Whitney, Betty Adair

Asa Rogers Adair (1845 or 1846-1923 or 1932), son of James Adair II of Ireland and Jane Anna Swart of Virginia, was raised in Giles County, Virginia, and served in the Confederate army the last year of the war. In the 1870s, he went into the cattle business in Texas and drove cattle to Utah, Dakota, Wyoming and Colorado. In 1879, he began mining in the Custer and Chaffee Counties of Colorado and owned several lodes.

Emma May Keyser Adair (1865-1952) grew up in Pennsylvania and Ellis, Kansas, and lived in Lawrence and Topeka, Kansas.

Asa and Emma Adair were married in December 1888 in Ellis, Ellis County, Kansas, and had 6 children:

Hugh Rogers Adair (1889-1971) graduated from the University of Kansas Law School. He was a partner in the law firm of Lobel and Adair in Helena, Montana, and later became Chief Justice of the Montana Supreme Court. He married Jeannie Janes in 1935.

William Wallace Adair (1892-1984) attended the University of Kansas Pharmacy School and worked in Lawrence, Kansas drugstores. He married Marguerite Jeanette Kaufmann and they had 3 daughters: Dorothy Jane, Betty Lou (Whitney-donor of this collection) and Virginia Lee.

Ruth May Adair Dyer (1895-1986) graduated from the University of Kansas Law School in 1921 and was the only woman in her class. She worked for the law firm of her brother, Hugh, in Helena, Montana. She later served as secretary for then-Senator Harry S. Truman in Washington, D.C. She married Rowland Sears Howes Dyer. A life member of the KU Alumni Association, she was a member of the Gold Medal Club. She maintained a 50-year membership in the Delta Delta Delta social sorority and was a member of Phi Alpha Delta law fraternity.

Albert Sidney Adair (1898-1982) enrolled in engineering classes at the University of Kansas. He married Genevieve Squires.

Laura Ellen Adair (1902-1987) graduated from the University of Kansas in 1923. She married Walter Mildren Cox.

John Mathus Adair (1907-1907).

Emma Adair’s father was Henry Kiser (d. 1867), a Civil War veteran who died after the war of wounds suffered in the war. Emma's mother, Susan Bucher Cump Kiser (1844 or 1848- 1922), then moved her three daughters, Sadie, Emma and Laura, from Pennsylvannia to Ellis County, Kansas where she managed a bakery. It was with the move to Kansas that the last name changed spelling from Kiser to Keyser.

William Adair of Lurich, Virginia (1844-1928) was Asa Adair’s brother.

Maneleaus (Manelius?) Chapman Adair (1863-1900) was Asa Adair's brother.

From the guide to the Adair family papers, 1848-1985, (University of Kansas Kenneth Spencer Research Library Kansas Collection)