Elleneor McKernan was born on May 2, 1835 in Vermont or Illinois to William McKernan and Gracella Nugent Reynolds. Her father died when she was a child, and her mother remarried Frances McCormick. Elleanor can be found often under the latter surname.
She married a John Todd around 1856 and had one child with him: John Wesley Todd. She appears in the 1860 census living in the 5th Ward in Chicago, Cook County, Illinois with William Todd, a doctor from England, his wife Caroline, and their 7-day old son James. Ellen has a son named John on this census who is 3, so it is presumed that Wesley Todd and John Todd are the same child.
United States Census, 1860
1. John Wesley Todd, b. June 1857 in Illinois.
On May 4, 1867, she married Clark Adams in Cook County, Illinois. They had four children:
2. Lula May Adams, b. March 20, 1868 in Michigan
3. Lois Irene Adams, b. March 20, 1868 in Michigan
4. Ulysses Samuel Adams, b. May 1, 1870 in Wayland, Allegan, Michigan
5. Hubert McCormick Adams, b. February 11, 1873 in Wayland, Allegan, Michigan.
Ellen died November 11, 1873 in Niles, Berrien, Michigan of unknown causes. The children were sent to live with relatives (the twins were sent to St. John, Stafford County, Kansas to live with Clark’s brother John Q. Adams, and it appears the boys were sent to California). There is a grave of an Ellen Adams in Silverbrook Cemetery near Niles, Berrien County, Michigan with an unknown birthday and a death year of 1873.
Sources:
"United States Census, 1860", database with images, FamilySearch(https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:MX4L-SW3 : 13 December 2017), Ellen Todd in entry for William Todd, 1860.
Son John Wesley Todd was living in Iowa (where Clark Adams is buried) in 1900 with his wife Mary:
Citing this Record
"United States Census, 1900," database with images, FamilySearch(https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:M9LX-TNB : accessed 28 December 2018), John W Todd in household of Thomas Appleyard, Levey Township Wall Lake town (part), Sac, Iowa, United States; citing enumeration district (ED) 123, sheet 3A, family 49, NARA microfilm publication T623 (Washington, D.C.: National Archives and Records Administration, 1972.); FHL microfilm 1,240,457.