Samuel Lorenzo Adams

Samuel Lorenzo Adams 

1833-1910

2nd Great Granduncle

Samuel Lorenzo Adams was born January 22, 1833 at Tipton, England.  At twelve years of age he was indentured to a silversmith. His father made this arrangement and collected his entire wage, which was paid each week. The silversmith clothed and fed him, but he never had a farthing of his own. He lived with these arrangements for four or five years. He was never happy and eventually ran away; resulting in his being disinherited by his father.  In 1848, at the age of fifteen he met the Mormon Missionaries and was taught and accepted the restored gospel of Jesus Christ.  Later in Samuel’s life he recalled his baptism with these words. “I was told that if I would embrace the Gospel with an honest heart I should know the truth of the doctrine myself. This I surely sought to do. I was baptized in a river, as Christ our Savior was, and came up out of the water, and hands were laid upon me for the gift of the Holy Ghost, and I bear record that that gift came upon me.  My eyes were opened to see the things of God; my tongue to speak forth His praise. I sought the gifts of the Spirit, and the gift of faith came upon me.”  Samuel’s life changed and miracles pervaded his life. The following experience was recalled and told in his words.

“I took a severe cold in my eyes, (bear in mind I was an apprentice boy) and my eyes were both blood-shot. I became totally blind in one eye, and the other was so nearly blind that I had to be led wherever I went. This brought me to receive abuse and taunts from my shop-mates. It was my duty to listen to the morning bell, and open the doors to let the men in to work. This I failed to do for several days. 

One Thursday evening I asked my bed-fellow to lead me to a Mormon “Night Meeting”.  He did so, and on my return I called at the home of Brother and Sister Stokes, where two Elders were retiring for the night. When I arrived, my guide left me at the door, as he thought it was getting very late. (Bear in mind, my eyes were two balls of blood in appearance, and felt as though a handful of sand had been thrown into them).

I was suffering greatly and it was near 11 o’clock. Trembling, I said to the Elders, “Will you anoint my eyes and pray for me?”  They cheerfully consented, Elder Clark anointed me, and Elder Hodgert was mouth in prayer.  While their hands were upon my head, the sore, sandy feeling all left my eyes.  Being late, I just thanked them and left for home.  I had a joyful heart, I could see the gas lights in the street lamps, but I did not realize my true condition till half-past five the next morning.

That night I did not say a word but made for bed. Morning came, the bell rang, and I went down to answer the door.

The first man I saw said, “Hello Sam, you are better?” “I feel so,” I said.  I went back into the house and struck a light in front of a large mirror. When to my joy, I saw a pair of eyes as clear of blood as they ever were in my life. I went into the shop and to my vise, lit my gas and started to work.

At 8 o’clock, a man that worked two vises from me came in to work. Putting his right hand upon my left shoulder he pulled me around, and looking me full in the face said,

“Hello! Those Elders of Beelzebub have been performing a miracle upon you, have they?”

With that he kicked and cuffed me till my friend and bed-fellow stepped up with a rod of steel in his hands, and declared he would protect me.

“And are you a Mormon, too?” he asked.

“No”, replied my friend, “but if I could learn as much in six years as he has learned in six months, I would be baptized tonight.”

That night he was baptized.

          In 1850, at the young age of 17, Samuel served his first mission in Dudley, Worcestershire, England.  He met Emma Jackson, a new convert while serving in Dudley.  The brethren thought it inappropriate for the two sweethearts to travel unmarried, so arrangements were made to marry them before boarding the ship.

In 1857, Samuel was called to return to his native country and serve another mission.  In performing this mission he was able to visit his kinfolk who were builders and contractors.  His brother, John had a large schoolhouse to build.  To prepare the ground for the foundation there was a large amount of ashes and dirt to move.  At that time this type of work in England was done by hand, and moved away with wheelbarrows.  Samuel asked to be permitted to make a large scraper to be drawn by his brother’s carriage horse.  When this new method was put into operation, the men who had came with their barrows to do the work complained about the “damned Yankees’,” way of interfering in the way of doing the work.  Brother John was thrilled with this and other ways of doing building work, his brother had learned in the adopted land of America.

Linage...through the McAllister Family