George W. Adams

George W. Adams was born July 20, 1836, in New London, Connecticut, the son of Solomon Ingalls (1809-1891) and Nancy E. (Bush, 1816).

New Yorker Solomon married Connecticut native Nancy in 1833 and by 1834 they were living in Rodman, New York. By 1836 they were in New London, Connecticut, in Waterford, Connecticut in 1838 and in Brownsville, New York by 1841 and remained in Brownsville for some years. Between 1847 and 1850 they moved to Pinckney, Lewis County, New York and by 1852 were back in Rodman. Solomon moved his family to Michigan, and by 1860 George was living with his family and working as a farmer in Holland, Ottawa County.

George was 24 years old and living in Ottawa County when he enlisted in Company I on May 13, 1861. (Company I was made up largely of men from the eastern side of Ottawa County.) George was a tentmate of Alexander Brennan (who was also from Ottawa County) in the winter of 1862-63. George was universally liked in the company. “I tent with two boys,” Alexander Brennan wrote to his parents on February 12, 1863, “in the company: George W. Adams is one and the other is George Carlisle. They are both good boys. I think they don’t snore much and Adams don’t snore at all; he has not snored once since we left [Camp Michigan, the the previous year’s winter quarters]. The boys in the company like him."

George was reported in the Third Corps hospital in May of 1863, although he may have been wounded at Chancellorsville on or about May 3, but that is by no means certain. Or he may have been taken sick with gonorrhea; the record is unclear about this. In any case, he was in fact treated for gonorrhea from September 18 to October 7, 1863, and for diarrhea on September 21 and from September 24-27, October 8 to 10, 24 to 26 and November 1 to 3 and 6, 1863.

It is not known when he was detached from the Third Michigan but by February of 1864 George was on detached service as a guard of commissary stores at Brandy Station, Virginia. It appears that he rejoined the Regiment at some point in early 1864 and was wounded severely in both hips by gunfire on May 5, 1864, during the battle of the Wilderness, Virginia; while hospitalized for his wounds he was also treated for secondary syphilis. George was mustered out of the military on June 10, 1864.

After he was discharged from the army George returned to western Michigan and was living in Holland, Ottawa County when he married a widow, 19-year-old Laney Maria Laurence Crowfoot (1845-1904) on August 24, 1864, at the home of Franklin Wallin, a Justice of the Peace, in Saugatuck, Allegan County; they had at least four children: Seth Ingalls (b. 1873), Roy Quincy (b. 1875), George Lawrence (b. 1877) and John Robert (b. 1881).

George was still residing in Holland in 1865 when he applied for a pension (no. 54507), and indeed lived in Holland until at least 1875. For a time he may have lived in Jackson, Jackson County, and was living in Highland, Oakland County in 1877 and in Michigan, Hutchinson County, South Dakota by 1881. He eventually returned to Michigan and settled in Fenton, Genesee County, Michigan where he was residing in 1890, 1894 and in 1899. Indeed he probably lived in Fenton the remainder of his life.

He was a member of the Old Third Michigan Infantry Association, as well as a member of Grand Army of the Republic Fenton Post No. 24 in Fenton.

George died on December 14, 1899, in Fenton and was buried in Oakwood cemetery: block G, section no. 5.

His widow was still living in Fenton when she applied for a pension in 1900 (no. 491663), and by 1904 she was living in Los Angeles, California where she died of blood poisoning on May 8.