Adeline Nims (maiden name: Goodenow) was born on December 5, 1813, in Windsor, Vermont, to Timothy Goodenow and Betsey White. She married Amasa Nims on March 23, 1839, and they had at least seven children: Wesley, born around 1840; Owen, born on January 26, 1842; Creon, born around 1844; Nott, born around 1846; Adelaide, born around 1846; Mary, born around 1850; and Luella, born around 1856. They lived in Bloomfield, Iowa, and her husband worked as a farmer. By 1850, they owned $200 of real estate. They moved to Maquoketa, Iowa, in the 1850s. By 1880, they were living with their daughter Luella in Graham, Kansas. They returned to Maquoketa by the early 1890s, and she died on July 26, 1893.