History of Adams, (Jefferson County) New York United States of America

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Biographies:

Henry Benjamin Whipple, first bishop of Minnesota and 68th in succession in the American episcopate, was born in Adams, N.Y., Feb. 15, 1822; son of the Hon. John and Elizabeth (Wager) Whipple; grandson of Benjamin, U.S.N., and Elizabeth Whipple, and of the Hon. Henry and Elizabeth Wager, and a descendant of ??? Wager, one of the electors of President Jefferson, and of an ancestry in which figured many officers of the army and navy and men useful in church, state and country. He attended private schools in New York, and on reaching manhood engaged for about one year in mercantile pursuits, which he gave up to prepare for holy orders. He studied theology under the Rev. Dr. W. D. Wilson, and at Hobart Divinity school; was admitted to the diaconate Aug. 17, 1849; advanced to the priesthood, July 16, 1850, and was rector of Zion church, Rome, N.Y., 1820-57, and of Christ church, Chicago, Ill., 1857-59. He was elected bishop of the diocese of Minnesota and was consecrated at St. James's church Richmond, Va., Oct. 13, 1859, by Bishops Kemper, DeLancey and Cobbs, assisted by Bishops Burgess, Whitehouse, Scott, W. H. Lee, Clark and Bowman. In 1860 he was active in organizing the Bishop Seabury Mission in Faribault, Minn., out of which grew the Seabury Divinity school (of which Bishop Whipple was president, 1860-1901). He founded Shattuck Military school; in 1862 he laid the corner stone of the first P.E. cathedral in the United States, that of Our Merciful Saviour at Faribault, Minn., which became the centre of his group of diocesan schools, and in 1866 he founded St. Mary's school for girls. He declined the appointment of chaplain of the 1st Minnesota volunteers, 1861, and a bishop's see in the Sandwich Islands, offered him by the ArchBishop of Canterbury in 1870. In 1886 he was given a coadjutor in the person of the Rt. Rev. Mahlon N. Gilbert . His educational work among the Indians, and his effort at Washington, D.C., in their behalf, was marked with a degree of patience and systematic endeavor that accomplished great benefit, and won for him among the tribes the epithet of "Straight Tongue." He was also called "St. John of the Wilderness." Bishop Whipple was married, first, in 1843, to Cornelia, daughter of the Hon. Benjamin and Sarah Wright of Jefferson county, N.Y. She died in 1890, and he was married secondly, in October, 1896, to Evangeline, only daughter of Dr. Francis and Jane (Van Poelien) Marrs of Boston, Mass. The honorary degree of A.M. was conferred upon Bishop Whipple by Hobart in 1850, that of S.T.D. by Racine in 1859, and in 1888 the respective degrees of D.D. and LL.D. by the English universities of Durham, Oxford and Cambridge. He served in various important Indian commissions, including that with the Sioux for the purpose of opening the Black Hills, 1876; was an authority on every phase of the Indian question; preached the initial sermon at Lambeth Palace at the Lambeth conference in London, 1888, and inaugurated the convocation systems of the Episcopal church in the United States. He was a voluminous correspondent, and published many sermons and addresses, and wrote extensively on the Indian question. He was a trustee of the Peabody Fund for Educational Work in the South, 1873-1901, he and Chief-Justice Fuller being the vice-presidents of the board. He preached the sermon at the Centennial of the P.E. church in New York in 1889; preached on special Occasions in nearly every cathedral in England, and before the universities of Oxford and Cambridge and delivered the "Ramsdea sermon," before Cambridge in 1897. At her request he visited Queen Victoria at Windsor Castle in 1891. He acted as presiding bishop of the American church at the Lambeth conference in 1897, and in the same year preached the memorial sermon at the unveiling of the Tennyson monument at the Isle of Wight. In 1899 he was invited to be present at the Centenary of the Church Missionary society of England as the representative of the P.E. Church in America, and delivered an address. In 1870 he conducted the first public Protestant service held in Cuba. He visited Porto Rico by request in 1900, to examine the field for church work and held confirmations there, being the first American bishop to visit the island; was chaplain-general of the Sons of the Revolution and of the Society of Colonel Wars; was one of the board of Indian commissioners; president of the Florida Audubon society, and wrote extensively on the Indian question. He published many sermons and addresses, Lights and Shadows of a Long Episcopate being one of his latest productions. He was a member of the Victoria Institute of Great Britain. In the midst of his great labors, after a sudden illness of one week, he died in Faribault, the see of his diocese. His body rests under the altar of his cathedral, the tower of which was erected in his honor by the people of America and England. The date of his death is Sept. 16, 1901.

