If you know your Wild West lore, the name “Deadwood” should be all too familiar. It should incite visions of gunfights and poker matches that end with blood on the table. It’s the pinnacle of how we picture the Old West, but there was much more to the gulch town than desperate prospectors and advantageous ladies of the night.
Known today as The Adams House, a striking home in the otherwise rowdy mining town of Deadwood attracted affluence, playing host to those who lived at the top of the social hierarchy. Dinners served with silverware made from the very thing that Deadwood’s disadvantaged so feverishly obsessed over were commonplace, and often, guests gathered by the fireplace to hear fingers dance across its ivories.
It was a picturesque scene that helped usher in a new age for Deadwood, one that at least one could not let go of. Across the two prominent families that resided at the historical building, the Franklins and the Adams, the latter’s patriarch is still believed to remain an active fixture.
It all started with a gold rush. Nearing the turn of the century, 19th-century hopefuls rushed to the Black Hills of South Dakota, hoping to strike it rich as word of the first signs of gold spread. Some did. Some left empty-handed. Men risked their lives for the prospect of a lifetime of riches. Others found fortune elsewhere, taking advantage of the people who settled in the seedy town that sprung up amongst the dead trees and gold-filled creek.
Deadwood has a particularly rough history filled with gunslingers and brothels, but that’s not the one you’re here to read about. Rather, while the people of Deadwood took advantage of one another, engaging in all manner of nefarious activities, a beautiful structure was being built amongst the chaos of the Untamed West. The Queen Anne-style home was not indicative of Deadwood’s gruff style, and everything about what happened within its walls was a stark contrast to the antics unfolding not far away.
Development of the stately abode began during the 1880s, after Jewish immigrant Harris Franklin, a success in the wholesale liquor industry, purchased four parcels in Deadwood. Though he started in liquor, Franklin expanded into banking, mining, and cattle, a trio of prolific ways to build a fortune in a gold-mining town.
By 1891, Harris and his wife Anna commissioned Simeon D. Eisendrath to design and bring to life their dream home. Considering its surroundings and the otherwise simple architecture of Deadwood, the Franklin home drew attention from local news outlets and, upon its completion, the wealth of South Dakota.
Parties were commonplace for the Franklins, especially when their only child, Nathan, wed Ada F. Keller in 1893. Being centrally heated with heated plumbing, it wasn’t surprising that anyone would want to spend time in the Franklin residence. However, the home’s energy changed in 1902 when Anna, having fought an illness that afflicted her shortly after the house was redecorated, died.
Harris held onto the home for three years, eventually offering it to his son and wife for $1. Nathan’s place in Deadwood was further solidified years later when he ran and was elected mayor in 1914, pushing out former incumbent William E. (W.E.) Adams. Nathan remained in his post for four years, not knowing that the very man he beat would eventually become the owner of the Franklin household.
W.E. Adams was a fixture in Deadwood, having served 12 years as mayor. He returned to the position in 1920 in an election against Nathan Franklin’s former rival, Hobart S. Vincent. Upon his reassignment, Adams purchased Nathan’s Queen Anne mansion, allowing the Franklins to leave their Deadwood legacy behind and restart in New York.
Just as it had under the Franklins, the Adams residence became a center for Deadwood’s well-to-do residents. In 1925, though, tragedy struck the family when William’s wife, Alice, traveled to California to be present for the birth of her grandchild.
Time wasn’t on her side, and a recent cancer diagnosis caught up to her. Her passing greatly affected her daughter, Helen, who went into labor the day after her mother’s death. Sadly, neither Helen nor her baby survived the birth, leaving William to pick up the pieces after losing a wife, daughter, and granddaughter.
Though he did remarry in 1927 to Mary Mastrovich, William didn’t get the same amount of time to enjoy his new companion. W.E. Adams passed away in June of 1934 from a stroke, though he lived a full life and did well for the people of Deadwood before his death. He and Mary created several charities, opened new parks for the South Dakota city, and even gifted Deadwood the Adams Memorial Museum, a tribute to Alice.
After William’s passing, Mary continued to honor his legacy, caring for the Adams House for more than 50 years until her own death in 1993. The year before, the Deadwood Historic Preservation Commission purchased the home, which looked as if Mary had preserved every aspect to look as it had on the day her husband died.
The Deadwood Historic Preservation Commission worked hard to ensure the former Adams home was ready for tour groups after a renovation in 2000. Still imbued with its original charm, stepping inside the home feels like stepping back in time, especially if you catch wind of one of William’s cigars. The phantom aroma can still be smelled throughout the historic home, a sign of the former owner’s presence.
Guests touring the home aren’t the only ones to experience the Adams’s otherworldly antics. The staff has spoken of the faint cigar smell and instances of witnessing Mary’s rocking chair moving on its own. There’s nothing to fear, though, as Mary and William only wish to rekindle their once active social life, this time with visitors touring their home.
The two, like the Franklins, had such a connection to Deadwood that it’s not surprising they’d make their return from the afterlife.
A town like Deadwood in a state as rich with history as South Dakota is ripe with tales of the unexplained and visits from the spectral. Be sure to book your Deadwood ghost tour for even more haunting experiences from the Wild West, and read our blog to uncover even more spirits of Deadwood. Don’t forget to follow us on Facebook, Instagram, and TikTok.
Sources:
https://www.deadwood.com/history/
https://www.jmaw.org/deadwoods-franklin-home-jewish/
https://www.hmdb.org/m.asp?m=183628
https://www.cityofdeadwood.com/city-commission/page/former-mayors
https://www.cityofdeadwood.com/city-commission/page/nathan-e-franklin-term-1914-1918
https://blackhillsvisitor.com/learn/w-e-adams/2/
https://hauntedhouses.com/south-dakota/adams-house/
