Nathaniel John Adams was born April 3, 1867, in Cork, Ireland, the son of Nathaniel and Martha (Waugh) Adams. According to his Topeka obituary he also had a brother, Harry J. Adams, and a sister, Mrs. Grace E. Perry. He was admitted on trial to the Kansas Conference in 1897 and entered into full membership in 1899. Rev. Adams' wife, Barbara Jane Dice, was born in Chambersburg, Pennsylvania, in 1874 and moved to Dickinson County, Kansas, in 1884. She graduated from Baker University in 1902 and married Rev. Adams on June 7, 1905, at Lenexa, Kansas. Rev. Adams' appointments included Wakarusa, Enterprise, Wilsey, Baldwin Circuit, Centropolis, Keats, Alta Vista, Emmett, Birmingham, Whiting, Oneida, Troy, Toronto, Green, Mahaska, Morganville, Hanesville, and Centralia. In all, he spent his ministry of 42 years entirely in Kansas. He retired in 1939 and participated in the Euclid Methodist Church for 20 years thereafter. Rev. Adams was a member of the Euclid Quarterly Conference and an honorary steward on the official church board. Rev. Adams, with his wife, Barbara, moved into the Methodist Home in June 1959. He died April 7, 1963, at the age of 96, and was buried in Mount Hope Cemetery, Topeka, Kansas. Barbara died in 1966, at age 91, and was buried at his side. The children of Rev. Nathaniel and Barbara Adams were Capt. John E. (memoir says John P.) Adams and Mrs. Helen A. (Beasore) Barton. Their family also included two grandchildren and four great-grandchildren. Rev. Adams' memoir can be found in the Kansas Conference Journal for 1963, page 603.

Note written by Sarah St. John