Thomas may have been born in Knox County, Indiana in about 1815. He married Lydia Swaim at Parke County, Indiana on 15 Oct 1835.[1] Two of their children were born in Indiana: Elizabeth Jane (1836) and David Lewis (1837) Adams. Two more children, possibly a son, Elam Brown Adams, and another child (unknown) were born in Missouri in 1843.
On May 14, 1846 the family set out by wagon train from Missouri for California led by wagon captains Elam Brown and Isaac Allen. The company was composed primarily of the relatives and friends of Allen and Brown and consisted of about 30 wagons, 100 men, plus their wives and children.
They reached Fort Hall in present day Idaho, then continued southwest on the trail to California. Thomas, however, died along the trail prior to reaching Marys River (present day Humboldt River, in northern Nevada) on August 22. Wagon captain Isaac Allen died five days later on August 27 1846. The area is a desperately arid and hot region of the Great Basin. The suffering and deaths of many immigrants and their animals was memorialized in diaries.
Thomas' wife and young children continued on and arrived in California later in 1846. The eldest child, David, was 10 years old, Elizabeth was 8, and the youngest child, Elam Brown Adams, was about 4. No marker for Thomas' grave has been found.
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A > Adams > Thomas Merit Adams
Categories: Western US Pioneers
This is a clear duplicate: Spouse is Lydia Swaim; death is 1846.
Please merge.