"Portrait & Biographical Record of the Willamette Valley Oregon."  Chapman 
Publishing Company, 1903. p. 1454.
 
OSCAR P. ADAMS

     A pioneer resident of Cottage Grove, with whom one might profitably while
away many a winter evening, is Oscar P. Adams, whose most emphatic recollections
are centered around the very early days of Oregon, and around the mines in this
and some of the surrounding states. Probably no one in this county possesses
greater familiarity with the ore output of the best known mining localities
throughout the west, or has more accurately gauged the agricultural and general
possibilities of a well favored and very productive region. A distant relative
in a family which has provided a president to the United States, and which was
represented on the battlefields of the Revolution by his paternal grandfather,
Mr. Adams was born in Tioga county, Pa., July 30, 1828, a son of Isaac and
Sophronia Lydia (Porter) Adams, natives respectively of New York and Vermont.
Isaac Adams was born December 15, 1803, and in the early '30s left his native
state and went to Michigan, locating in Tecumseh, Lenawee county. This part of
Michigan was a wilderness at that time, and the new arrival found no neighbors
or even evidence of any previous settlers. He became prominent in his locality
as it was built up and agricultural and other industries were started, and he
became a member of the local militia, attaining to the rank of captain. He was a
farmer all his active life, and died in his adopted state in 1873, his wife
having preceded him in 1844, at the age of forty years. The Porter family was an
old Vermont one, and John Porter, the father of Mrs. Adams, was a soldier in the
war of 1812. Ten children were born to Mr. and Mrs. Adams, four of whom were
sons, Oscar P. being the oldest. By a former marriage Mr. Adams had one son, J.
C. Adams.
     On the wilderness farm in Michigan, Oscar P. Adams grew to manhood, and in
the public schools succeeded in getting as far as algebra, and other studies
accordingly. He developed a great deal of physical strength while felling trees,
and in time apprenticed to a machinist and wood-turner, trades which he applied
for some years in the timber district. In this way he saved quite a little
money, and $50 of this was paid to John H. Stevens for the privilege of
'accompanying him across the plains in 1854, but in addition he was required to
perform various services during the progress of the journey. Starting out May 4,
they went via the Barlow route and arrived at Foster September 6, Mr. Adams soon
after finding employment in a sawmill. After a month in the mill he made his way
to the mines in Josephine county, and in 1855 enlisted for government service as
head packer during the Indian war, as he had no gun with which to operate as a
soldier. Thirty days sufficed for this kind of work, and during that time he
made dangerous expeditions with flour from the Bear Creek mill to the
quartermaster, wherever located. Again he worked in the mines of Josephine
county, and for many years spent portions of each year in mining in some one of
the well known regions hereabouts.
     In 1858 Mr. Adams bought three hundred and twenty acres of land around and
including the present site of Cottage Grove, in time disposing of the town site
at $10 to $12 an acre. He still has one hundred and twenty-four acres of the
original purchase left, and has engaged in farming, stock-raising and mining
ever since he bought it. At present his farm is rented, although he oversees it,
as he also does his several mining claims in the western part of the state,
principally the Bohemia district. In the meantime he has been variously
interested in business in different parts of the state, and in 1864 spent the
year in Portland, where he engaged in truck-driving. In this town he married
Elizabeth Saylor, who crossed the plains with her people in 1853, and who died
in Cottage Grove in 1870, leaving the following daughters : Lovica Helen, now
Mrs. Charles Vilas, of Portland ; Mary C., the wife of Frank McFarland, and
living with her father; Sophronia L., now Mrs. Charles Van Buren, of Astoria,
Ore. ; Theodosia L., the wife of C. F. Cathcart, of Roseburg, Ore. ; and Hattie
E., now Mrs. Wilbur McFarland, of Cottage Grove. The second wife of Mr. Adams
was formerly Minerva Cromwell, who was born in Georgia, and who for nine years
has been an invalid, suffering from a paralytic stroke. Mr. Adams has been a
student all his life, and his life deductions are interesting and original in
the extreme. Few men are better posted on current events, nor have many a larger
fund of general useful information. He is a Republican in political preference,
and finds a religious home in the Christian Church.


     
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Submitted to the Oregon Bios. Project in October 2008 by Diana Smith.  Submitter
has no additional information about the person(s) or family mentioned above.