From: Twentieth Century Biographical Dictionary of Notable Americans, Johnson, Rossiter, editor

Albert Cable Hale, educator and chemist, was born in Adams, N.Y., Sept. 2, 1845; son of Abner Cable and Sally Ann (Barton) Hale; grandson of David and Sally (Cable) Hale, and of Ozias and Sally (Lamson) Barton, and a descendant of Thomas Hale, who with his wife Thomasine and son Thomas came to Newbury. Mass., from the parish of Watton-at-Stone, Hertfordshire, England, in 1635, and removed to Haverhill, Mass., in 1645, where he was a land owner, a selectman in 1646, and in 1647 was chosen by the town "to try small causes." In 1648 he was appointed to keep a ferry and in 1649 was elected constable, the first chosen in Haverhill. He returned to Newbury in 1652 and in 1657 removed to Salem, Mass., where he remained until shortly before his death. In 1659 his name appears among the glovers in the" Annals of Salem." He died in Newbury, Dec. 21, 1682 David Hale was senior member of the first mercantile firm in Adams, N.Y., and captain of a troop of cavalry in the war of 1812. Albert C. Hale was graduated from the University of Rochester, N.Y., in 1869; was teacher of Latin and Greek in Holbrook's military school, Sing Sing, N.Y., 1869-70; teacher of the sciences in Peddie institute, Hightstown, N.J.. 1870-73; and at the same time did special work in mineral analysis at Rutgers college, and field work in geology and mineralogy in New Jersey, and was vice-principal of the high school, Jersey City, N.J., 1873 77. In 1876 he pursued a summer course in analytical chemistry at Harvard. On resigning his position as vice-principal of the Jersey City high school he spent a year and a half as a student at the Columbia school of mines, New York city, and studied at the universities of Paris, Berlin and Heidelberg, 1878-80, receiving the degree of Ph.D. from the University of Heidelberg in 1880. He was president of the State school of mines of Colorado, 1880-83, and made a report upon the mining interests of the state. He also had charge of important gold mining property in Gilpin county, and made an examination and report upon the water supply of the city of Denver. In 1883 he became head teacher of the physical science department in the Central school (now the Boys' High school), Brooklyn, N.Y. He was elected a member of the American association for the advancement of science in 1880, and a fellow of that association in 1886; vice-president of the American chemical society in 1889, and secretary of that society in 1890; also a member of various other scientific societies at home and abroad. He was married, Dec. 23, 1889, to Carrie Helen Angell of Brooklyn, N.Y. He received the honorary degree of E.M. from the University of Rochester in 1881.

From: Twentieth Century Biographical Dictionary of Notable Americans, Johnson, Rossiter, editor

Julins Sterling Morton, cabinet officer, was born in Adams, Jefferson county, N.Y., April 22, 1882; son of Julius D. and Emeline (Sterling) Morton; grandson of Abner Morton, and a descendant of George Morton, who was the financial agent of the Pilgrims in 1620, and chartered the Mayflower. He was taken by his parents to Michigan in 1834; attended school at Monroe, and the Wesleyan seminary at Albion, and matriculated at the University of Michigan in the class of 1854, but left before graduating, receiving his degree in 1858 nunc pro tunc. He was married, Oct. 20, 1854, to Caroline French Joy, and removed at once to the then territory of Nebraska, which had just been opened to settlement. He became a member of the Townsite company at Nebraska City, established the Nebraska City News, and was twice elected a member of the territorial legislature. In 1853 he was appointed secretary of the territory by President Buchanan, and served in that position, part of the time as acting governor, under the organic act, until May, 1861. In 1872 as a member of the state board of agriculture he originated the phrase "Arbor Day," and instituted the observation of that tree-planting festival. From that all arbor days in all the states have germinated. He was the Democratic candidate for governor of the state in 1866, 1882, 1854 and 1892, and was secretary of agriculture in the cabinet of President Cleveland, 1893-97. He received the honorary degree of A.B. from Union college in 1854, and that of LL.D. from Williams college in 1895. He established his home at Arbor Lodge, adjoining Nebraska City, on a quarter section of land which he pre-empted from the government at $1.25 per acre in 1857, having been a resident on the same from June 1, 1855. He established the Conservative in 1896 as an independent newspaper and under his editorship it soon gained a large circulation. He was also connected with nearly every manufacturing industry in his city. His wife died in 1881 at Arbor Lodge, Neb., and he died at the home of his son, Mark Morton, at Lake Forest, Ill., April 27, 1902.

From: Twentieth Century Biographical Dictionary of Notable Americans, Johnson, Rossiter, editor

Harvey Curtis, educator, was born in Adams, N.Y., May 30, 1806. He was graduated at Middlebury college in 1831, first in his class, and at Princeton theological seminary in 1832. He was principal of Norwalk academy, Conn., 1833-34; tutor in Middlebury college, 1834-35; was licensed by the Troy, N.Y., presbytery, and was pastor at Brandon, Vt., 1835-40; agent for Ohio and Indiana for the American home missionary society, 1841-43; pastor at Madison, Ind., 1843-50; at Chicago, Ill., 1850-58; and president of Knox college, Galesburg, Ill., 1858-62. Middlebury gave him the degree of D.D. in 1857. He died in Galesburg, Ill., Sept. 18, 1862.

From: Twentieth Century Biographical Dictionary of Notable Americans, Johnson, Rossiter, editor