MALISSA DELMA PETERSON WILKES ADAMS 1847-1898
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Malissa D. Peterson married Jesse J. Wilkes on June 16, 1861 in Montgomery Co., GA. This marriage appears to have dissolved about 1867-1869. By 1870, Malissa and her two sons were living in the Montgomery County, GA household of her brother Daniel Peterson, Jr. along with their mother, Mary Peterson. Her two sons by J.J. Wilkes were John Anderson Wilkes and George Washington Wilkes. Jesse J. Wilkes shows in the 1870 Bradford Co., FL census with his second wife, Lucinda, and a six month old child.

J.J. Wilkes later moved to Colquitt Co., GA where he died 21 Nov 1919 and is bur. in the same family plot as his sons Judge John A. Wilkes and George W. Wilkes.

Malissa remarried Captain William W. Adams, on December 22, 1872. They lived out their lives in Montgomery Co., GA.

Her children:

1. John Anderson Wilkes
2. George Washington Wilkes
3. William Riley Adams
4. James Wiley Adams
5. Malcom L. Adams
6. Alice Adams
7. Nathan Adams
8. Carrie Bell Adams
9. Clarence Aubrey Adams
10. Charles Talmedge Adams
11. Archie Adams
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THE MONTGOMERY MONITOR
Mt. Vernon Georgia
Thursday, July 29, 1920

Judge Wilkes Dies in Moultrie

Montgomery County friends will be pained to learn of the death of Judge John A. Wilkes at his home in Moultrie last Friday, 23d inst., after a prolonged illness.

The funeral service was held from the Moultrie Methodist church Saturday morning, attended by the bar of that section of the state and citizens from a number of towns in Southwest Georgia.

Judge Wilkes was born and reared in Montgomery county, and many relatives and friends are proud of his record in public life. He began life as a poor country boy, but possessed of that inborn quality of which men are made, he reached the summit of model and successful manhood.

He was a nephew of Mrs. J. J. Fountain of this place and a half-brother of Messrs. M. L. Adams of Kibbee and J. W. Adams and Clarence Adams of Tarrytown, beside whom he leaves other relatives in Montgomery county.

Judge Wilkes was 59 years of age. He had served as judge of the county court of Colquitt county, in which he was elected by an overwhelming majority. He was a member of the State Senate 1909 - 10 and served with distinction. He leaves a wife and several children, besides another brother in Colquitt County.
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