The Strange Case of Not Adams

This time of year, I decompress and concentrate on writing my next book projects. One of them has been percolating in my mind for many years and it involves The Strange Case of Not Adams. Sometimes you find a new writing project when researching another. As usual J. E. B Stuart leads me to many other topics.

On September 11, 2001, I was in the Library of Virginia doing research on Civil War General James Ewell Brown “Jeb” Stuart in the Special Collections Department. Governor John Letcher was a cousin of Stuart and I was looking through Letcher’s papers. I did not know about the terrorist attacks until noon when I came up for air upon hearing two of the staff discussing it.

I came across this entry in Virginia’s Civil War Governor’s papers. “An important function of the governor was issuing reprieves and pardons. Copies of court cases, clippings, petitions, and correspondence supplement the pardons. All the pardon papers are filed separately in the chronological series at the end of each month. One significant pardon involved the case of Notley P. Adams of Patrick County who was charged with arson. Letcher pardoned Adams in December 1863, after he served three years in the penitentiary. A map of the area in Patrick County where the crime was committed is included in the papers. The governor also received and issued proclamations and requisitions regarding escaped convicts and fugitives.”

I had never heard of Notley P. Adams before that day, so I requested to see the materials. They arrived in three large folders including over four hundred individual sheets documenting the pardon request by Adams to Governor Letcher.

Since that time twenty years ago, the Library of Virginia has microfilmed the whole collection and you can scan the documents to pdf files and that is what I did in the fall of 2019. That has led to this book with easier access to this case about my home county of Patrick in far southwest Virginia.

            In Virginia, Patrick County likes to put biblical names on places. Ararat for the “Mountains of Ararat,” where Noah’s Ark landed in the book of Genesis in the Old Testament.  The Dan River comes from Dan, the fifth son of Jacob, which is related to judgement. Dan was the founder of the Tribe of Dan, the second largest tribe of Israelites. Among his descendants was Samson.

            The community of Meadows of Dan in Patrick County applies a romantic name to the land drained by the Dan River. Just before the War Between The States erupted in 1861, one man was accused of arson. In April 1859, Notley Price Adams was accused of burning of the vacant home of Jefferson T. Lawson near the Patrick and Floyd county lines near the Dan River and the Laurel Fork.

            Local tradition says Notley Price Adams stood before the judge and was asked to state his name.  “Not Adams” he replied. The aggravated judge said, “Well, then who are you,” which he heard again, “Not Adams.” The exasperated judge stated, “Well, if you are not Adams, who are you?” The question reverberates down to us today.

            This book tells the story of Adams and the times he lived in Patrick County, Virginia, where the more things change, the more they stay the same. When a small clique of people in the county seat try to destroy a man using trumped up evidence to convict him of a crime. This story is set in the War Between The States when Virginia tried to leave the Union. Patrick County was going to leave Virginia if it did not secede and become The Free State of Patrick.