Ira W. Adams, for many years one of the most highly esteemed residents of Calistoga died last Saturday at the home of his daughter, Mrs. C. A. Carner in Potter valley, Mendocino county.

Mr. Adams was born in Massachusetts September 24, 1833, and had he lived just eleven more days would have been 80 years old. The direct cause of his death was pulmonary anemia with acute bronchitis as a contributing cause. For the past five or six year he had been troubled with indigestion and this shortness of breath was the only distress he suffered he had no pain. He had just gotten over a severe attack of the grippe and it left him very weak. Mr. Adams was one of a family of ten children and it is a remarkable fact that when the youngest was half a century old, all the children were still alive.

He was an expert gardener and wrote articles on gardening which were eagerly sought by the editors of farm papers who paid him well for his work. He was also interested in Sunday school work in early days and it was while he was teaching in the Sunday school that he first met Emma Wixom, who in after years came the prima-donna known as Miss Emma Nevada. He was her first teacher in elocution and singing, and when she came to the coast some years ago he went to Vallejo to see her and visit was one of the happiest of his later life.

Mr. Adams came to California in 1851 via the Isthmus. He met his brother in Coloma and they mined for gold about one mile from where James W. Marshall discovered gold in 1848, and he had a piece of the old Sutter mill in his trunk at the time of his death.

On March 25, 1872, he was married to Miss Mary Augusta Cromwell at Petaluma by Rev. Trefren, and immediately following his marriage he came to Calistoga, and after working for the late Peter Teale for a while he moved back to Petaluma where he remained about a year. He then went to the Round Valley Indian Reservation in Mendocino county, taking the position of gardener for the government. He was a beautiful penman and when the agent of the reservation saw his handwriting he was immediately promoted him to the position of clerk. This position he held for about eight years but was obliged to give it up as it was too confining.

Upon leaving Round Valley he came to Calistoga where he bought at place about a mile above town. After the death of his wife in 1903 he sold out and went up to Potter Valley, in Mendocino county to live with his daughter Mrs. C. A. Carner.

He is survived by four children; I. C. Adams and Mrs. A. C. Bryant of Calistoga; Mrs. C. A. Carner of Potter Valley and C. W. Adams of San Francisco.

The funeral services were held at his late home in Potter Valley last Sunday and was attended by the entire community. The services were conducted by Rev. Miss Newton who made some very beautiful and touching remarks. Among other things she said, "Mr. Adams' death has cast a gloom over the entire community, but dear one, remember that though the sun sets dark and gloomy for you, it rises bright and clear somewhere else. Did you ever think of that?"

The remains were taken Monday to the San Francisco, where they were cremated according to his wishes. He was a member in good standing in Calistoga lodge, No. 233 F. & A M- The Calistogian.