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Joseph Keith Adams (1870 - 1954) Savannah Griffith (1878 - 1941)
Joseph Keith Adams was born in June 1870 in Ryot (Oak Shade), St. Clair Township, Bedford County, Pennsylvania, the son of George Washington and Joanna (Barnes) Adams.
Savannah Griffith was born on December 24, 1878 in Ryot (Oak Shade), St. Clair Township, Bedford County, Pennsylvania, the daughter of Richard Sylvester and Rachel (Corle) Griffith.
When Keith was a young boy, his family moved a few miles away to Portage, Cambria County. He had been living near his paternal grandparents Solomon and Ann Adams in Ryot, and in Portage he lived near his maternal grandparents Tobias and Elizabeth Barnes.
Keith was only 18 when his mother died at the age of 42. His sister Clara assumed the responsibility of raising his 6 year-old brother Ervin. She married the following year, and Ervin went to live with their sister and brother-in-law Solomon Meck in Broad Top Township.
By the end of 1892, his brother Harvey and sister Ann were also married. His father filed an application to remarry that year, but he did not follow through with the marriage. It is not known whether Keith was living with his father at this time.
On May 16, 1898 Savannah Griffith gave birth to their son, Richard Dewey Adams at her parents home in Ryot. Ten days later, he made an honest woman out of her, and they were married. They had known each other since they were little, for their fathers were neighbors when they were young.
Keith and Savannah settled in Portage, where Keith worked for the Pennsylvania Railroad as a trackman--he operated a large machine on the tracks. Keith's brother Ervin was not the only inventor in the family, for Keith invented the ballast cleaner, which was used by the railroad for many years.
Keith and Savannah had eight children. They were: Richard Dewey Adams, Goldie (Adams) Hahn, Charles Glenn Adams, Edward Lloyd Adams, Isabelle (Adams) Pryce, Violet Pearl (Adams) Hahn, Rena (Adams) Diehl, and Austie (Adams) Miller-Williams.
Above: Savannah poses with two of her children: Lloyd and Goldie.
Above: Dewey worked for the railroad like his father. He is picture at the far right, with his right arm lifted.
Keith and Savannah raised their children on Caldwell Avenue in Portage where they resided for many years.
When Dewey was a young boy he worked as a teamster for the O'Hara Livery Stables in Cresson. He so much enjoyed working with horses, that he left home to live with an aunt and uncle. Dewey left him when his sister Violet was just a baby, and his sisters Rena and Austie were not even born yet. Although their big brother resided just eight miles away, the hardly ever saw him much growing up.
Both Violet and Rena had epilepsy. Epilepsy was much misunderstood the, and there was no medicine to control the seizures>
Like his father, Dewey went to work for the Pennsylvania railroad. At about the age of 16, Dewey was involved in a life-threatening train accident. The details concerning the cause of the accident are unclear, but his left arm was severed at the shoulder. Quick-acting coworkers loaded him onto a train, and rushed him to a nearby hospital. His arm was of course lost, but his life was saved. There was no workman's compensation in those days, but the railroad ensured that Dewey would have a job with them as long as he was able to work. They put him to work at the Cresson depot. Dewey married Eleanor M. Conrad in Cresson, Cambria County in 1916. Eleanor's uncle James Wharton was the yardmaster at the Cresson depot, and presumably Dewey's boss. Dewey and Eleanor resided in Sankertown, a borough of Cresson, and they raised ten children. When the Great Depression reached Cresson, Dewey remained employed, so he was able to provide for his large family.
Their daughter Goldie married Frank Hahn in 1919. Sometime in the 1920s they moved to Pittsburgh, Allegheny County, where Frank found employment at an oil refinery. There they raised three sons.
In 1930 Lloyd resided with Goldie and Frank in Pittsburgh where he found employment as a machinist's apprentice for the railroad in Pittsburgh. He married Leona Agnes Tickerhoof in 1937 in Lilly, Cambria County, and they settled near Pittsburgh and had two children, a son and a daughter.
Keith and Savannah were Protestant, but they did not raise their children in any faith. Dewey and Lloyd, however, both married Catholic girls, converted to Catholicism, and raised their children Catholic.
In 1924 son Charles married Leona Mae Keller. They resided in Cheswick, Allegheny for a short time before settling in New Kensington, Westmoreland County, where he found work as a pipefighter for the Duquesne Light Company. They had three children, two sons and a daughter.
In September 1930, 17-year-old Violet married Ray Hahn, the younger brother of Frank. Frank and Ray were raised in a family of fourteen children. They moved to Michigan and raised four children, two sons and two daughters.
Isabelle married Walter Pryce. They resided in Portage. They did not have any children.
Rena married Reuben "Perry" Diehl, and they, too, left Pennsylvania, settling near Baltimore, Maryland, where they raised their five children.
It is thought that both Isabelle and Rena both suffered from epilepsy.
Austie married Ralph W. Miller about 1937. After just one year of marriage, Ralph died at Memorial Hospital in Johnstown from injuries suffered at a coal mine explosion at the Sonman Mine. He was just 25, and left Austie a widow at 18 with their baby son Ralph Jr. to raise. She later remarried.
In the 1930s Keith and Savannah moved to Cresson, Cambria County. Her sister Emma died from breast cancer in 1926, and regrettabley, Savannah was diagnosed with breast cancer in 1939. In 1940 she underwent an operation to remove the cancer, but it had already spread. On April 21, 1941 Savannah died from metastatic breast cancer. She was 62. Rena had a severe epileptic seizure at her parents home on the day of her mother's funeral, which prevented her from attending the service.
Above: Brothers, Harvey and Keith.
In his old age, Keith spent many an hour resting in his porch rocking chair. His grandchildren often could not tell whether or not he was asleep, for he had the habit of closing his eyes and resting them as he sat on his rocking chair.
Above L to R: Austie, Keith, Austie's son, unknown man.
Keith died April 5, 1954 in Portage at the home of his daughter, Isabelle. He was 83. Keith and Savannah are buried in Pleasantville Cemetery, Pleasantville, Bedford County.
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Adams Family 
