New-York tribune., 1915-03-21


Francis Adams died at 2 o'clock this
morning at his winter residence. 1901
Massachusetts Avenue. He had been
Ill with the grip for week
Arrangements for the funeral will
not be made until members Of the fam
lily arrive. Two sons and three daugh-
ters survive. besides his wife, who was
Miss Mary Hone Ogden, of Newport,
Il. |.
Mr.. Adams's sickness was not gen
orally known in Washington Mrs.
Adams was with him at the end
Charles Francis Adams was born in
Boston. May 27, 1885. His parents
were Charles Francis Adams. Minister
TO Great Britain during the Civil War.
and Abigail Brown Brooks. He was
a grandson of John Quincy Adams,
sixth President Of the United States,
and great-Grandson of John Adams, the
second President.
! Mr.. Adams was graduated from Har-
ward in 1856 and admitted TO the Mas
sachusetts bar in 1853. He fought in
I the Union armies during the Civil War,
/ beginning as lieutenant in the 1st
| Massachusetts, Cavalry and being pro-
NOTED to captain. lie also served as
/ lieutenant colonel and colonel of the
/ 9th Massachusetts and was brevetted
! brigadier general of volunteers March.
| IS. 1865.
After the war he went into railroad
/ ing. and soon won recognition as an
/ administrative expert. For six years
/ he was president OF the Union Pacific
/ Railroad and for ten years he was
member of the Massachusetts Board Of
Railroad Comm issoners. He was also
/ at one time on the board of arbitration
of the Trunk Line Railroad Organiza-
/ tion.
Public Speaker and Historian.
During tLese activities as a man of
affairs Mr.. Adams won a name for him
self a. a public speaker, writer and
/ historian. AS publicist and historian
he was chiefly interested in the history
Of the United States and the political
and economic problems Of this country.
Nhe individuality of his judgment in
/ these matters caused him often to be
spoken of as the prince of Independ-
ents."
! He did not confne himself to writing
his views on contemporary topics Of
controversy, but he also was noted a a
| public speaker in discussions of the
hour. being led at times to take part in
| political campaigns when the issues at
stake commanded his attention. His
| gold standard views and his opposition
| TO Bryan led him in 1908 to make
I speech at Richmond in which he urged
the South to desert the Democratic
party as it was then led He spoke for
| the election of Taft over Bryan.
On the other hand, he called himself
Jeffersonian Democrat when il came
! TO questions of trusts and mergers,
and he was an ardent tariff reformer.
/ He believed that the people were
/ governed too much. saying in one Of
! his addresses: CAS- to government reg
/ ulating monopOlies, | don't believe in
/ it. II so-called monopoly is contrary
to correct principles it will burst of
| itself. If it survives without govern
mental aid, it does so because it is in
accord with economic truths. Ii then
/ needs no regulating"
Man of Great Wealth.
Mr.. Adams was a man of great
wealth. His paternal grandfather was
Peter c. Brooks, an oldtime Boston
merchant, who at his death, in 18AS.
was reckoned TO be the richest man in
New England, leaving fortune of
/ more than S2,000,000 The Adams fam
/ lily has long been Independently
/ wealthy, large proportion of its
means being real estate which has been
owned by it since Colonial times.
Henry Adams settled in 1886 at Mount
Wollaston, later Braintree, and in that
part f Braintree which in 1892 was in
corporated as Quincy the Adamses
have had their home to the present day
In the last half century their extensive
rural and suburban holdings have be-
come very valuable, while their real
estate in Boston is among the most
valuable in that city
Dir. Adams was president of the Mas
sachusetts Historical Society in 1895,
( a fellow of the American Academy of
| Arts and Sciences, a member of the
/ American Academy of Arts and Let
i ters, of the American Philosophical So
ciety and of other learned organiza-
/ tions. His contributions TO historical
/ literature, in the form of addresses and
/ monographs, were numerous and i'm
! portant.
Conspicuous among these were a
/ paper on the attitude of Queen Vic
d
/ the Civil War, and an address at Lex
/ of Robert f.. Lees birth, in which he
/ declared that had he been in his place
/ in 1861 he would have done exactly as
| Lee did.
! At the time Of the acquisition of the
/ Philippines Mr.. Adams was enrolled
among the "anti-lmperialists." but a
/ few months later he withdrew from
/ participation in that campaign on the
| ground that as the country had been
/ forced into the assumption of un-
/ sought responsibilities there was moth
| ing for it to do but to bear them as
/ best it could.
Lectured at Oxford.
In May, 1918. he delivered course
of four lectures at Oxford University
on British influences on the Civil War
in the United States. His published
works comprise Massachusetts, Its
Historians and It's History" Three
| Episodes of Massachusetts History"
life Of Charles Francis Adams" (his
father; Richard Henry Dana, a BIZ
ography," Lee at Appomattox" and
Studies. Military and Diplomatic"
! During his railroading years Mr..
| Adams wrote several notable works on
railroads and their management, in
cluding Chapters of Erie" in 1871,
which attracted worldwide attention;
Railroads, Their Origin and Prob
! lens" in 1871. and "Notes on Railroad
Accidents" in 1872.
His other activities and interests
were numerous and important. From
| 1892 10 1895 he was the head of that
notable Metropolitan Parks Commits
sion which gave TO Boston perhaps the
finest suburban environment possessed
hu any city in the world. From 1882