Editing Adams, Tennessee (section)

==History==
The first settlers in what is now Adams arrived in the late 18th century.  The Red River Baptist Church, one of the first churches founded west of the [[Cumberland Plateau]], was built on the banks of the [[Red River (Cumberland River)|Red River]] in 1791.  The congregation relocated to its current location on Church Street in 1898.<ref>[http://www.bellwitch.org/adams.htm Tennessee Historical Commission marker 3C 11]. Accessed at the Bell Witch website, October 24, 2016.</ref>

[[File:Bell-Witch-THC-marker-tn1.jpg|left|210px|thumb|[[Tennessee Historical Commission|THC]] marker along [[U.S. Route 41|US 41]] in Adams recalling the [[Bell Witch]] haunting]]

Adams developed in the late 1850s as a station on the Edgefield and Kentucky Railroad (later part of the [[Louisville and Nashville Railroad|L&N]] system).  Most of the city's early buildings were destroyed during the Civil War.  The city originally incorporated as Red River in 1869, but was renamed Adams Station in honor of James Reuben Adams, who owned much of the land on which the city was built. The name was simplified to "Adams" in 1898. By the late 1880s, Adams was home to several stores, a flour mill, two churches, and a school. The city repealed its charter in 1899, but reincorporated in 1908, and incorporated as a city in 1963.<ref>{{cite book|title=Tennessee Place Names|first=Larry L.|last=Miller|publisher=Indiana University Press|year=2001|pages=3}}</ref><ref name=towns>{{cite book|title=Tennessee Towns: from Adams to Yorkville|first=Tom|last=Siler|publisher=[[East Tennessee Historical Society]]|location=Knoxville, Tennessee|year=1985|pages=1}}</ref><ref name=adamshistory>"[http://www.bellwitch.org/adams.htm The History of Adams, Tennessee]," Bell Witch website. Accessed: October 24, 2016.</ref>

During the 1920s, Adams began to receive a steady flow of automobile traffic due to its location along [[U.S. Route 41]], which was one of the main roads linking the [[Chicago]] area with [[Florida]]. The city began to decline in the mid 20th century with the discontinuance of passenger rail traffic and the construction of [[Interstate 24]] and [[Interstate 65]] (which drew much of the automobile traffic away from US 41).<ref name=adamshistory />

Adams is the site of an infamous haunting, the [[Bell Witch]]. The first manifestations of the Bell Witch haunting supposedly occurred in 1817 through 1820 on a farm owned by [[John Bell (farmer)|John Bell]].<ref>{{cite book|title=An American Haunting: The Bell Witch|first=Brent|last=Monahan|publisher=Macmillan|year=2006}}</ref><ref>http://www.unexplainedstuff.com/Ghosts-and-Phantoms/Famous-Haunted-Houses-and-Places-Bell-witch-s-cave.html Famous Haunted Houses and Places - The Bell Witch</ref> A memorial to the Bell family can be found at Bellwood Cemetery.  The city's municipal offices are now located in the former Bell School, which was built in 1920 and named for a descendant of John Bell.  A log cabin built by John Bell around 1810 has been relocated to a plot across from the Bell School.<ref>"[http://www.bellwitch.org/attractions.htm Attractions]," Bell Witch website. Accessed: October 24, 2016.</ref>