The subject of this sketch is the wife of John Thompson Adair, recently deceased, whose portrait and biography will be found elsewhere in this volume. Mrs. Penelope Adair is the daughter of Jesse Mayfield, of South Carolina, who married Sarah, daughter of Caleb Starr, of Tennessee. Her parents emigrated to this nation in 1839 with the Bushyhead detachment. In January 1840, Penelope Mayfield married John Thompson Adair, and they settled near Tulu, Washington County, Arkansas, near the Indian Territory line, beside the present family home. Mrs. Adair had a family of nine children, two having died in infancy. Her oldest child, Jesse M. Adair, was born November 28, 1841, then followed Rachel Lavina, Sarah R., Oscar F., Edward Everett, John H. and Samuel Houston, the youngest, who is slightly over thirty years of age. Mrs. Adair’s sons are all prosperous men, doing for themselves, the younger one remaining at the old home to look after his mother. Mrs. Adair is the remains of a remarkably pretty woman, having all the marks of culture and refinement. She is at present in poor health, owing to the recent loss of her husband, who died last December at the advanced age of seventy-nine years.
