Adams, Anderson Grant (1862–1936)

Anderson Grant Adams was the 15th treasurer of the General Conference of Seventh-day Adventists.

Adams was born July 16, 1862, in Ohio, the son of Albert and Martha McDowell Adams. He had a younger sister, Anna Bell Adams (c. 1866-1913).¹ His family moved to Wisconsin when he was three years old, and then to Minnesota where he grew up and became an Adventist.² On September 27, 1884, Anderson married Ethel D. Dickens (1864-1932),³ with whom he had three children: Edna F. (1884-1908), Anna Olive (1889-1978), and Ethelyn L. (1891-1970).⁴

Adams, a bookkeeper, entered church employment in November 1893 as treasurer of the Minnesota Conference.⁵ At the annual conference meetings in June 1894 he was elected to continue as conference treasurer and was elected assistant secretary of the state Tract Society.⁶ In March 1897, Adams, at age 34, was elected treasurer and recording secretary of the General Conference in Battle Creek, Michigan.⁷ He served during the presidency of G. A. Irwin for three and a half years, but resigned in late October 1900, before the end of his term.⁸

Adams remained in Battle Creek until accepting a call to the newly organized North Pacific Union Conference in 1906.⁹ He served the union conference as secretary and auditor (1906-1909) and as editor of its periodical, the North Pacific Union Gleaner (1906-1908), and as Home Missionary department secretary (1908-1909). Ethel Adams was hired by Walla Walla College as preceptress and matron, and later taught hygienic dressmaking.¹⁰

After Anderson and Ethel divorced in the early 1910s, he left denominational employment and, for a number of years, was not active in the church. He moved to Seattle, where he was employed as a bookkeeper.¹¹ Ethel moved to southern California in 1914, where she took a position at Loma Linda Sanitarium and later served as preceptress of nurses at Glendale Sanitarium.¹²

According to his obituary, Anderson G. Adams “renewed his consecration in his later life.”¹³ He married an Adventist woman, Florence Coomer Hines (1875-1957), on September 7, 1928.¹⁴ They lived in Seattle until his death on December 14, 1936, at the age of 74.¹⁵

Sources

Allee, N. W. “Minnesota, Notice!” ARH, November 7, 1893.

“Anderson Grant [Andrew] Adams.” FamilySearch. Accessed June 13, https://www.familysearch.org/tree/person/sources/G7XJ-BDN.

“Ethel D. Dickens Adams.” Find A Grave. Memorial ID 8201465, December 15, 2011. Accessed June 13, 2023. https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/82014165/ethel-d-adams.

“Fourteenth Meeting of the Conference.” General Conference Daily Bulletin, March 5, 1897.

Irwin, Geo. A. “Important!” ARH, November 13, 1900.

“Minnesota Conference Proceedings.” ARH, July 3, 1894.

“Procedures of the Minnesota Tract Society.” ARH, July 24, 1894.

Prout, C. S. “Ethel Dickens-Adams obituary.” ARH, October 13, 1932.

Schaffner, R. G. “Anderson G. Adams obituary.” North Pacific Union Gleaner, February 9, 1937.

Seventh-day Adventist Yearbooks. General Conference of Seventh-day Adventists Online Archives (GCA). https://documents.adventistarchives.org/Yearbooks/Forms/AllItems.aspx.

White, W. B. “Important Notice!” North Pacific Union Gleaner, June 26, 1906.

Notes

1. Anderson Grant Adams in household of Albert Adams, Springfield, St. Croix, Wisconsin, “United States Census, 1880,” FamilySearch, accessed June 13, 2023, https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:MNHF-8XX.↩

2. R. G. Schaffner, “Anderson G. Adams obituary,” North Pacific Union Gleaner, February 9, 1937, 7.↩

3. Minnesota, U.S., Marriages from the Minnesota Official Marriage System, 1850-2019, accessed June 12, 2023, Ancestry.com.↩

4. “Ethel D. Dickens Adams,” Find A Grave, Memorial ID 8201465, December 15, 2011, accessed June 13, 2023, https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/82014165/ethel-d-adams.↩

5. N. W. Allee, “Minnesota, Notice!,” ARH, November 7, 1893, 705.↩

6. “Minnesota Conference Proceedings,” ARH, July 3, 1894, 427; “Procedures of the Minnesota Tract Society,” ARH, July 24, 1894, 477.↩

7. “Fourteenth Meeting of the Conference,” General Conference Daily Bulletin, March 5, 1897, 287-288.↩

8. Geo. A. Irwin, “Important!,” ARH, November 13, 1900, 736.↩

9. W.B. White, “Important Notice!,” North Pacific Union Gleaner, June 26, 1906, 3.↩

10. “North Pacific Union Conference,” North Pacific Union Gleaner, and “Walla Walla College” entries in Seventh-day Adventist Yearbooks for 1907-1911, General Conference of Seventh-day Adventists Online Archives (GCA), https://documents.adventistarchives.org/Yearbooks/Forms/AllItems.aspx.↩

11. A.G. Adams in “1920 U.S. Census,” accessed June 13, 2023, Ancestry.com; Ethel D. Adams in “1920 U.S. Census,” Andestry.com.↩

12. C.S. Prout, “Ethel Dickens-Adams obituary,” ARH, October 13, 1932, 22.↩

13. Schaffner, “Anderson G. Adams obituary.”↩

14. Anderson G. Adams and Florence C Hines, 1928, “Washington, County Marriages, 1855-2008,” FamilySearch, accessed June 13, 2023, https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:QPMJ-TFF5; “Florence C. Adams obituary,” North Pacific Union Gleaner, February 10, 1958, 7.↩

15. Schaffner, “Anderson G. Adams obituary.”↩