Sylvester Adams

While Runnels County planned its own drought aid, the question went to Washington. Congress passed a bill in 1887 to supply $10,000 for seed grain to Texas farmers after a major drought, and President Grover Cleveland vetoed it. His message held that the people support the government and not the reverse, and that relieving private suffering unrelated to public service was no federal duty. Many Runnels residents, the plaque says, proudly refused charity in the dry years of 1886-87 anyway.

What the plaque says

Sylvester Adams Born in Tennessee, Adams as a youth came to Texas with his father. A firm believer in the Confederate cause, he served at Galveston during the Civil War. He helped organize Runnels County; was first county judge, 1880-1884; also served 1886-1888. He helped plan aid for his drouth-stricken county, 1886-1887, though many residents proudly refused to take "charity" relief. He was a Democrat and Baptist. He had 3 sons and 3 daughters. (1968)

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Carnegie Library of Ballinger — 3.5 mi
  A 1909 limestone library with an Ionic portico in a railroad town the Santa Fe created in 1886, one of the few Texas Carnegie libraries still working in its original building.
• Z. I. Hale Museum and Rock Hotel — 12 mi
  A free museum in a Winters optometrist's office, a 1909 railroad hotel and a 1927 implement dealership, with Rogers Hornsby's hometown memorabilia and a 1912 horse-drawn cotton picker.
• Fort Chadbourne — 24 mi
  An 1852 infantry post and Butterfield stage station on a Coke County ranch, its fallen stone buildings rebuilt since 1999 by the descendant of the family that has ranched the land since 1877.

More markers nearby

• Site of the Town of Runnels — 1.1 mi
• Site of Pickettville — 3.5 mi
• Runnels County — 3.7 mi
• Ballinger — 3.7 mi