Sergeant William Adamson

Twenty-year-old William Adamson enlisted in Company B of the Fifth Iowa Infantry on June 24, 1861. He earned the trust of his officers and comrades, being promoted to Eighth Corporal on May 8, 1862. He progressed through the ranks, receiving the following advancements: Seventh Corporal on October 14, 1862, Sixth Corporal on November 1, 1862, Fourth Corporal on January 4, 1863, and First Corporal on March 1, 1863.

The Official Roster indicates that he was "wounded in head slightly" on May 22, 1863 at Vicksburg, Mississippi. He received one more promotion--to Fifth Sergeant--prior to his discharge on Christmas Day 1863 due to disability.

The volume Past and Present of Jasper County Iowa, published in 1912, includes a fuller biography about this veteran.

William Adamson

Mr. William Adamson was born March 27, 1841, at Huntsville, Indiana, the son of Enos and Mary Adamson. Enos Adamson died at Savannah, Missouri, and the widow came to Jasper county, Iowa, when William Adamson was about four years old. She entered land from the government and developed a very comfortable home. William Adamson remained at home with his mother until he enlisted in the defense of the Stars and Stripes on April 1, 1861, becoming a member of Company B, Fifth Iowa Volunteer Infantry, from Jasper County, this regiment being known as the Jasper Grays. He fought in the battles of Missionary Ridge, Lockout Mountain, Vicksburg, Iuka, Fort Donelson, Fort Henry and Shiloh. Mr. Adamson saw much hard service and was in many tight places, and was once wounded on the head and was sent to the hospital, rejoining the army after his recovery and he was honorably discharged and returned to his mother, who was still living on the home farm in Jasper County. He taught schools in the winter months and farmed in the summer for several years.

On December 12, 1867, he was united in marriage with Angeline Poore, a native of Wichester, Randolph County, Indiana, where she was born May 27, 1841, and she was the daughter of Edward and Nancy A. Poore, who came to Jasper County, Iowa, in an early day when their daughter, Angeline, was young, and here they became well established and were prominent in the days of the first settlers. To this union two sons were born: Paul M. Adamson, who married Leah J. Wheldon of Marshalltown, Iowa, and they have one child, Maxwell W., who is attending school at Marshalltown; Earl C. Adamson, the second son of the subject, was married to Daisy M. Lindsey, and to this union two children were born, one of whom died in infancy; Marcella B. now resides in Newton with his grandmother, Mrs. William Adamson, his mother having passed away when he was a small boy. The second marriage of Earl C. Adamson was to Elois Allen, of Des Moines, Iowa, and to this union one child, Joseph F., was born.

Mr. Adamson was more than an average man, and had a fine education. After his marriage, Mr. Adamson remained on the farm only a few years, then on account of failing health, he moved to Newton and purchased the home where his widow now resides and there he lived until his death, January 15, 1897, and he was buried at Newton Cemetery. He left his family a beautiful home and several valuable lots in Newton, also another valuable residence property, these holdings of Mrs. Adamson being well situated of East South street in a very desirable residence district of the city. Mrs. Adamson is a woman of estimable characteristics and has a host of warn personal friends who often visit her in her beautiful home. Her family were influential in their locality, and two of her brothers, [Private} Thomas J. [Poore] and George W. Poore, were in the Civil War, the former being in the same company with her husband, William Adamson, and the latter was in the Iowa Cavalry and he died while in the service.