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The following is a summary of a newspaper account of the first
McAdams reunion as reported in the Huntsville Item (1935): Reunion Held For McAdams Relatives
Several hundred people gathered at the old John R. McAdams home
Sunday and under large oak trees near the home held a celebration of
this ancestor and also observed the ninetieth birthday of Hiram
McAdams, oldest living member of the family.
 The log house, which is
still occupied, is built of logs 87 years old. More than two hundred
and fifty of the family signed the guest book. Several descendants of
slaves on the McAdams homestead were present and had a part in the
festivities. The home stands thirteen miles west of Huntsville on the
Bedias road.
About ten thirty in the morning, after the crowd had arrived, Ted
and Marie Yates, great grandchildren of Mr. and Mrs. Eugene Wood, gave
a vocal solo with piano accompaniment and Edwin Anders, son of Mr. and
Mrs. Arthur Anders, sang "An Old Spanish Custom," playing his own
accompaniment on the guitar. A reading, most appropriate for the
setting, "Woodsman Spare That Tree," was given by Bob McAdams. Jack
Langley, son of Era McAdams Langley, read a toast written by Jud
Mortimer Lewis to Mr. McAdams for this occasion. It was entitled "Your
Ninetieth Birthday." The bounteous repast was spread at noon on long
tables and served buffet style. A large four-tier twenty-pound
birthday cake with ninety candles and holders was in the center of the
table.
(Question: What happened to this old log house?)
The following is a summary of a newspaper account of the
second McAdams reunion. as reported in the Huntsville Item (1936):
McAdams Family in Mammoth Reunion
McAdams, Guerrants, Bankheads and their kin from all over Texas
gathered at the Josey Scout Lodge in Huntsville Sunday for the second
annual reunion of the McAdams. Guerrants and Bankheads are related to
the McAdams family by marriage and were guests at the reunion. The
high point of the ceremonies for the day was at noon when Mrs. Mattie
McAdams Roberts, celebrating her sixty-fifth birthday, cut a huge
birthday cake with a sword used by her great-great uncle, Hiram
McAdams, in the American Revolution. Dedicating the meeting to the
four remaining daughters of John McAdams: Mrs. Caroline McAdams
Wilson, Mrs. Theodocia McAdams Wilson, Mrs. Margaret McAdams Barron
and Mrs. Mattie McAdasms Roberts, some five hundred joined the all day
celebration.
At a short business session, the assembly decided to buy five acres
near the old McAdams cemetery, 14 miles from Huntsville, where the
reunion will be held from now on. The McAdams', Guerrants and
Bankheads are among the oldest families in Texas. In 1834, these
families settled in Walker County, and from the original families
there have sprung some of the most noted and highly honored men and
women of Texas. The older families have married and intermarried until
they are kin in some way or other to almost everybody in the county.
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