I believe that Adam Miller was the son of Henry Hendrix -- a belief based on land records which show land once owned by Henry Hendrix to later be in the possession of either Adam MiIler Hendrix and/or his son Adam Hendrix.

In one case it was land in Baltimore County named Dukes Palace bought by Henry Hendrickson in 1741, said to be occupied by Adam Hendrickson on a 1750 rent list and then sold by Adam Hendrickson of Pennsylvania in 1784 to Garrett Hendrickson (his brother?).

In the other case it was land on the very southern border of Pennsylvania (including probably the land Leader Farms later owned). A 1769 survey of a tract called Fellowship owned jointly by Adam Hendrix and Joseph Sutton clearly shows Henry Hendrix as an adjoining land holder and an 1811 updated survey of the same property shows the land previously owned by Henry then owned by Adam. The 1769 survey was done for Adam Miller Hendrix, the 1811 one for his son Adam.

He represents the transition of the family from being Baltimore County residents to Pennsylvania residents. His son Adam, though, continued to own land and have business interests on both sides of the state line.

William H Curry has the line: Ruth/Adam/Adam Miller/Henry/Jacobus/Wilhelm or Henrich or Gerhart or Lorentz. Gerhart came from Krigsheim on the Rhine to Philadelphia in the 1650’s. He says that Adam Miller Hendrix purchased in 1767 200 acres in Shrewsbury known as “Blue Ball Inn”. Henry married the daughter of Adam Miller and Christina. Adam was born probably Germany, came from Philadelphia to York in 1737, opened first public house in York in 1741 and was a tobaccanist in York in 1766.

Adam Miller married second Mary Freeland or Feeland, but that occurred when he was 49 and was too late for her to have been the mother of Adam Hendrix, born in 1757, so Mary is neither Adam’s mother nor our ancestor. The Yost consortium (Elanora Green) says this about John Yost. “John is believed to be the son of Abraham Yost & Elizabeth Klingeman.  Jolhn & Cloe were married 5 March 1811 in the First Methodist Episcopal Church in Baltimore.  Cloe was the daughter of John & Catherine Freeland.  John Freeland was the brother of Stephen Freeland, the first husband of Mary Freeland; she married 2) Adam Miller Hendrix in 1788.”

On 1 Nov 1788, LOA were granted to Isaac Hendricks on estate of Adam Miller Hendricks late of Shrewsbury with inventory due before 1 Dec 1788 and accounting due before 1 Nov 1789.

A major problem with understanding the full biography of the life of Adam Miller Hendrix is his tombstone. It gives the dates 1729-1787. We know his tombstone was erected many years after his death -- long enough, in my opinion, that the true dates were either no longer accurately remembered or were possibly misread from the original tombstone.

In particular, I believe Adam actually died in 1788, not 1787. His estate didn’t proceed to administration until 1 Nov 1788 and in March 1788 he deeded land to Thomas Hendricks.

As to his birth date, I believe he married Ruth, the daughter of Dorcas and Thomas Sutton in 1744, though the marriage record I base that on corrupted his name such that some people believe it was not him at all. But he posted bond, along with Christopher Sutton, for Dorcas Thomas, Executor of the will of Joseph Thomas, her second husband, in 1748. So to believe the 1729 birth date (which probably would rule out a 1744 marriage), you have to wonder why Dorcas would have selected a 19 year old with no known relationship to her to post bond. The better explanation of the whole thing, I think, is that Adam was her son-in-law -- and older than 19, having married Dorcas’ daughter in 1744, for which there is some evidence, and that whole scenario simply rules out a 1729 year of birth for him.

Another possible discrepancy relates to his middle name. Many times he used just the name Adam Hendrix but sometimes Adam Miller Hendricks. His son, though, was only ever called Adam Hendrix Jr. One Hendrix researcher claims that the reason he used Miller is because there was supposedly a limit on how much land any one person could patent and Adam knew he was acquiring more than his fair share and used two names to obfuscate that fact.

A 1956 York Newspaper article tells the story of the Blue Ball Inn from its early ownership by the Hendricks family to its then current ownsership by the Leader family.

“The Blue Ball was built around 1769, it was a stage coach inn and the home of successive generations of Hendrix until 1919. John, James and Tobias Hendricks were the ancestors of this family who came to America from Germany settling first in NYC, later York County. Tobias was an ancestor of Vice President Thomas A Hendricks who served with Grover Cleveland.
Lafayette is believed to have stopped at the inn on his journey from Baltimore on 29 Jan 1825 to York and then Harrisburg. Since the Blue Ball was the best inn on the 50 mile route, it seems likely he stopped over, if only for a meal. Adam Hendricks was the innkeeper at that time and had been since 1793.

After 1919, the Blue Ball Inn with its many acres was willed to a York Institution. In 1932, Dr. Nelson Dunnich bought the property and in 1947 it was bought by Leader Farms. The two previous owners struggled to clear a veritable jungle, but the full restoration of the Blue Ball Inn and farm has been done by the Leaders.

The densest growth covered the family graveyard, in use over 125 years. The graveyard is now fenced in and under perpetual care. The Leaders, who own all of the Blue Ball property, say the cemetery will belong to the Hendricks forever. Today, the fine old mansion stands well kept by owners who never even saw a Hendricks!”

What I find most interesting about this story is that it missed entirely the fact that Virginia Leader was a direct descendant of several of those early Hendrix family members buried in that cemetery. I do not think the connection was well understood until the genealogical research that has been done subsequent to the publication of that article (by the Curry cousins, not me, though I may be the first one to comment on the wonderful irony of it).

The newspaper article quoted Oscar Hendricks of New Freedom that the owners in succession were John, Adam Miller, Adam and then it passed on first to Isaac and later generations after that.

Oscar may well also be the source of the information about John, James and Tobias being the ancestors of this line and that they settled first in NYC.

I think Oscar’s is simply one more (probably erroneous) version of just who the earliest Hendrix were. There were several men named John Hendrix bouncing around then but I don’t think any of them were the ancestor of Adam Miller Hendrix. I think the newspaper account is right that Adam Miller Hendrix was the father of Adam Hendrix but wrong as to John being the father of Adam Miller and wrong about the earlier ancestors of this line.

Her birth was recorded in the records of St. Paul’s Parish.

I have searched for any land record wherein Adam Miller Hendricks and wife Ruth conveyed land as additional evidence that her name was Ruth. He did not seem to sell any land during their marriage, I guess he was too busy acquiring land. Both his sons Isaac and Adam though named a daughter Ruth, so I think that provides some small supporting evidence for my theory.

I thought the 1882 pre-nup between my ancestor George Peter Mertz and Melissa (Kleckner) Wolfe was an especially early example of that type of thing that is more common now-a-days. But Adam Hendrix and his second wife Mary Freeland, widow of Stephen Freeland, executed a pre-nup in 1778 -- more than 100 years earlier.