Adams House
Marshall, Harrison County, Texas
Marker Inscription
Attorney and plantation owner Chesley Meredith Adams (1813-1859) bought this property in the 1850s and constructed a log house. His widow Martha and her husband the Rev. J. F. Riggs built this frame residence in 1880 to replace the log structure. They transferred the property in 1889 to Martha's son Chesley Francis Adams (1856-1940). A lawyer and educator, Adams married Alice Chandler Stuart in 1891 and here they raised their family of eight children. Recorded Texas Historic Landmark - 1979
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
Attorney and plantation owner Chesley Meredith Adams bought this Harrison County land in the 1850s and raised a log house on it. After his death, his widow Martha and her second husband, the Rev. J. F. Riggs, replaced the cabin with this frame residence in 1880, and here Adams's son — a lawyer and educator — raised eight children. The home traces three generations of one family's life across the antebellum, wartime, and Gilded Age South.
Why it matters
The house is a window into how a single East Texas family carried on across slavery, war, and Reconstruction, from a frontier log cabin to a settled Victorian household.
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Related people
- · Chesley Meredith Adams
- · Martha Adams Riggs
- · Rev. J. F. Riggs
- · Chesley Francis Adams
- · Alice Chandler Stuart
Themes & tags
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