Alameda County Biographies

EDSON ADAMS

Transcribed by Kathy Sedler

This file is part of the California Genealogy & History Archives http://www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~cagha/index.htm

 


The subject of this sketch, whose portrait appears in this history, was born in Fairfield 
County, in the State of Connecticut, on the 18th day of May, 1824.  He is a descendant, on 
the paternal side, of Edward Adams, who settled in Hew Haven, Connecticut, in 1640, and on 
the maternal side, of Edward Nash, who settled in Norwalk, Connecticut, in 1654, these 
ancestors being among the pioneers of New England.  At an early age Mr. Adams engaged in 
trade, and continued therein until he sailed for California in January, 1849, arriving at 
San Francisco in July of the same year.  In the following September he went to the mines, 
returned to San Francisco in March, 1850, and proceeded to examine the country around the 
bay of San Francisco for a suitable point at which to lay out and establish a town; and 
finally, on the 16th of May, 1850, he located permanently at a point now known as the foot 
of Broadway, Oakland.  The place was a wilderness, no inhabitants being then on the Encinal 
of Temescal, afterwards known as the town of Oakland.  Here he located one hundred and sixty 
acres, then supposed to be public domain.  His location lay on either side of the present 
Broadway, and extended from the Estuary of San Antonio northerly to about where Fourteenth 
Street now runs.  Afterwards Andrew Moon located one hundred and sixty acres on the west, 
and later came H. W. Carpentier, who located one hundred and sixty acres on the east of Mr. 
Adams.  Others soon followed and located, until the whole country around was occupied by 
settlers, and so remained in their exclusive possession for years, with a few isolated 
exceptions.  These early settlers of Oakland and vicinity, as a class, were young, intelligent, 
and energetic.  In the latter part of 1851, Mr. Adams, with Carpentier and Moon, employed 
Julius Kellersberger and others to survey, lay out, and set the stakes, and make maps and plats 
(which included the three locations above named) of the town of Oakland.  Mr. Adams was elected 
to fill various offices, and served to the satisfaction of the then residents of Contra Costa 
and Alameda Counties.  A few of these enterprising young men determined on founding a town, 
possibly a city, and time has proved the wisdom of their foresight, notwithstanding the 
disadvantages experienced by them during the first few years, on account of the few families 
then in California, as most of those who came here were either single, or had left their 
families behind them.  The inducements at that time to follow trade and mining, also prevented 
many who otherwise would have located in Oakland from doing so.  They want of proper ferry 
communications between Oakland and San Francisco was a great drawback to the building up of 
the town.  By great exertions, steamboat owners were induced to make occasional excursions from 
San Francisco to the proposed town, then called Contra Costa.  At last a company was induced to 
establish ferry communication, at least a round trip a day.  The fare at first was a dollar each 
way, but it was soon reduced to fifty cents each way, with the chances of being detained, by 
foggy weather, five or six hours on a trip.  Mr. Adams has been, and now is, engaged in various 
enterprises on the Pacific Coast.  On May 3, 1855, he was married to Miss Hannah J. Jayne, their 
issue being Julia P., Edson F., and John C. Adams.  Mr. Adams still resides in Oakland, 
surrounded by his family.

History of Alameda County, California�, Oakland, M.W. Wood Publ., 1883, p. 1000

In the death of Edson Adams, which occurred December 1, 1888, Oakland lost its founder and first 
settler and a man who had been a conspicuous figure in the upbuilding and development of the Bay 
country of California, where for nearly forty years he had made his home. His life had been so 
varied in its activities, so honorable in its purposes and so far-reaching in its effects that it 
constituted an integral part of the history of the state, and his death is still deeply and 
sincerely regretted after a quarter of a century. Mr. Adams was descended from one of the early 
Colonial families, his paternal ancestor, Edward Adams, having established the name in New Haven, 
Connecticut, in 1640. Four years later the American progenitor of the branch, Edward Nash, became 
a resident of Norwalk, Connecticut.
	Edson Adams was born in Fairfield county, Connecticut, May 18, 1824, and acquired a 
public-school education in his native state. Following the completion of his studies he engaged in 
trade until 1849, when, attracted by the reports of the gold discoveries in California, he took 
passage on board a steamer bound for the Pacific coast, arriving in San Francisco in July of the 
same year. In the following September he went to the mines and after a few months returned to San 
Francisco, whence he conducted a thorough examination of the Bay country with the purpose of 
establishing a town. On the 16th of May, 1850, he located permanently at a point now known as the 
foot of Broadway, Oakland, taking up one hundred and sixty acres of what was then public domain. 
His property lay on either side of the present Broadway and extended from the estuary of San Antonio 
north to the present location on Fourteenth street. Mr. Adams was the first settler in this locality, 
which was then a frontier wilderness. But others followed soon afterward, among the first of whom 
were Andrew Moon and H. W. Carpentier. In the latter part of 1851 Mr. Adams with Mr. Carpentier 
and Mr. Moon employed Julius Kellersberger and others to survey, lay out, set the stakes and make 
maps and plats for the present city of Oakland, to be founded upon a tract of land including the 
properties of the three gentlemen. Mr. Adams took a very active and prominent part in the 
organization of the community and after it was founded was elected to fill various offices, the 
duties of which he discharged in an efficient manner and with a public spirit worthy of a pioneer. 
He and his associates in this enterprise labored under many disadvantages, for as a rule the first 
settlers in California were single men who preferred to spend their time in the mines rather than 
assist in the upbuilding of a town in which they would probably not care to reside permanently. 
The citizens of San Francisco were slow in making Oakland their home because of the poor ferry 
conditions, the only means of travel at first being an occasional excursion from San Francisco to 
the new town, then called Contra Costa. Finally a company was induced to establish ferry 
communications with at least one round trip each day. The fare was one dollar each way but was finally 
reduced to fifty cents, with the chance of being detained by foggy weather five or six hours on the 
trip. Gradually all of these conditions changed, immigration became heavier and, with the appearance 
of new settlers in the town, city conveniences became a matter of course, and Mr. Adams lived to see 
his dream fulfilled and a city of importance and prosperity grow from his efforts and those of his 
associates in the early days.
	On the 3d of May, 1855, Mr. Adams was united in marriage to Miss Hannah J. Jayne and they became 
the parents of three children, Julia P., Edson F. and John C. Throughout his entire life, which came to 
a close December 14, 1888, Mr. Adams continued to reside in Oakland and became one of its foremost 
citizens, active in all work of municipal progress and a leader in the furtherance of any plan for the 
advancement of the general welfare. His honorable and useful life, which bore the closest investigation 
and scrutiny, gained for him the unqualified respect and esteem of the people of the city which his 
enterprise and ambition had founded and his progressive spirit built up and developed.

Past & Present of Alameda County, California � Vol II, S. J. Clarke Publ. Co., 1914, p. 579