F. T. Adams of Joplin, Missouri
Sept 20, 2022 21:40:12 GMT -8
Post by Uncle Buddy on Sept 20, 2022 21:40:12 GMT -8
I've been looking for an inventor named F. T. Adams of Joplin, Missouri for over 12 years. I'm aware that he could be someone named T. F. Adams, but the problem is, there's too many of those and nobody at all named F. T. Adams.
Some inventors named Sidesinger and Cline in Indiana worked on their compressed air engine for a long time and then suddenly announced, in 1916, that what they were trying to do was already covered in a patent obtained by F. T. Adams of Joplin, Missouri. That's all I know about him. As usual, there seems to be no patent. When air car inventors say there's a patent, they are almost always exaggerating. I think when they sent in that application, they'd been counting their chickens before they were hatched. Unlike engineers, the inventorish mindset is one of optimism. If engineers thought like inventors, they'd all be digging ditches.
I recently came upon my first real lead. The potential find is T. Fletcher Adams of Greene County, Missouri. The "T" stands for Thomas but he usually went by his middle name. He is in fact listed as F. T. Adams in the 1900 census, and this is the first eligible listing of an F. T. Adams that I've ever found. Interestingly enough, it was familysearch's search engine that turned this up, not ancestry's.
Fletcher Adams was in general an insurance salesman, but has other skills too, including carpentry, working in a hardware store as a young man, and working as a WPA laborer. The person who posted a photo of Fletcher's son Harold on findagrave doesn't know anything about Fletcher. Fletcher usually lived in Greene County which is adjacent to Jasper County where Joplin is, but in the late 1920s he worked in insurance offices in Joplin also. He could have been working both areas all along since they're so close to each other.
It's also worth noting that Fletcher's mother Eliza Emma Poynor probably had lots of relatives in Joplin, where several Poynors lived out there lives. Their death certificates all show that they were born in Strafford, Missouri, the same town where Fletcher was born. So he must have had strong ties in Joplin and probably spent more of his life there than you'd guess from the census.
What I'm seeking specifically is any hint that Thomas Fletcher Adams was a tinkerer, inventor, engine enthusiast, or anything like that.
Some inventors named Sidesinger and Cline in Indiana worked on their compressed air engine for a long time and then suddenly announced, in 1916, that what they were trying to do was already covered in a patent obtained by F. T. Adams of Joplin, Missouri. That's all I know about him. As usual, there seems to be no patent. When air car inventors say there's a patent, they are almost always exaggerating. I think when they sent in that application, they'd been counting their chickens before they were hatched. Unlike engineers, the inventorish mindset is one of optimism. If engineers thought like inventors, they'd all be digging ditches.
I recently came upon my first real lead. The potential find is T. Fletcher Adams of Greene County, Missouri. The "T" stands for Thomas but he usually went by his middle name. He is in fact listed as F. T. Adams in the 1900 census, and this is the first eligible listing of an F. T. Adams that I've ever found. Interestingly enough, it was familysearch's search engine that turned this up, not ancestry's.
Fletcher Adams was in general an insurance salesman, but has other skills too, including carpentry, working in a hardware store as a young man, and working as a WPA laborer. The person who posted a photo of Fletcher's son Harold on findagrave doesn't know anything about Fletcher. Fletcher usually lived in Greene County which is adjacent to Jasper County where Joplin is, but in the late 1920s he worked in insurance offices in Joplin also. He could have been working both areas all along since they're so close to each other.
It's also worth noting that Fletcher's mother Eliza Emma Poynor probably had lots of relatives in Joplin, where several Poynors lived out there lives. Their death certificates all show that they were born in Strafford, Missouri, the same town where Fletcher was born. So he must have had strong ties in Joplin and probably spent more of his life there than you'd guess from the census.
What I'm seeking specifically is any hint that Thomas Fletcher Adams was a tinkerer, inventor, engine enthusiast, or anything like that.