The following is from the journal of Effie Adams Fitzgerald, Susan McCrary's granddaughter:

"With the going home of Grandma Adams there closed a long life marked by qualities of sterling worth, and child-like purity, whose influence will go on indefinitely, as the tiny circles, caused by a pebble thrown into the water go on and on, forming an ever widening circle.

Rarely does the life of one woman living so quiet a life touch and affect so many other lives as did hers, not only through the large number coming directly under her influence, but also by the unusual force and staunch uprightness of her character.

Grandma Adams was born in Howard County, Missouri, November 17, 1821, the same year that the state was admitted into the union.

Her personal knowledge of events and changes incident to the development of a new country form a most interesting history. A story of never-waning charm to her children and grandchildren. For she could tell not only of the fierce struggles of the early pioneer with the unbroken soil, but also of the prowlings of the wild animals of the forest and prairie; of long journeys by wagon, the only means of transportation, to establish a new home site, was governed by various physical features such as the convenient location of timber and natural springs of water.

Sometime during the thirties, she came to Johnson County with her parents and other members of a family of fourteen children, of whom she was the last survivor. They settled in the Clearfork neighborhood, southeast of Warrensburg, Missouri.

In 1840, she was married to Daniel Adams, who took her to the home he had prepared for her. The early pioneer prepared his home for his bride, building a snug house of logs at hand, with a large stone chimney and fireplace. Here, together by hard work and never flagging energy, reinforced by the dauntless courage that was their heritage from Revolutionary ancestry, they began a struggle that would dismay a young man and young woman of today, for it was literally hewing their way. The resources of the country were undeveloped. Every article for home use as well as for marketing had to be produced on the farm by the old-time methods. Any grain used for food must be ground by some simple process or taken to a mill and exchanged for flour or meal; every yard of material for clothing must be woven by the hands of the young wife or her helpers, from materials grown on the place and spun and otherwise prepared for use. All cooking was done on the coals of the fireplace, the fire of which must never be allowed to go out, for there were no matches to relight it.

Strenuous as was their life, they always found time for religious work and showed their freedom from narrowness and prejudice by zealous work in the two little churches that grew up in their neighborhood in the course of time, though neither was of their chosen denomination. They were charter members of Pleasant Grove Cumberland Presbyterian Church where, though it was some distance away, they always attended services as frequently as possible and always gave their portion toward its maintenance. From the organization of the Missouri Cumberland Presbyterian Sunday School Assembly until and including its twenty-second session, Grandma was a yearly attendant. The last year she was present at its meeting at Pertle Springs, her sight had failed, but nevertheless, she thoroughly enjoyed every service she was able to attend and always insisted upon a seat near the platform, 'to encourage the speaker,' as she said.

Grandma Adams was the mother of twelve children-- six sons and six daughters--all of them, with exception of one little daughter who died at the age of ten year, lived and attained a reasonable amount of success in life, as becomes the children of such parents. She also had thirty-eight grandchildren and thirty-three great grandchildren living at the time of her death, making a total of eighty-two living descendants. Eleven others had gone before her.

Not withstanding the fact that her children were at the age that calls for school advantages during the Civil War with all of its deprivations, she somehow managed to give them all a fair amount of education, following the firm conviction that an education was the best equipment for a young man or young woman's life's varied duties and calls. One of the strongest theories was that everyone, young people particularly, should embrace every opportunity for self-improvement as offered by reading, attending lectures and mingling with refined and educated people as well as attending school. A theory strengthened, no doubt, by the fact that during her own youth, educational advantages were extremely limited.

But Susan McCrary was endowed with a craving for knowledge that stopped at no obstacle, and largely by her own untiring efforts, acquired an education along certain lines, that would amaze the modern young woman with her great opportunities, this with practical information that came from her long years of experience in life's school, her mind a veritable storehouse of history and wisdom. For she could look back over the years which covered a period of development and formation of a new country, from a day of political unrest and unsettled government and most primitive implements and machinery, down to the present day, with its regulated government and every conceivable invention for man's convenience and comfort.

Grandma Adams was a thorough and constant student of the Bible, accepting literally the admonition to 'search the scriptures' and receiving its teachings without questions. After her sight failed several years ago, she found daily comfort in repeating long passages of her favorite chapters from memory.

Full as her heart and home always were, it never was too crowded to receive the lonely and troubled. Several orphan children have, for a time, found a home with her and each has gone out to make his or her way in the world, carrying with them a respect and reverence for Christian living that will never leave them, and strengthened and fortified by the lasting influence of a Christian home and the prayer of a strong Christian woman which to her latest day, never failed to include them, though not by name, yet her daily petition always included the phrase, 'Bless all those near and dear to us, and all others for whom we should pray.'

Truly, in the words of the wise, many of "Her children shall rise up and call her blessed."