Ervin Adams (1882 - 1933)

Dorothy FitzPatrick (1895 - 1951)

Ervin Adams was born on June 25, 1882 in Portage, Cambria County, Pennsylvania, the youngest child of George Washington and Joanna (Barnes) Adams.

Ervin was only 6 years old when his mother died in 1888 at the age of 42. His big sister Clara assumed the responsibility of raising Ervin. She married the following year, and Ervin went to live with her and new husband, Solomon Meck in Broad Top Township, where Sol supported them as a coalminer.

Ervin's sister Ann died in childbirth in 1895, and Clara raised her two children, Harry and Bertha Meck. Together with her own six children, Ervin was surrounded by a lot of family. However, Ervin's father was distant, and Ervin had a strained relationship with him for the rest of his life.

Early left school before he really learned to read or write. At an early age, he trained as an electrician’s apprentice, first with the Westinghouse Electric Company in Pittsburgh. He remained with them until 1903, and then he worked as a mine electrician for the Berwind-White Company of Windber, Somerset County, PA. Two years later, he became identified with the Merchants Coal Company of Boswell, PA as chief electrician, and in 1908 went to Bakerton, Cambria County, where he served as chief electrician for the Sterling Coal Company for three years. 

In Bakerton 29-year old Ervin met 17-year-old Dorothy Fitzpatrick. They drove to Cumberland, Maryland, where they were wed on July 22, 1912. Dorothy was born on July 18, 1894 in the state of Tennessee, the daughter of James  and Anna (Gibson) FitzPatrick.

 
Ervin and Dorothy had ten children, six of whom lived to adulhood. Dorothy gave birth to two sets of twin sons who died in infancy. Their children were: Ruth Anna (Adams) Shevock, Dorothy May (Adams) Shevock, James "Bimbo" Adams, Stella (Adams) Wenturine, Irene (Adams) Jones, DeVere and DeVon Adams (twins), Ervin Jr. and Arthur Adams (twins), and Janet (Adams) Milko.

By 1920 they were living in Nanty Glo where Ervin was employed as chief electrician at Nanty Glo Mine No. 14 by the Webster Coal and Coke Company.

Ervin was an inventor of electrical devices, most notably automatic auxiliary lights for emergency use in public buildings, an automatic sanding device for all types of locomotives, an automatic control phase faiing switch, and mine, locomotive, and streetcar automatic headlights. He held patents for an improvement in fuses and fuse plugs, for a static and interference eliminator, for automatic electrical cut-outs, for a tool for renewing burned-out electrical devices, and for an apparatus for cleaning blackboards and erasers. Some of his inventions were later donated by his family to the Smithsonian institute.

Because Ervin was illiterate, he was taken advantage of by businessmen and associates. When his daughters Ruth and Dorothy were old enough, Ervin had them read contracts and material related to the process of obtaining patents on his inventions. Ervin and his family traveled frequently to Washington, DC to apply for patents.

On August 21, 1924 Dorothy gave birth to twin sons,  DeVore and DeVon, but they were both born prematurely and only lived a week. Just a few days after DeVere died, someone broke into their home in Nanty Glo late at night and stole some of Ervin’s drawings and papers. The burglar(s) threw a bomb that contained chloroform into their house. Dorothy and her sister Ann, fortunately, got the children out safe and had all they could do pull Ervin out. Thankfully, no one was harmed, although DeVon died a day or two later. The burglars were never caught. Ervin and Dorothy came to believe that the town’s doctor provided the burglars with the chloroform, and the incident was hushed up, never appearing in the local newspaper.

Ervin and his family moved to Johnstown shortly after the incident.  For a time, they lived in Everett, Bedford County as well.

In 1925 Ervin with his partner, a lawyer named Mr. Diehl, started their own company, Emergency Lighting Corporation, to sell his inventions. At the time of his death, Ervin was working on a device that would eliminate static in a radio.

In May 1927 Dorothy gave birth to another set of twins, Ervin Jr. and Arthur, but they too were both born premature, and so they died a few days later, Ervin Jr. on May 27th.

In 1930 Ervin and Dorothy resided in Carmel Borough, Northumberland County, PA. Ervin was employed as an electrician for a coalmining company, and presumably still working with his new company.

Ervin and his family resided in Barnesboro, Cambria County, PA at the time of his death on September 16, 1933. He was only 51. Ervin had had a bad heart for some time.

Despite Ervin’s inventions, his widow and children had little money, and struggled to make it through the Great Depression.

Dorothy later moved the family to Bakerton, Cambria County, PA, where she resided until her death 17 years later on August 28, 1951. She was 57.

Ervin and Dorothy are buried beside the graves of their two sets of twins in Pike Brethren Cemetery, Mundys Corner, Jackson Twp, Cambria County, PA.