James Adams: Joseph Smith's Friend Who 'Treated Me Like a Father' and the First Endowed Convert from Springfield (1836–1843)

James Adams (1783–1843) was an Illinois lawyer and probate judge who converted to the Church in 1836 and became branch president of the Springfield congregation. He apparently first met the Prophet Joseph Smith in November 1839; Smith recorded that Adams 'treated me like a father,' and the two formed an enduring friendship. Adams was ordained a patriarch by Joseph Smith and was brought into the Prophet's inner circle: on May 4, 1842, he was among the first nine men to receive the temple endowment, the only one of that group who was not from Nauvoo, forming the nucleus of the Anointed Quorum. On May 28, 1843—the same day Joseph and Emma Smith were sealed—Adams was sealed to his wife for time and eternity. He died suddenly of cholera on August 11, 1843, in Springfield.