VOL. VII.

JULY, 1896.

No. 3.

HANNAH ADAMS.

BY MRS. OLIVE M. TILDEN.

THE HE papers relating to Miss Adams which have appeared of late in various periodicals dwell, as entirely proper, upon those phases of her life which are of more general or public interest. In this paper, written for our local Women's Club, it will naturally be expected that matters relating to her which are of specially local interest will be emphasized somewhat. In the dates given herewith, as well as in the facts stated, which in any degree differ from those elsewhere published, it is proper to say that a careful search of records and of other sources of authority has been made, and it is believed that they are entirely reliable.

Hannah Adams, the historian, the first American Woman whose learning and literary ability were generally recognized, was born in Medfield, Oct. 2, 1755. She was in the fifth generation from Lieut. Henry Adams, one of the pioneers of Medfield, who was killed in the doorway of his house by the Indians, on the morning when they burned the town. His picturesque old homestead was on the present Elm Street, near Mill Brook, and is marked by the ancient horse-block and whipping-tree, which are near it. She was a distant relative of President Adams.

Her grandfather, Thomas Adams, inherited a part of the original Adams farm, and built the house in which Hannah was born, about the year 1715. It stood on what is now known as the "Steele Place," about sixty rods west of the ancestral homestead. He was an energetic and thrifty farmer; by great industry and economy amassing considerable wealth, being, as is said,

A paper presented to the Medfield Women's Club, and read at the Hannah Adams memorial gathering, May 15, 1896.