a one roomed log cabin. Mother, brother Billy's family and Jane and her husband stayed there two months. As Baby and I were all right we went on after two weeks to Concho, where George's father and the rest of his people were. Father Adair and the Clark boys and George's Uncle Newton had been at Concho about two months when we came. They had put [up] cabins for shelter, planning to stay here until spring." c. Don's summary on Samuel Jefferson Adair: "I think it's very significant that Samuel Jefferson Adair wasn't mentioned as traveling with either group. I think he went to Arizona in early summer of 1880. If you look in the ordinance index, Samuel Jefferson was sealed to Betsy Mangum & Marie Christiane Sorensen on the 10 of March 1880 in the St. George Temple. The rest of the family (George Washington, Samuel Jefferson & George Jr.) was already in Arizona. I don't think Samuel would have made the rugged trip back to Utah so soon if he had been in Arizona. I believe he went to Arizona with his brother Thomas Jefferson Adair soon after the sealing date, as he appears on the 1880 census in Show Low Creek, the same community as Thomas Jefferson Adair. Show Low Creek was later known as Fool's Hollow, which is approximately 30 miles from Concho. As we know Samuel & Anne moved on to St. John's a little later."

BURIAL: 1. Per 8 Feb 2002 email of Carolyn Smith in regards to gravesite: "We know that he was buried in the Hammond Cemetery. Don, my husband, extracted the information from the old Young Stake History. It says, George Washington Adair Jr., then gives his death date, and states that he was buried in the Hammond Cemetery. Whe have checked with the Bloomfield Cemetery Board and they have no record of him being buried in the Bloomfield Cemetery. What our question is, what plot or location was he buried in. We feel that it is probably likely that he was buried next to his son Clarence D. Adair. There is a grave located next to Clarence D. Adair's grave on the south side. There is a metal marker on this grave but it is so weathered that it is impossible to read. Could this have been George Washington Adair Jr.'s grave."

!ORDINANCES: Verified 16 Mar 2002. BAPTISM: Ordinance Index 1.02; Rebaptized: 31 Mar 1964. ENDOWMENT: Ordinance Index 1.02 St. George Temple, FHL Film 170577, ord. 233. SEALING TO PARENTS: Ordinance Index 1.02, FHL Film 170716, P. 33, ord. 1374. SEALING TO SPOUSE: SEALING TO SPOUSE: Ordinance Index 1.02 St. George Temple, FHL Film 170579, ord. 794. Change Date: 24 MAY 2003 at 09:10:01

Father: George Washington ADAIR b: 27 JUN 1837 in , Pickens, Alabama Mother: Ann Catherine CHESTNUT b: 11 APR 1844 in , , Missouri

Marriage 1 Almira HAMBLIN b: 26 OCT 1860 in Gunlock, Washington, Utah Married: 22 JAN 1879 in St. George, Washington, Utah

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