The collection consists of John H. Adams's and his son, John R. Adams's business correspondence. For the most part the correspondence is typewritten and covers primarily the decade of the 1920s. The elder Adams's outgoing correspondence is about half the size of his incoming correspondence, with much of the latter from J. A. Curtis and C. H. Judkins, businessmen and attorneys at law in Cleveland, Ohio. His son, John R. Adams's outgoing business correspondence is about three times the size of his incoming correspondence. The correspondence pertains primarily to their mining interests and their company, O'Neals Lime Works Inc. There is a prominent and unexplained gap in both father and son's business correspondence between 1914 and 1922-23. The collection also includes mineral deposit maps of the Tuscaloosa - Birmingham area and material about the Vulcan statue and Vulcan Park in Birmingham. Miscellaneous items include a limited number of various personal and business bills and receipts, unidentified correspondence, credit and financial reports, abstracts, undated mining notes, and mimeographed reports.

Gift of Mrs. J. B. Cooper and Mrs. Richard Petty, 1949

John H. Adams (1857-1949) was a mining engineer, businessman, poet, and Birmingham public servant. His son, John R. Adams, known also as Jack Adams and J. Reese Adams, was an attorney, realtor, and businessman. The elder Adams was elected Director from Alabama of the Engineering Association of the Southwest in 1889, and also appointed member of the Standing Committee on Rooms and library of the same organization. That year he also became superintendent of the Sloss Iron & Steel Company. In 1906 he was chosen as Vice-president, Sayre Mining & Manufacturing Co., and his prominence in the Birmingham business community led to his selection as chairman of the city’s Chamber of Commerce. He was also associated with numerous other firms and civic organizations, among them the Birmingham Farm Garden (1913), the Northern Kentucky Coal Mining Company (Treasurer, 1913), the Birmingham Trussville Iron Company (General Manager, 1918), Alales Construction Company (1923), O’Neal’s Lime Works (President & General Manager, 1923), the Birmingham Zoning Board of Adjustment (Chairman, 1929), Birmingham College (Trustee, 1939), the Masons, Cleveland-Alabama Mining Company, and Republic Iron & Steel Company (General Manager). John R. Adams was an attorney for the Tioga Company, 1909-14, an Assistant Manager of O’Neals Lime Works (1923), Manager of the Shelby County Abstract Company (1924), a realtor in Calera, Alabama (1924), Alabama agent for Schaffer Engineering Co. of Pittsburgh (1925), and member of the law firm of Cooper, Knight, Adair, Cooper & Osborn of Jacksonville, Fla., (1926).

Alabama (Local)

Alabama Business and Industry (Local)

Civic Organizations (Local)

Iron and Steel Industry (Local)

Jefferson County (Local)

Mining (Local)

Real Estate (Local)

Tuscaloosa County (Ala.) (lcsh)