John George Adair

rdf:langString John George Adair

rdf:langString John George Adair (3 March 1823– 4 May, 1885), sometimes known as Jack Adair, born in County Laois, Ireland, was a Scots-Irish businessman and landowner, financier of JA Ranch in the Texas Panhandle. Adair had made his fortune in Ireland buying up estates bankrupt after the Irish potato great famine. In 1866 Adair made his first visit to the United States and established a brokerage firm in New York City for the purpose of placing British loans in America at higher interest rates than those in Britain. Together with his business partner Charles Goodnight, Adair established the JA Ranch, the first cattle ranch in the Texas panhandle in 1877 in the Palo Duro Canyon area. In 1867, at a ball given in honor of Congressman , Adair met Mrs. Cornelia Wadsworth Ritchie, whom he married in 1869. He is buried at Rathdaire Protestant Parish Church, Ballybrittas.