John George Adair (3 March 1823[1][2]– 4 May,[2] 1885), sometimes known as Jack Adair, born in County Laois, Ireland,[3] 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.[4]
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.[5]
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.[6]
In 1867, at a ball given in honor of Congressman J. C. Hughes, Adair met Mrs. Cornelia Wadsworth Ritchie, whom he married in 1869.[5]
He is buried at Rathdaire Protestant Parish Church, Ballybrittas.[4]