John Q. Adams, born November 8, 1867, in Lafayette County, Wisconsin, was a prominent attorney in Flandreau, Moody County, South Dakota. His parents, William T. and Clara (Blackstone) Adams, were of English descent, with roots in America since the colonial era. Raised in Franklin County, Iowa, Adams attended Iowa State Agricultural College and later graduated with a law degree from Iowa State University in 1893. He practiced law in Flandreau, served as Moody County state’s attorney, and held federal positions. In 1896, he married Cecilia F. Pallansch, and they had one daughter, Lillian Frances, born in 1900.
John Q. Adams, one of the well-known attorneys of Flandreau, Moody County, is a native of the Badger State, having been born in Lafayette County, Wisconsin, on the 8th of November, 1867, and being a son of William T. and Clara (Blackstone) Adams, who are now both living, both being of staunch English genealogy, while both families have been established in America since the colonial epoch in our national history. When the subject was eleven years of age, his parents removed to Franklin County, Iowa, and there he was reared to maturity, securing his early educational discipline in the public schools, after which he was for three years a student in the Iowa State Agricultural College, at Ames. He then entered the law department of the Iowa State University, at Iowa City, where he completed the prescribed technical course and was graduated as a member of the class of 1893, receiving the degree of Bachelor of Laws and being admitted to the bar of that state, as was he shortly afterward to that of South Dakota, having taken up his residence in Flandreau on the 30th of August, 1893, and having since been actively engaged in the practice of his profession here. In 1894 he was elected state’s attorney of Moody County and proved a most careful and able prosecutor, a popular recognition of this fact being given in his retention in this office for three terms. In 1903 he was appointed deputy collector of internal revenue, under Herman Ellerman, collector for this district, and remained in tenure of this position until July 1, 1904. In politics he is a stalwart advocate of the principles and policies for which the Republican party stands sponsor, and in a fraternal way he is affiliated with the lodge, chapter, and commandery of the Masonic order in his home city of Flandreau.
On the 28th of May, 1896, was solemnized the marriage of Mr. Adams to Miss Cecilia F. Pallansch, a daughter of Peter and Celena Pallansch, well-known residents of Sioux Falls, South Dakota. Of this union has been born one child, Lillian Frances, the date of whose nativity was June 1, 1900.
Source: Robinson, Doane, History of South Dakota: together with mention of Citizens of South Dakota, [Logansport? IN] : B. F. Bowen, 1904.