For a third of a century Peter Adams has been a resident of Owyhee county, and has been identified with the important work of taking from the mountain side the rich mineral deposits and securing the valuable metals that they may be used in connection with the commercial activity of the nation. He came to the west from the far-off Empire state, his birth having occurred in Dunkirk, New York, on the 24th of February 1837. The Adams family is of Scotch origin, and the parents of our subject were Peter and Jane (Brodie) Adams, residents of Buffalo, New York. The father followed the business of stonecutting and contracting, and died in the forty-seventh year of his age. His wife, surviving him many years, was called to her final rest at the age of seventy-six. They were members of the Presbyterian Church, and were people of the highest integrity and respectability.
Peter Adams, who was one of their family of seven children, was reared and educated in New York, and in 1864 crossed the plains to California, where he engaged in the butchering business for two years. In 1866 he went to Silver City, Idaho, and soon afterward formed a partnership with T. W. Jones, since which time they have done a large and profitable business as contractors and builders. They have constructed many of the hoisting works and erected many of the residences of Silver City and vicinity, and substantial and attractive structures stand as monuments to their skill and enterprise. For a number of years they were also in the furniture business. Mr. Adams is now the owner of the Garfield group of mines, located in the Corson district, one-half mile from De Lamar. Here he has the Garfield, Gold Hill, North End, and Chief mines, and he was the shipper of the first ore sent from the De Lamar district over the Short Line Railroad to Salt Lake, Denver and Omaha. He also built the first quartz mill in the De Lamar district.
He has three thousand feet of tunnels and has large quantities of gold and silver ore in sight, so that there is every evidence of continued prosperity.
In 1863 was celebrated the marriage of Mr. Adams and Miss Etta Wells, and to them was born a daughter, Jennie, who is now the wife of James L. Napier. The mother died in 1891, at Salt Lake, and Mr. Adams has not remarried. In his political affiliations he is a silver Republican and has given close and earnest study to the issues and questions which now demand the public attention. He has been honored with office, having represented his district in the territorial legislature in 1872, while in 1898 he was again the nominee for that position. He is a progressive and public-spirited man, deeply interested in the welfare of his county and stale, and withholds his cooperation from no movement for the general good.