Florence Adams was born on 26 May 1896, according to her gravestone. Florence’s nickname was “Honey,” judging from what’s inscribed at the bottom of her gravestone. Her parents were Thomas and Ida Adams, her siblings included sister Beulah Adams, and she was a cousin of Gertie and Henrietta Adams. The Adams’s were descendants of one of the recipients of a land grant from Lord Fairfax (Thomas) in the Colonial Era, according to the Vienna family tree on Ancestry.com. The recipient was Gabriel Adams, who in 1730 received a 790-acre grant between Holmes Run and Four Mile Run, according to the Virginia Genealogical Society Quarterly.
Florence’s father, Thomas, was a laborer with the railroad, according to the 1900 census. The family’s residence was in the vicinity of the cul de sac for today’s Hillington Court, judging from historical aerial imagery and Fairfax County property records (See Figures 1, 2, 3, and 4).
As of the 1910 census, Florence was attending school. In 1912, she participated in a spelling bee at the Fairfax County School Fair and performed well while representing the Clarke School, according to the Fairfax Herald (see Figure 5). In 1913, she received an honorable mention from the Fairfax County chapter of the Daughters of the American Revolution for an essay on a subject associated with the revolution, according to the Herald.
In December 1917, Florence married, according to District of Columbia marriage records. At the time of her husband’s WWI draft registration, he was working for the U.S. Government Shipping Board, apparently as a stenographer, judging from a subsequent birth record. The couple at this point were living in DC between Thomas and Logan circles.
In January 1918, Florence resigned from the U.S. Government Printing Office as a probational skilled laborer, according to the Washington Post. Perhaps her resignation was in connection with having a child, because in October 1918, Florence gave birth to her first child. A second followed in 1920.
In the meantime, however, disaster struck, when Florence’s husband was charged in criminal matters in 1919 and 1920, according to Washington newspaper articles. The very serious charge was either dropped or he was found not guilty, judging from the press pieces; for a lesser crime he was sentenced in 1922, but a judge in 1923 set aside the conviction.
In the 1930 census, Florence, her husband, and their sons were living at her father’s house, along with her sister Beulah and other siblings. Florence at the time was a clerk in the dry goods industry and her husband was a stenographer for the steam railroad. As of 1935, her husband was living in Vienna, according to the 1940 census, presumably with Florence.
As of the 1940 census, however, Florence’s husband was living at the DC Workhouse Men’s Division. The Workhouse was the prison-farm, low-security portion of the Lorton prison complex, according to Fairfax County. The couple were still married, if his census record from the Lorton prison is accurate. (Florence and her children don’t seem to appear in the 1940 census, so I can’t crosscheck the details). However, for her husband’s 1942 draft registration, he lists his address as in Washington D.C. and his mother as the point of contact who would always know his address.
As for Florence herself, her youngest son’s draft registration indicates that she was living in Vienna in 1942. In 1950, she received a gold watch from the Hecht Company at its annual awards banquet for her 25 years of service, according to the Sunday Star. Hecht’s, of course, was the department store company with a big DC-area presence and that survived until the early 2000s.
Florence Adams died in Rockville, Maryland on the last day of 1987, according to findagrave.com. She’s buried in Andrew Chapel Cemetery.