Adams, Moses N. (Moses Newton), 1822-1902

Moses N. Adams was born on February 14, 1822 in Rockville, Adams County, Ohio, the son of Robert and Elizabeth Baird Adams. Following a common school education, he attended Ripley (Ohio) College (ca. 1839-1845) and the Lane Theological Seminary in Cincinnati, Ohio (1845-1848). He received his ministerial license on May 5, 1847 and was ordained by the Cincinnati Presbytery on June 14, 1848. He was then appointed as an American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions (ABCFM) missionary to the Dakota Indians on or near the upper Mississippi River. Immediately following his July 9, 1848 marriage to Annie Gaul Rankin, daughter of James and Sarah Gaul Rankin and also an ABCFM missionary, the couple traveled up the Mississippi River to the Kaposia, Minnesota Territory mission station. They remained at the Kaposia and Shakopee stations learning the Dakota language until the fall, when they joined Reverend Stephen R. Riggs at the Lac Qui Parle mission station on the upper Minnesota River.

At Lac Qui Parle Adams taught a day school, developed a systematic study of the Dakota language, and produced a Dakota/English lexicon. He and his wife also began the first successful boarding school for Dakota children, boarding six children in their home.

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