Cumberland County, Maine - John M. Adams
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Biography
John M. Adams
Biographical Review
Cumberland County, Maine
Boston
Biographical Review Publishing Company
1896
Page 526-528


John M. Adams, the able editor of the Eastern Argus and the Nestor of modern
journalism, was born in Rumford, Me., September 22, 1819. Bereft of a father's
care in his youth, he was compelled while yet in tender years to largely look
out for himself, receiving from a widowed mother, who was left with five
children to care for, only such aid, support, and instruction as she with her
many other cares and responsibilities was able to give him. Faithful in his
filial love, he devoted the first five years after his father's death to
assisting in the work of the farm.

When he was about fifteen years of age, he received from a relative who was a
student at Bowdoin College such instruction as the young man was able to give
outside of his college studies. This proved exceedingly valuable. It created a
thirst for learning which he and his mother resolved to have gratified. In the
autumn he attended school at Turner, the next summer was a student at Bridgton
Academy, and the following autumn at Bethel, in which town he taught school the
next winter. In 1838 the troubles over the north-eastern boundary question were
becoming serious, and young Adams in a spirit of adventure and a desire to see
the new country volunteered as a soldier in the Aroostook War, being an Orderly
Sergeant. The disputes were soon settled through the intervention of General
Winfield Scott; and the soldiers were discharged after a month's service, never
having gone further than Augusta on their way to the scene of strife. His
kinsman and former instructor, having gone to Maryland, wrote John that there
was an opening for a teacher in an academy near where he was residing; and the
young man, then only nineteen years of age, resolved to accept the offer. The
facilities for travel were few. He was two days in journeying from Rumford to
Portland and six days in reaching Maryland. There he found a fine opportunity.
He taught two years most successfully, receiving the princely sum of four
hundred dollars a year, with board at one dollar per week in one of the
wealthiest families of the place. His time outside of the school-room was spent
in study in preparation for higher service.

In December he was called home by the death of a brother; and,though strongly
urged to return to Maryland, he concluded not to do so, having abandoned the
idea of going to college, mainly because two years were required to be devoted
to the study of Greek, which he considered unprofitable. He took a two years'
course at Gorham Seminary. Desiring to acquire the French language, he studied
for about ten months at a college at St. Iyacinthe, Canada. The President of the
college secured him board in the famous Papineau family, who were wealthy and
cultured people. This admitted him to the best society, in which French was
spoken in its purity; and he soon became able to speak like a Parisian.
Returning to Maine, he began in the spring of 1844 to study law in the office of
Fessenden & DeBlois. He also taught a class in French at Packard's School, the
principal of which was a brother to Professor Packard, of Bowdoin. In the fall
of 1844 he attended a meeting of prominent citizens, including John A. Poor, to
consider the question of building a railroad to Montreal. This was the inception
of the great enterprise in which he afterward had an active interest. Four years
after becoming the law partner of its chief promoter, J. A. Poor, in 1851, he
made an extensive tour of Europe and acted as the correspondent of the Railroad
Journal of New York, writing chiefly of the railroad systems of Europe. Upon his
return he was appointed on the staff of Governor Hubbard, whose election he had
earnestly advocated before his departure. In 1855 he edited the Argus for John
Appleton, who was Secretary of Legation at London; and in 1856 he was appointed,
by Governor Wells, Reporter of Decisions, and edited the fortyfirst and forty-
second volumes of the Maine Reports. The next year he formed a law partnership
with Nathan Clifford, which was very congenial to both parties, and which
continued until Mr. Clifford was appointed to the United States Supreme Bench,
January 12, 1858.

About this time Mr. Adams was elected editor of the Eastern Argus, much against
his will, as he preferred the practice of law, at which he had been successful,
to editorial work; but he was finally persuaded to accept the place through the
advice of friends whose opinions he did not wish to disregard. After a time he
acquired a half-interest in the paper, and in 1866 he became its sole owner. Mr.
Adams has been editor of the paper for more than thirty-nine years, during all
of which time it has been an able and outspoken advocate of Jeffersonian
Democracy, to support which it was established in 1803. The Argus never gives
out any uncertain sound: it is true to its principles and is ready to defend
them at all times. Of late years much attention has been given to the news
department of columns, and it now ranks as the leading newspaper of the State.

In 1877-78 Mr. Adams was elected to the legislature at Augusta, serving on the
Finance Committee during both terms. The second year he was nominated by his
party for Speaker of the House, and received every Democratic vote. He was one
of the originators of the Maine Press Association, in which he takes great
interest, and is usually the leading spirit both in its summer excursions and
winter reunions, always entertaining his editorial brethren with great
cordiality. Mr. Adams is justly held in the highest respect and esteem in the
community in which he resides and throughout the fraternity of which he is an
honored and brilliant member. In business and in social life his honesty of
purpose, lofty character, and his kind and gentle nature have won him admirers
and warm personal friends among all classes with whom he associates.

Mr. Adams married Miss Adele S. Hobbs, daughter of William Whitman Hobbs and
Sarah Farrington (Merrill) Hobbs, of Norway, April 18, 1867. This union has been
blessed by the birth of five children- Susan Merrill; Sarah Whitman; John
Milton, a very promising young man who died at the age of fifteen; Adele Hobbs;
and Charles Henry.

Nathan Adams, Jr., father of the subject of this sketch, was born January 28,
1788. March 17, 1817, he married Susan, daughter of Ezekiel Merrill, who was born
at Andover, Me., being the first white child born in that town. Mr. Nathan
Adams, Jr., became possessed of the old homestead of his father in Rumford,
where he lived until his death, January 26, 1830. He was a soldier in Captain
Wheeler's regiment, and was called out for the protection of Portland in the War
of 1812. Nathan Adams, Sr., of the sixth generation of the Adams family in
America, was in his early manhood a resident of Andover, Mass. He held the rank
of First Lieutenant in a company raised in Andover for service in the War of the
Revolution. Afterward he came to Maine, and was a prominent and early settler of
East Andover, Me.,later moving to and developing the home at Rumford, where he
resided until his death. (For further facts concerning the Adams family see
"History of Rumford," by Lapham, 1890, Augusta.)