Alvin Adams

Infobox Person
name = Alvin Adams


caption =
birth_date = June 16 1804
birth_place = Andover, Vermont
death_date = September 2 1877
death_place = Watertown, Massachusetts
other_names =
known_for = founder of Adams and Company
occupation =

Alvin Adams (June 16 1804 – September 2 1877) was the founder of Adams and Company, a forerunner to Adams Express, one of the first companies to act as a carrier for express shipments by rail in the United States. Adams and Company provided shippers with a complete shipping solution, picking up goods at the shipper's location, carrying them to the railroad terminal, and then delivering them from the distant railroad terminal to the recipient's door.

Alvin Adams was born on June 16 1804 in Andover, Vermont. [Toomey, pp 246.] 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. [Toomey, ibid.] [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 Adams Express Company, with Mr. Adams as the president of the new company. [Toomey, ibid.] [Depew, pp. 139.] The company was initially capitalized with $1,200,000. [Stimson, pp. 59.] He was succeeded in 1855 by George W. Cass. [The New York Times, March 22, 1888.]

Alvin Adams died September 1 1877 in Watertown, Massachusetts. [Toomey, ibid.] The company that he formed still exists, headquartered in Baltimore, Maryland.

Notes

References

* citation
url=http://books.google.com/books?id=GMkJAAAAIAAJ&pg=PA139&lpg=PA139&dq=%22alvin+adams%22+president+%22adams+express%22&source=web&ots=LI_B5Vd2o-&sig=9LeHkLCrweyQY_hAsYEh_XrGUck
title=1795-1895. One Hundred Years of American Commerce
first=Chauncey Mitchell
last=Depew
publisher=D.O. Haynes
date=1895
accessdate=2007-12-26
* citation
url=http://books.google.com/books?id=S6QaKvPM8uAC&pg=PA51&lpg=PA51&dq=%22alvin+adams%22&source=web&ots=nqNRcEDWW1&sig=Ui073a1R2EiOOKoAgP8NYz9f9JY
title=History of the Express Business
first=Alexander Lovett
last=Stimson
publisher=Baker & Godwin, printers
date=1881
accessdate=2007-12-26
* citation
url=http://books.google.com/books?id=Ux7xVEWPYLkC&pg=PA246&lpg=PA246&dq=%22alvin+adams%22&source=web&ots=Ag6tazSM7d&sig=tpnei-Z_r52k4Ykzn_p-kARwo-Q
title=Massachusetts of Today: A Memorial of the State, Historical and Biographical
first= Daniel P.
last= Toomey
publisher=Columbia Publishing Co.
date=1892
accessdate=2007-12-26
*
* cite news
url=http://query.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=9C02E4D6133FE63BBC4D53DFBF66838C669FDE
title=Alvin Adams, The Expressman; The Business Success That Made Him and His Two Associates Millionares
publisher=The New York Times
date=September 5, 1877
accessdate=2007-12-26
* cite news
url=http://query.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=9806EED8173AE033A25751C2A9659C94699FD7CF
title=Death of George W. Cass; The Long and Honorable Career of a Son of Ohio
publisher=The New York Times
date=March 22, 1888
accessdate=2007-12-26
*