Rosa Dell Adams

Rosa Dell Adams first appears in my research as the mother of an infant daughter stillborn on 8 July 1927 at her home in Pensacola, Florida. She was buried in the Escambia County Poor Farm cemetery. The father is not identified. At the time, Rosa Dell lived at 411. N. Tarragona St. in Pensacola.

Rosa Dell Adams was born to Lousiana Ralph and Wade Adams in 1895 in Alabama (probably Letohatchee, Lowndes Co.). She had at least 3 older siblings; the only one as yet identified is Bird Lee Adams (1891-1926), who appears in the 1910 census with Rosa Dell, their mother Louisiana, and stepfather, William Neely. Bird Lee’s death certificate identifies him as the son of Louisiana Ralph and Wade Adams.

Rosa Dell married Horatio John Bonar Farragut on 5 October 1912 in Escambia County. They had at least one child, Horatio, Jr., born around 1916. In the 1920 census, Rosa Dell is in Horatio’s household at 207 E. Gonzalez St. with their son and she is working as a laundress.

Rosa Dell must have separated from Horatio because she names herself as Adams in her daughter’s 1927 death certificate (though she gives the name “Farragut” as her maiden name), and she appears in the 1927 Pensacola City Directory as Rosa Bell [sic] Adams. (The separation may have come as early as 1920: Rosa Dell is enumerated at 207 Gonzalez Street with Horatio in the census taken 12 -13 January 1920, but a Horatio Farragut of the same age is enumerated as a married man lodging by himself in the household of Charles Johnson on 5 February 1920.) The 1922 Mobile City Directory finds Horatio Farragut working as a longshoreman, with no mention of Rosa Dell.  It appears her son continued to live in Pensacola, but by 1942, Horatio Farragut, Sr. had moved to Pittsburgh, where he died in 1966.

No evidence of Rosa Dell’s whereabouts are found after 1927.

FAMILY:

Children: Unnamed infant daughter, Horatio Farragut, Jr.

Mother: Lousiana Ralph

Father: Wade Adams