From "HISTORY OF THE UPPER OHIO VALLEY,"  Vol. I, pages 204-205.
Brant & Fuller, 1890.


GEORGE ADAMS

George Adams, of Wheeling, W.Va., is a descendant of a family of that 
name who crossed from England about the year 1695, and made their 
home in Somerset county, Md., in which county the parents of Mr. 
Adams were both born.  They afterward became residents of Baltimore, 
and there the father died in 1846.  George, the subject of this 
mention, was born at Baltimore in 1834, and in the schools of that 
city received his early education, which was supplemented by study at 
Newton university, a high grade classical institute presided over by 
Dr. H. W. Heath.  After leaving school he entered the employment of a 
large shipping and commission house.  He was engaged in this house in 
1852 when he came to Wheeling as its representative, to take charge 
of a large pork packing establishment under its control.  In 1857 Mr. 
Adams, deciding to remain at Wheeling, engaged in the wholesale 
grocery and commission business, establishing a house of his own, 
which met with pronounced success.  In the same year in which this 
business was founded he was married to Mary, daughter of Samuel 
McClellan, an old and highly respected merchant of Wheeling.  Mr. 
Adams continued in the mercantile business until 1864, when he 
organized the First National bank of Wheeling, of which he was 
elected cashier.  He served as cashier and manager of that 
establishment until 1874, when he resigned to enter the wholesale 
boot and shoe trade with J. N. Vance, he and partner succeeding in 
the well established business founded by their father-in-law in 1837. 
In the latter part of 1876 Mr. Adams resumed his position as cashier, 
the bank having in the meantime been changed in title and 
organization from the First National to the Bank of the Ohio Valley.  
He held this position in the bank until the early part of 1880, when 
he resigned, in order to travel, with his son, who was in feeble 
health.  He was thus occupied for about three years, and since his 
return to Wheeling he has not been actively engaged in business 
affairs, though his interests are extensive in various enterprises in 
and about Wheeling.  Though of southern birth and training Mr. Adams 
was during the civil war a firm supporter of the Union and 
unfaltering in loyalty.  He was in Baltimore on April 19, 1861, and 
on account of the excitement and the anti-union sentiment then 
manifested, removed his mother and family to St. Clairsville, Ohio, 
where the aged lady, who was born in 1808, still resides, in full 
possession of her faculties.  By his first marriage Mr. Adams had 
three children, of whom there is one survivor, the wife of Philip 
Taylor Allen, of Staunton, Va.  The first wife of Mr. Adams died in 
1870, and in 1874 he was married to her sister, Jane W. McClellan.
 

(Linda Fluharty)