Laurence S. Adams

Corporal, U.S. Army

Company D, 309th Machine Gun Battalion, 78th Infantry Division

Entered the Service from: New Jersey
Died: October 25, 1918

Corporal Laurence Somerfield Adams was born in Harperton, Virginia on September 6, 1891 to Daniel Jefferson Adams and his wife Margaret Adams. The 1910 Census shows the Adams family living in Pungoteague, Virginia.

Laurence S. Adams registered for the draft at Camden NJ on June 5, 1917. He was living at 553 Bailey Street in North Camden. He was a member of the Camden Police Department in June of 1917 when he registered for the draft.

Corporal Adams was mortally wounded in action on October 25, 1918 in the Argonne Forest battle. He was a member of Company D, 309th Machine Gun Battalion, and on the morning of October 25, his company was firing a barrage and the enemy answered it with artillery fire. A shell struck two of the company’s guns and Corporal Adams was so severely wounded that he died the same day in a hospital. Corporal Jacob F. Currie, of 12 North 25th Street in East Camden, also serving with the 309th Machine Gun Battalion, was killed the same day.

The book Camden County in the Great War reports the Adams family as living at 553 Bailey Street in North Camden. The Adams family lived at 430 Bailey Street in North Camden by 1919 and into the 1920s.