Adamsville was a populated place in

Pinal County, Arizona Pinal County is in the central part of the U.S. state of Arizona. According to the 2020 census, the population of the county was 425,264, making it Arizona's third-most populous county. The county seat is Florence. The county was founded in 187 ...

. Once a thriving farm town, it became a ghost town by the 1920s. Adamsville is located at an elevation is 1,450 feet, on the south bank of the

Gila River The Gila River (; O'odham ima Keli Akimel or simply Akimel, Quechan: Haa Siʼil, Maricopa language: Xiil) is a tributary of the Colorado River flowing through New Mexico and Arizona in the United States. The river drains an arid watershed of n ...

, west of

Florence, Arizona , settlement_type = Town , image_skyline = Main Street original town-site of Florence Arizona National Register of Historic Places.jpg , imagesize = , image_caption = Main Street of the original town ...

History

Adamsville was one of the first two towns formed in Pinal County, Arizona. It was named for its original settler in 1866, Fred A. Adams. When a post office was established there in 1871, it was named Sanford, (for a Captain George B. Sanford of the First U.S. Cavalry), by a political enemy of Mr. Adams, Richard McCormick. The town had stores, homes, a post office and a flour mill and water tanks. Local residents continued to use the original name, causing confusion which existed until 1876, when the post office was discontinued. In 1900, the Gila River overflowed and wiped out most of the town. Those who survived the flood moved to the town of Florence. The inscription on the marker reads as follows: "In the 1870s, a flour mill and a few stores formed the hub of life in Adamsville, where shootings and knifings were commonplace, and life was one of the cheapest commodities. Most of the adobe houses have been washed away by the flooding Gila River". Listed in the National Register of Historic Places in 1970, reference #10000114. The entire settlement was gone by 1920. Adams died in 1910 and is buried in the Adamsville A.O.U.W. (

Ancient Order of United Workmen The Ancient Order of United Workmen (AOUW) was a fraternal organization in the United States and Canada, providing mutual social and financial support after the American Civil War. It was the first of the "fraternal benefit societies", organizatio ...

) Cemetery.

Demographics

Adamsville first appeared on the 1870 U.S. Census as an unincorporated village. It was then located within Pima County. It became a part of Pinal County with its creation in 1875. It reported 400 residents in 1870, all White. It was tied with the village of Apache Pass as the then-second most populous locale in Pima County, behind Tucson, and was the fourth largest recorded community in the entire territory of Arizona. In 1880, it reported as the village of Sanford, with just 39 residents. It was the second-least recorded populated community, tied with the village of Plomosa, and just ahead of Casa Grande. It did not report again on the census.

Remaining structures

File:Florence-Adamsville Ghost Town-Water Tankl-1870.JPG, Adamsville Water Tower File:Florence-Adamsville Ghost Town-Store-1870.JPG, Adamsville store File:Florence-Adamsville Ghost Town-Water Tanks-1870.JPG, Adamsville Water Tanks File: Adamsville-Adamsville Ghost Town-Storage.jpg, Adamsville grain storage File:Adamsville-Adamsville Ghost Town-Windmill Farm House-1900-1.jpg , Windmill Farmhouse

Cemetery

Historic Adamsville A.O.U.W. Cemetery – The Pioneers' Cemetery Association (PCA) maintains the "historic cemetery" (one which has been in existence for more than fifty years) in Adamsville. Pioneers' Cemetery Association
/ref> Among those interred in the cemetery and whose graves are pictured are: * Fred A. Adams – Founder of Adamsville. * Judge H. B. Summers * Capt.

Granville Henderson Oury Granville Henderson Oury (March 12, 1825 – January 11, 1891) was a nineteenth-century American politician, lawyer, judge, soldier, and miner. Early life Born in Abingdon, Virginia; Granville Henderson Oury and his family moved to Bowling Gre ...

– Judge: District court of New Mexico. Delegate to Confederate Congress. Arizona Mounted Volunteers CSA, Territorial legislator to U. S Congress, Pioneer-Soldier-Statesman. * Felix Grunde and his wife Martha Angeline Hardwick – Family known as the Hardwick pioneers * The Stevens family – Olnorah Stevens, wife of Daniel C. Stevens; Carmen Sarah Stevens, daughter of Daniel C. & Ollie N. Stevens and Taylor Stevens, infant son of Daniel C. and Mary E. Stevens File:Adamsville-Adamsville Ghost Town-Adamsville A.O.U.W. Cemetery-1894-1.jpg, Adamsville A.O.U.W. Cemetery File: Adamsville-Adamsville Ghost Town-Adamsville A.O.U.W. Cemetery-1894-7-Fred A. Adams.jpg, Grave of Fred A. Adams (1844–1910)

References

{{authority control 1866 establishments in Arizona Territory Cemeteries in Arizona Former populated places in Pinal County, Arizona Ghost towns in Arizona National Register of Historic Places in Pinal County, Arizona Populated places on the National Register of Historic Places in Arizona

History

Demographics

Remaining structures

Cemetery

See also

References