James Adair, Indian Trader and Author

By Tony Whitehorn

 

Could it be that the George Washington line of Adairs enjoyed a family connection and understanding of the prophetic teachings of Joseph Smith and the Book of Mormon that predated by sixty years their actual baptism into the Mormon faith?  Can it be that this Book and its accounts of a Hebrew population which came to America in ancient times struck a familiar chord and found an attentive audience among members of the Adairs of South Carolina and Alabama from which the George Washington Adair line descends?

 

It seems possible.  James Adair (ca. 1709-ca 1775), author of the “The History of the American Indians”, a classic colonial period study of the southeastern Indians published in London in 1775, is believed to have been born in County Antrim, Ireland.  A James Adair or James Robert Adair, b. Ca 1709, is recorded in our Adair genealogy as a son of Thomas and Margaret (Henart) Adair of County Antrim, Ireland and an older brother of , Joseph Alexander Adair, great grandfather of Samuel Jefferson Adair.

 

 Are they the same James Adair?  Thomas and Margaret Adair were the first of our line to leave their homeland to come as pioneers and settlers in the Colony of South Carolina.  Their young James was certainly in his teens when the family came to North America where he, like the rest of the family, grew up among the challenges and occupations of pioneer life.  Trading with the Indians was a common undertaking.

 

James Adair, the author, based his book on first hand observations derived from his 40 year career as a deerskin trader among the Catawba, Cherokee, Creek, Choctaw and Chickasaw Indians as a South Carolina Indian Agent.  Aside from a unique insight into southeast Indian history and culture, Adair attempted to explain the origin of the American Indian in the Hebrew context of the Lost Tribes of Israel.  His views formed a historical basis for inquiry associating the American Indian with ancient Hebrews.

 

James Adair, in time, became one of the most respected and knowledgeable frontier Indian experts and known to prominent people such as Joseph Galloway, then speaker of the Pennsylvania assembly; Elias Boudinot, who would soon serve as president of the Continental Congress, and Benjamin Franklin, whom he met in London and who was then acting as colonial agent for several colonies.

 

Would the work and premises of such a famous relative have still been current in the life of a great grandnephew such as Samuel Jefferson Adair?  When Samuel Jefferson heard the missionaries expound on the Book of Mormon, would he have had a special interest in their story?  Were the missionaries confirming, in part, what the family already understood may be true?

 

I  don’t know if they were the same James Adair, it seems very possible, but it is interesting to contemplate.

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A more complete review of James Adair, the author’s life, is available on line in the Encyclopedia of Alabama in an article written by Kathryn E. Holland Braund of Auburn University.

A wiki article on James Robert Adair, “pioneer physician, patriot, and author of “History of the American Indians” published in 1775, London, England, has a photo of a marker erected in his honor by the North Carolina Society of Colonial Dames.  

 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Adair_(historian)