W. T. Adams Machine Co. was founded in 1879 by William Thomas Adams and employed more that 500 workmen at its peak. They manufactured both slide-valve and automatic steam engines, plus sawmills, sawmill machinery and woodworking machinery.

Information Sources

• 1891 book Cornell University: Her General and Technical Courses, page 78.

  The subject of our illustration, Mr. W. T. Adams, the founder and president of the W. T. Adams Machine Co., of Corinth, Miss., was born in Tishomingo County, Mississippi, in the year of 1853. His father, who was a mechanic of moderate means, died about the close of the Civil War, leaving him a lad of twelve years. All of his father's property, with the exception of a home, having been destroyed, and he being the eldest of seven children, felt the responsibility of supporting the family, and set to work with this purpose, finding work on the farm most of the tie for three years, being able to attend school only a very small portion of the time. At the age of fifteen he secured a permanent position in a store at Rienzi, Miss., where he worked during the day and studied at night, thus acquiring a good English education and business training. At twenty he was appointed agent of the Southern Express Co., and at twenty-two, having saved a small capital, purchased an interest in a small foundry manufacturing agricultural implements; and with his mechanical turn of mind, and peculiar business tact, succeeding in this, in 1879 moved to Corinth and established the present business; which under his personal management has grown to be one of the most prominent of the kind in the South. He has also aided in promoting many other successful enterprises; and like many self-made men, has proven a blessing to the country, giving employment to hundreds of hands, and aiding in the development of resources of the New South.

• 1891 book Biographical and Historical Memoirs of Mississippi, Vol. I. Page 264, in a paragraph on Alcorn County: "The iron manufacturing interests are extensive, various articles of iron and steel from engines and boilers down to smaller essential being turned out. The principal house in this line, the W. T. Adams Machine Company, does an annual business of $300,000." Page 286:

  The W. T. Adams machine company... is engaged in the manufacture of steam engines, boilers, sawmills, planers, re saws, gangenders [sic], lathmills, gristmills, cottongins and presses, mill supplies and steamfitting goods, etc. The business was established by Mr. Adams in 1879, who at that time was heavily in debt... The business was incorporated in 1887. Mr. Adams was born at Jacinto, Tishomingo county, Miss., in 1853, a son of Barnett and Lucinda A. (Sutherland)Adams, the former of whom was also born in this state, a son of Vincent Aadms, who was an early immigrant to this section. Barnett and Lucinda Adams reared a family of seven children: W. T., Barnett V., Anna, Richard, Joseph (who died at the age of twenty years), Mattie P. and Robert T. Barnett Adams was a wagonmaker by trade and followed this calling in Jacinto for a number of years, moving to Rienze in 1858, where he died. In connection with his trade he also followed the occupation of planting. He was a member of the Baptist church and was a master Mason. His wife was a Virginian born in 1821, a daughter of James M. Sutherland, who was a native of Danville, Va. He was one of the pioneers of Mississippi, and having learned the trade of wagonmaking in Virginia, he followed this calling after coming to Tishomingo county. Mrs. Adams died in 1857, at which time she was an earnest member of the Baptist church. W. T. Adams received a good practical education in the schools of Rienzi, and at the age of twenty one years embarked in business for himself. After tilling the soil and clerking in a store, he became an agent for the Southern Exchange company at Rienzi, but later purchased an interest in a small foundry at that place, where he engaged in the manufacture of agricultural implements, continuing until 1879. He then came to Corinth and established a small business, which was the foundation of the magnificent establishment of which he is now the proprietor. Since that time his business has increased so steadily and rapidly that it has grown into vast proportions, and now constitutes the largest business in its line throughout the entire South... This establishment gives employment to about one hundred and thirty-give men, who in two days' time, can turn out a complete outfit for any ordinary mill machinery... Mr. Adams... was married in 1875 to Miss Virgie Johnston, a daughter of J. C. Johnston, of Rienzi. She is of German descent and was born in Tennessee in 1855. To their union five children have been born: Bertha, Anna O., Estelle, William T. and Winford...

• 1896-07-17 American Manufacturer page 89.

  The W. T. Adams Machine Company, of Corinth, Miss., has purchased the plant of the Milburn Gin and Machine Company, at Memphis, which is said to have cost $400,000 when first built. The Adams Company will remove its Corinth plant to Memphis and consolidate the two plants.

• 1896-07-24 American Manufacturer page 125.

  The W. T. Adams Machine Company, of Corinth, Miss., has purchased the Milburn Gin & Machine Company's plant at Memphis, Tenn., and will operate both plants. The Memphis will be employed for building larger machinery than the company has facilities for handling at the Corinth plant. Steam engines, boilers, saw mills, shafting, pulleys, constitute the company's wares.

• 1902-01-01 The Tradesman page 149.

  The W. T. Adams Machine Co., Corinth, Miss., is deserving of special mention in the handsome catalogue recently out by them. ITs 111 pages are filed with cuts and descriptive matter that cannot fail to be of interest to all who handle or use engines, boilers, saw mills or woodworking machinery. They call attention to the many improvements claimed in their line of engines, boilers, saw mills, woodworking and gin machinery. They claim for their establishment a first-class machine shop, boiler works, foundry and woodworking plant. Having added to their complete line of plain slide-valve engines a full line of high-grade automatic and compound engines they announce that they are prepared to meet all the requirements of customers for both plain and automatic engines of the highest type. They solicit correspondence.

• 1902-02-15 The Tradesman, Buyer's Directory, lists W. T. Adams Machine Co., Corinth, Miss., as suppliers of Engines (Automatic); Mill Supplies; Saw Mill Machinery; Shafting and Pulleys; Steam Fitting Goods; and Woodworking Machinery.
• 1904 photo of the W. T. Adams display at the Louisiana Purchase Exposition, which was the 1904 World's Fair.
• American Steam Engine Builders: 1800-1900 by Kenneth L. Cope, 2006 page 10
• Images of America, Corinth, 2012, pgs. 76-77
• Findagrave.com entry for William Thomas Adams (1853-1939).
• Lumber's Catalog of Mechanical Equipment and Supplies, 1921, pg. 422