Adamsville is a city in western Jefferson County, Alabama. It is north from the Birmingham suburb of Pleasant Grove. It initially incorporated in 1901, but disincorporated in 1915. It later reincorporated in 1953. According to the 2010 census, this town had a population of 4,522, down from its peak population of 4,965 in 2000.

Henry Eugene Erwin Sr. was a United States Army Air Forces airman and a recipient of the U.S. military's highest decoration—the Medal of Honor—for his actions in World War II. He earned the award as a staff sergeant and radio operator aboard a B-29 Superfortress in the Asia-Pacific theater. During a 1945 bombing mission over Koriyama, Japan, a white phosphorus bomb prematurely ignited in his aircraft and seriously wounded him. As smoke filled the plane, he picked up the burning device and carried it through the aircraft to the cockpit where he tossed it out a window. Although he suffered severe burns, he successfully saved his plane and all crew members aboard by disposing of the incendiary/smoke-generating bomb.