Biography - ADAM WARD
Eighteen months ago Adam Ward established a stave manufacturing plant in
Sims, and in the time that has elapsed since then he has demonstrated to all
that the new plant is a fixed industry in this community. A man of wide
experience in the business before he made a venture on his own
responsibility, he is amply prepared for any and all emergencies which might
arise in the conduct of such a business, and the continued success of the
new plant is assured. With an annual capacity of 5,000,000 staves, the plant
employs twenty men at the mill and a force of thirty-five in the woods the
year around, thereby adding something in a material way to the industrial
life of the town.
Adam Ward was born May 19, 1862, in Grayville, White county, Illinois. He is
the son of Adam Ward, a native of Posey county, Indiana, born there in 1828,
and who died in 1862. His wife, Mary Jane Martin, born and reared in
Edwards, Illinois, died in 1892. Pour children were born to them: William, a
resident of Indianapolis; Hugh and John, both deceased; and Adam, of this
review. The schooling of Adam Ward was of a very meagre order. When he was
nine years of age he began to work in a stave mill in Graysville and he
passed twenty years in various employment in the plant. In 1891 he located
in Jonesboro, Arkansas, and engaged in stave manufacturing. In 1892 he
settled in the same business in New Harmony, Indiana, remaining until 1896,
after which lie took employment in a similar line of work in Vincennes,
Indiana, remaining there until 1902. The next two years he passed in
Shawneetown, Illinois, after which he was employed six years at Mill Shoals,
Illinois. In 1910 he was able to purchase a stave mill, and he located in
Sims, where he has since conducted a flourishing business with a high degree
of success. He employs more than fifty men regularly in the operating of the
mill, the annual capacity of which is five millions of staves. The capital
stock of the concern is $10,000.
Mr. Ward is a member of the Independent Order of Odd Fellows at Mill Shoals,
where he at one time resided, and is a member of the Missionary Baptist
church. He has been twice married. His first wife was Frances Hill, of
Grayville, whom he married in 1881; she died in 1885, leaving one son, Hugh,
who is now employed in his father's mill. In 1889 Mr. Ward married Alice
Green, the daughter of Louis Green, of Hamilton county, Illinois.
Extracted 11 Nov 2018 by Norma Hass from 1912 History of Southern Illinois, by George W. Smith, volume 3, page 1611.
