Virgil Adams went to work for the telephone company when he was sixteen for wages
  of 27 1/2 cents per hour. He also dug ditches and worked on a railroad bridge gang
  before going to best Brothers Keene Cement in 1936 for 38 cents per hour. He was at
  the gyp mill for twenty-seven years before his retirement in 1968. Hard work and hard
  times never kept Virgil from enjoying life and loving to tease and joke.
     Virgil Jefferson Adams was born on September 23, 1898, in Medicine Lodge on South
  Oak Street. He was the next youngest child of three boys and three girls. Virgil's
  parents, Samuel J. and Cora Painter Adams, came from Indiana in 1886. They had taken
  a claim near Sexton in western Barber County, where Cora's parents, the David F.
  Painters, lived.
     Virgil was always very inventive and he and his cousin, George Horney, rigged up
  all sorts of devices in their "laboratory" in the basement of the Grand Hotel.
     Virgil married Emma Sanders on November 5, 1921. Emma had been born in the pioneer
  tradition - in a covered wagon. Her parents, Elmer and Ora Haney Sanders, had just
  completed a move from Topeka to Dodge City in the wagon when Bernice Emma was born
  on May 23, 1907.
     The Sanders family came to Medicine Lodge in 1920. After their marriage, the Adams
  lived a while in Kiowa and Wellington. In 1938 they built their home at 419 West Central
  in Medicine Lodge.
     Virgil and Emma spent their life together engaged in hobbies that displayed their
  great artistic talents. Virgil's woodcarving was outstanding and his apple-head dolls
  appealing. One of Virgil's creations is a large, oval table made of crushed red rock
  embedded in clear plastic. Polished cut rock is used to make designs of flowers, 
  butterflies, and a black border. Natural, twisted mountain cedar, polished to a red 
  sheen, is the base for the beautiful table. Emma's handwork and loom work are true
  treasures. The Adams also made jewelry from polished rocks, kept bees, and repaired
  antique furniture.
     Virgil and Emma belonged to the Wichita Gem and Mineral Association. During WWII
  Emma worked at the gyp mill. She has worked as a volunteer at the Craft Center and
  for the VFW Auxilliary program at the rest home. She is a member of the Medicine
  Lodge EHU and the Christian Church.
     Virgil, also a member of the Christian Church, died on August 28, 1976.
     The Adams children are Audrey (Mrs. Charles) Bartholomew of Austin, Texas; Betty
  (Mrs. Ed) Dairy of Wichita; Verline (Mrs. Robert) Kutz of Valley Center; Charlene of
  Medicine Lodge; and a son, Leon, who died in 1969. There are nine grandchildren and
  ten great-grandchildren.
               
     Source:Chosen Land - Barber County, Kansas,  pg. 82 
     Submitted by: Emma Sanders Adams