Alameda County
Biographies
Dr. John Smalley Adams, one of the foremost practitioners of Oakland, was born at Highgate, Franklin county, Vermont, December 24, 1830, his parents being Lemuel and Sallie (Smalley) Adams. On his father's side he descended from one of the oldest and best known families of New England. Lemuel Adams, his father, a successful farmer and large landowner, was one of the substantial men of Franklin county, Vermont. His wife, whom he married there, also came of an old New England family. They were the parents of four children, namely: J.S., our subject; Henry F., who was educated at Fairfax, Vermont, in the New England Baptist College, and at the Missouri Medical College, St. Louis, served for a time in the civil war as Surgeon of the Tenth Michigan Regiment, resigned on account of failing health, afterward rejoined the army and had charge of hospitals in Tennessee, and eventually removed to California, dying at Colton, January 18, 1890, from the effects of sickness contracted in the service of his country; Francis J., now of Jacksonville, Illinois; and Edward Payson, the owner of the old Adams homestead, who is now a State Senator of Vermont, residing at Swanton, Vermont, and engaged in commission and manufacturing business.
J. S. Adams, the subject of this sketch, was but three years of age when his
parents removed from Highgate to Sheldon, Vermont,
and in the latter place, on arriving at suitable age, he commenced his
education in the common schools, continuing until fourteen years old, after
which he attended Bakersfield and Franklin Academy, preparatory to a college
course. At Sheldon he began the study of medicine, reading for a time
with Dr. S. W. Landon, after which he attended lectures at Woodstock Medical
College. He next went to Albany, New York, and while attending the
medical college of that city, was a favored student of the late celebrated
physician and surgeon, Dr. John Swinburne, who was afterward quarantine officer
of the port of New York, was a surgeon in the Union army, and sent to France by
the United States Government as a member of the Ambulance Committee, and was,
later on, Mayor of Albany, New York, and a member of Congress. Our
subject enjoyed the especial interest and care of Dr. Swinburne, and until his
graduation, December 24, 1855, was the almost constant companion and protege of that famous Doctor.
Leaving college, Dr. Adams went to Troy, New York, and there entered upon the
active practice of his profession, gaining, during the years of his residence
there, substantial recognition of his merit, as well as adding largely to his
professional knowledge by nearly six years' hospital experience in Albany and
Troy. His health became shattered, however, by too constant application,
and in 1863 he left there for California with his wife (whom he had married in
Troy, June 19, 1856), and his son, Frank L. They made the tiresome
journey across the plains, via Council Bluffs, the North Platte, Sweetwater,
Fort Bridger, Salt Lake and Carson City. Arriving in California, he spent
four years in the mountainous county of Alpine. The walking and riding
incident to his practice brought back his former strength and health, and
leaving that region he removed to San Francisco. Finding the climate here
unsuited to him, he changed his location to St. Helena, Napa county,
from which point he practiced extensively in that and adjoining counties.
In 1874 he came to Oakland, and here he soon took a front rank in his
profession, being at first alone in his practice, but afterward in partnership
with Dr. A.H. Agard, with whom he has since for the
most part been closely associated. Shortly after taking up his location
here, he went to Europe on a tour of recreation. While there, he became a
constant attendant on the principal hospitals of London, and his trip was
extended to nearly a year's duration.
Dr. Adams is a member of the Alameda County Medical Association, of which he
has been president, and was also one of the first members of the State Medical
Society. He is a member of the American Society for the Advancement of
Science. He has kept thoroughly in pace with the progress of medical
science, and his long and varied experience in practice, together with that
fact, has attained for him his present standing. He is known in the
profession as one of the most practical of its exponents, reasoning quickly
from effect to cause,--and possessing the faculty of being able to readily and
efficiently apply the knowledge obtained by both study and practice. This
is, in fact, the secret of success in every calling of life, and pre-eminently
so in that grandest of all, the profession of medicine.
Dr. Adams was bereaved in 1885 by the death of his wife, who died September 4
of that year. She was by birth Ellen Tompkins, a native of Providence,
Rhode Island, and daughter of Clark Tompkins, who, when she was a mere child,
removed to Troy, New York, where he was a leading manufacturer and
inventor. Two children were born to Dr. Adams and wife, viz.: Frank L.,
hereafter mentioned, and Carrie T., a young lady of promising musical talent,
who commenced her education here in private schools, and has been since 1888 in
attendance at Bradford Academy, Massachusetts, where it is her intention to
complete the course.
Dr. Frank L. Adams, though yet a young man, has progressed with such strides in
the medical profession as to be worthy of special mention among its leading
representatives in the cities of Oakland and San Francisco. He was born
in Troy, New York, July 30, 1858, and was principally reared in Oakland.
He received the advantages afforded by the public schools of the latter city,
and then attended the University of California, where he graduated in the class
of 1881. At the commencement exercises attendant on his graduation he
delivered an oration which commended marked attention and much favorable
comment on account of the ability displayed, and a successful career was
predicted for the orator. The prediction has so far been more than
fulfilled. He at once entered faithfully and earnestly upon a medical
career, reading with his father and attending Cooper Medical College, San
Francisco, where he was graduated in 1883. During the year following he
was on the medical staff of the city and county hospital of San Francisco, and
then began what has proven a remarkably successful practice in Oakland. He
is now serving his third term on the Board of Health of the city.
Transcribed 2-12-05 Marilyn
R. Pankey.
Source: "The Bay
of San Francisco," Vol. 2, pages 41-42, Lewis Publishing Co, 1892.
© 2005 Marilyn R. Pankey.
ALAMEDA
COUNTY BIOGRAPHIES
California Statewide