Benjamin Lawrence Adams was born to William and Sarah Jane Kelly Adams in Mountain Grove, Missouri on August 20, 1896. His family came to Nebraska in a covered wagon in 1898, settling in the Tilden area, then later moving to Oakdale.
With his brothers and sister, he attended several rural schools, including the Star School near Oakdale, and later attended Oakdale High where he played on one of the winning basketball teams.
He served in the Army during World War I. In 1918, he married Edna Holmes, daughter of U. S. and Lydia Senters Holmes of Oakdale. They made their home in Oakdale where a daughter, Thelma, was born in 1920. While they lived in this area, Lawrence worked in the Clingman’s Garage.
He and his family moved to the family farm which was known as the Malzacher place, when his parents moved into town. In a few years, they moved to the Ofe place north of Oakdale, where he farmed. Here, a daughter, Mavis, was born in September, 1926 and died in December of the same year. A daughter, Yvonne, was born there in 1927 and a daughter, Marilyn in 1931.
In the spring of 1932 the family moved to the McPherson farm and in 1939 to the Enos Adams farm on Antelope Creek. In 1943, Lawrence moved his family to South Gate, California, where he worked at Lockheed Aircraft in Burbank. After the war, he worked at a foundry in South Gate until he retired in 1964. Lawrence died in 1984.
Source Unknown: Originally submitted for this website in June 2007