Ada Dam

Ada Dam's signature, 1869 (SCSU Archives)

Roberts plot marker, Laurel Hill Cemetery, Reading, Massachusetts (Find A Grave)

Ada Annette Dam was born on August 4, 1853 in Harrington, Maine. Her father, Joseph Sturtevant Dam, was 23, and her mother, Mary Jane (Bussell) Dam, was 17. By 1860, she moved with her parents to Minnesota, where they settled in Maine Prairie. Graduating with the Third State Normal School’s first class on June 30, 1871, Ada delivered a culminating essay, “Wisdom and Knowledge,” in which she discussed using one’s extensive knowledge to acquire wisdom.

Ada taught in local schools before marrying Jacob Frank Roberts, a bookkeeper from Massachusetts, on October 4, 1875 in St. Cloud. After moving to Winchester, Massachusetts, they had two children: Elmer Linwood (May 1879) and Edna May (January 3, 1881). Ada died of vascular disease at the age of 39 on July 17, 1893 and was buried in Laurel Hill Cemetery in Reading, Massachusetts. As an adult, Edna followed her mother into teaching.

Sources

1860 U.S. census, Stearns County, Minnesota, population schedule, Marysville, p. 942, dwelling 1077, family 886; NARA microfilm publication M653, roll 574, accessed July 18, 2019 on Ancestry.com.

1865 Minnesota census, Stearns County, Fair Haven, p. 6, family 27; Minnesota Historical Society microfilm publication MNSC_3, accessed July 18, 2019 on Ancestry.com.

1880 U.S. census, Middlesex County, Massachusetts, population schedule, Winchester, enumeration district 385, p. 64C, dwelling 154, family 171; NARA microfilm publication T9, roll 359, accessed July 18, 2019 on Ancestry.com.

“Deaths Registered in the Town of Reading for the year eighteen hundred and ninety-three,” Massachusetts Vital Records, 1840–1911, New England Historic Genealogical Society, accessed July 18, 2019 on Ancestry.com

Edna (Roberts) Adams death record, Maine Death Records, 1761-1922, Maine State Archives, accessed July 18, 2019 on Ancestry.com.

Index to Obituary Notices in the Boston Transcript, 1875-1899, vol. 2, p. 507, Newspapers and Periodicals, American Antiquarian Society, Worcester, Massachusetts, accessed July 18, 2019 on Ancestry.com.

jkelly0301, “Ada Annette Damm,” Ancestry Person Profile, accessed July 18, 2019 on Ancestry.com.

“Marriages Registered in the Town of Reading for the Year Nineteen Hundred and seven,” p. 3, no. 48, Massachusetts Vital Records, 1840–1911, New England Historic Genealogical Society.

Memorial page for Mary L. Burrows (unknown–15 Feb 1943), Find A Grave Memorial no. 145162835, Ada Annette Roberts (1853–1893), Find A Grave Memorial no. 139529710, citing Laurel Hill Cemetery, Reading, Middlesex County, Massachusetts, USA; maintained by Find A Grave (contributor 8); accessed July 18, 2019.

“Normal School Examination: Exercises of the Graduating Class,” The St. Cloud Journal, July 6, 1871, http://www.mnhs.org/newspapers/hub (accessed July 16, 2019).

“Opening of the Normal School,” The St. Cloud Journal, September 23, 1869, http://www.mnhs.org/newspapers/hub (accessed July 16, 2019).

State Normal School at St. Cloud, “Catalogue and Circular of the State Normal School at St. Cloud, Minnesota,” 1884-1885, p. 5, series 1, box 1, folder 1, St. Cloud State University Undergraduate Catalogs, 1869-2012+, St. Cloud State University Archives and Special Collections.

State Normal School at St. Cloud, “Record Book” 1869-1885, box 1, folder 1, Admission and Records Records, 1869-1939, St. Cloud State University Archives and Special Collections.

St. Cloud State University Archives and Special Collections, transcript index, https://www.stcloudstate.edu/library/archives/histories/transcript-index.aspx (accessed July 16, 2019).

Third State Normal School, undergraduate commencement program, 1871, series 1, box 1, folder 1, Records of St. Cloud State University Commencement, 1871-2018+, St. Cloud State University Archives and Special Collections.

Town and City Clerks of Massachusetts, “Index to Deaths in Massachusetts: 1891-1895,” vol. 38, p. 206, Massachusetts Vital and Town Records, Holbrook Research Institute, accessed July 18, 2019 on Ancestry.com.