The Brattleboro daily reformer. (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1913-1955, 1922-02-04
THROUGH BATTLE,
FIRE AND FLOOD
Career of Former Brattle-
bOrO Man Now Living
i'm Worcester
MEMBER OF OLD
FIRE DEPARTMENT
Captain of Militia Company Here Years
Ago - Civil War Veteran and For
mer EmpIOye of Estey Organ Co. -
Lived Here IL Years.


William NJ. L. Adams of Worcester,
Mass, Civil war veteran who formerly
lived in BrattIeborO, was a railroad man
in his early manhood, worked for the
Estcy Organ Co, was a member of the
fire department and served as captain
of a military company organized here.
His career was reviewed in the WorceS-
ter Sunday Telegram of Jan. 20, which
also published his picture. The Tele-
gram story follows' ..
To have participated in 81 battles and
skirmishes of the Civil war and lived to
look back on it all with but a damaged
finger as a reminder, is the unique ex-
perience of William NJ. f. Adams of 194
Hamilton street. Seated near a window
in his home that commands view of the
Grafton Road until tits lost to sight in
hills and woodland, and deep in a game of
solitaire. Mr.. Adams was much surprised
the other day. to learn that his record
had found him out.
Well, WELL" he said. I've lived in
Worcester 81 years and no one was ever
curious about me before. And that's Il
fact. I'm getting on in years nOw-wlll
be 10 IN Apfll-DuI IOE All IHdt, IHttt
are times when those days of the war
some of the years that went before the
war. even-d0 not seem so very far
away after all. | was in the army four
wears fought under Generals Mcclellan,
burnside, Meade Warren and Grant, and
did all my fighting in Virginia, Maryland
and PENNSYLVANIA. Got my wife down in
those parts, too, but III tell YOU about
that later"
Mr.. Adams was born in Peterboro, \. H.,
April n, 1874, and passed most of his
EoyhoOd in that town, in GFaftsbury, VT,
and in Franklin, Mass. As youth he
worked as a clerk in a store in Fitch
burg and put in several years as fireman
on the old Vermont and Massachusetts
road. now the Fitchburg division of the
Boston and Maine. Transferred to Brat
tIeboro. he fired" for four years on the
road running between South Vernon and
that city and giving up Failroading. went
to work in Deacon Estey's Cottage
Organ Works. Altogether he made his
home in Brattlebor0 for II years. And
with four years of war-tO say nothing
of ten times as many years filled to the
brim with events and eXperiences-span
ming the gap, Mr.. Adams can still look
back and chuckle at the memory OF those
early days in Vermont.
Joined the fire department up in
BrattleboTo,' he viii tell YOU. % Twas
i'm the days of the old hand tubs. And
We tackled some fires with EN-. too. Had
some flood to handle in the bargain.
One of the big fires, | remember. burned
all the way from Elliot street to High on
Main street. Of course, if you don t
know BrattleborO this doesn't mean much
10 you. but il was a whole square. And
n whole square gone in a town the size
OF BrattlebOro means some damage. Then
we had a big flood in my time up there.
II carried away the bridge across the
III : n.,a4 F.r4E4 =
lumber yard on Flat street afOat.
It was during Mr.. Adams residence
in Brattleboro- that the city fire depart
mpnt switched over" from the old hand
tubs to steam engines. In revisiOning
those exciting days, just recently. the
veteran fireman looked dreamly across
10 the hills made familiar through daily
contemplation for the past few months.
only to turn his gaze back again into the
room and to say with emphasis:
She was a beauty, III tell yOu-that
first steam engine we got up there in
BrattleborO-and | know what I'm talk
ing about when | say so. Didn t | sleep
for two whole years in the EIliot-street
station and take care of her? \ shining
little beauty. that's what she was -
But Mr.. Adams 3 interests while living
in Vermont We're not confined wholly to
railr0ading and fighting fires and floods.
Soldering appealed to him as well, and
and been captain of the first military
company organized in Brattleboro. His
commission. framed and given prominent
place on the wall of the living room,
proves his title to his honor beyond a
shadow of a doubt and teStifies to apprc-
citation of his services on the part of the
state of Vermont Two small flags of
the Confederacy thanking a central stand
ard of the Stars and Stripes-the three
finding place in vase-are always IN
position before his service certificate is
sued by the state of Massachusetts which
hangs over the bookcase-the idea Sug-
gested being that of flowers before 4
shrine Just Il notion of mine Mr.
Adams explains.
For all his association with Vermont
it was in n Massa chusetts company that
BrattleborO'S first captain of militia en-
listed when the call came for volunteers
lie marched away with the 18th AlasSa'
chuscttS. Co. /. and was with that body
most of the four years of his connection
with the army. 1t was in the battle OF
Fredericksburg that he received the in
Jury in his hand traces of which arc
plainly discernible today.
But / was mighty lucky at that" he
will tell you. when | think of what
went through-and of so many of the
other boys. What do l think saw me
through? Not luck altogether. My
grandmother was a deeply religious wo
y
And have always felt that that
helped"
The war over, Mr.. Adams took up the
woodworking business and followed that
occupation up to a comparatively short
time ago when illness forced his retire
ment. Along in the late 70's, he passed
a wear or two in the South, and in 1881
added a personal link to the chain OF
good fellowship that was uniting the con
fiicting sections Of the country as they
never had been united before the war
He married a daughter of the South
Miss Rosabel Buchanan of Warrenton
Va. and with her came back North K
make his permanent home. For p year,
the couple has lived in Worcester, anC
among the souvenirs cherished in tht
cosy fat at 194 Hamilton street is {
great shell plowed up on the Buchanan
farm after the war was over and identi
fed by the Yankee who came a-wOOinG
as one fired across the Rappahannock BY
a regiment Of his very own brigade.
Still another remembrance of the stir
ring DAYS of i6I- 10 Il q SERGEANT Is SWORD