Alvin Adams

image:Alvin Adams ca1850.jpg

Alvin Adams was born on June 16, 1804, in Andover, Vermont.Toomey, pp 246. to Jonas Adams (1758-1813) and Phoebe (Hoar) Adams (1765-1813).Bridge, pp 108. His father was descended from the same ancestor as President John Adams and Governor Samuel Adams, namely Henry Adams (ca. 1583 - 1646) who settled in Braintree, Massachusetts in 1632.Adams, pp. 50. Alvin was the ninth of eleven children. His parents died within a week of each other when he was eight years old. He came to Boston from Vermont a poor orphan boy to seek his fortune. He married Anne Rebecca Bridge (1809-1882) of Chelsea, Massachusetts on November 10, 1831. She was the daughter of cabinetmaker John Bridge (1783-1870) and Rebecca (Beal) Bridge (1787-1865).Bridge, pp 106. Alvin and Anne had nine children.Bridge, pp 109-110. A nephew of Alvin and Anne, John Bridge Pratt (1833-1870), later married the oldest of the famous Alcott sisters, Anna Alcott Pratt (1831-1893).Bridge, pp 107. A produce merchant ruined by the Panic of 1837, in 1839, Adams began carrying letters, small packages and valuables for patrons between Boston and Worcester, Massachusetts. On May 4, 1840, he established his first express freight route between Boston and New York under the name Adams and Company.Toomey, ibid. The company established offices in Boston and New York, and soon added express routes to Baltimore, Maryland, Norwich, Connecticut, Worcester, Massachusetts, Washington, D.C., Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, Cincinnati, Ohio, Louisville, Kentucky, and St. Louis, Missouri.Stimson, pp 55-56. Adams and Company started out by hauling mail for the nascent postal service, until that business was suspended by the US Government in 1845; in that year the transportation of mail was transferred to solely government-owned entities.

In 1854 Adams and Company merged with three other express agencies, Harnden and Company, Thompson and Company, and Kinsley and Company to form the Adams Express Company, with Adams as the president of the new company.Depew, pp. 139. The company was initially capitalized with $1,200,000.Stimson, pp. 59. He was succeeded in 1855 by George Washington Cass.The New York Times, March 22, 1888.

Alvin Adams died September 1, 1877, in Watertown, Massachusetts. The company that he formed, the Adams Express Company, still exists and is one of the oldest companies listed on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE: ADX), headquartered in Baltimore, Maryland.

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• {{White - America's most noteworthy railroaders}}
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|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1877/09/05/archives/alvin-adams-the-expressman-the-business-success-that-made-him-and.html

|title=Alvin Adams, The Expressman; The Business Success That Made Him and His Two Associates Millionaires

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• {{cite web|publisher=Adams Express Company |year=2004 |url=http://www.adamsexpress.com/content/pdf/adams_history.pdf |title=The Adams Express Company, 150 Years |access-date=2005-03-28 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20050117093557/http://www.adamsexpress.com/content/pdf/adams_history.pdf |archive-date=2005-01-17 |url-status=live }}

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• [https://archive.org/details/minot-pratt-alvin-adams-family-photo-album Minot Pratt & Alvin Adams Family Photo Album]

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{{s-non

| reason = Founder of company

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{{s-ttl

| title=President of Adams Express

| years=1854–1855

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| after=George Washington Cass

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Category:1804 births

Category:1877 deaths

Category:Adams family

Category:People from Windsor County, Vermont

Category:American people in rail transportation

Category:Businesspeople from Boston

Category:19th-century American railroad executives