Santa
Cruz County
Biographies
FREDERICK
ADAMS
The frontiersmen of our country, and the
pioneers of the Pacific Coast, will ever be revered, honored and held in
grateful remembrance. In this respect Frederick Adams, or, as he was known
among the Indian tribes, “Red Top,” is justly entitled to be placed on the roll
as a noted scout, Indian fighter, frontiersman and California pioneer.
Circumstances and association deprived him of the advantages of an early
education, yet, by hard study and close application, he has achieved some
notoriety as a literary writer and gained a good reputation in his profession.
Although he has led an adventurous
life, and been actively engaged in civil and military duty in settling new
Territories and States, he has found time to attend to our leading fraternal
and beneficiary Orders, and seems to find in these organizations a field suited
to his philanthropic nature. He was a charter member of Olive Lodge, A. O. U.
W., served as Master Workman for three years, Chairman on Good of the Order in
the Grand Lodge, and continuously from that time on Committee on Appeals and
Grievances up to the time he was selected Grand Overseer in 1888 and Grand
Foreman in 1889.
He joined the Odd Fellows in 1862,
and Encampment in 1864, and has passed the chairs in each organization. He
served as Worshipful Master in King David’s Lodge, Santa Cruz, for three years,
and is a member of the Chapter.
His life has been one of usefulness,
adventure and romance. At the age of 13 he left his father’s home at St. Louis,
enlisted as a drummer-boy in the U. S. Army, and started for Mexico. He was
transferred to the Second Texas Rangers, under Colonel Albert Sidney Johnston,
and was discharged at Fort Bliss, Texas, in 1847. During the next six months he
carried the military mail from Fort Bliss to Albuquerque, N. M., encountering
dangers and miraculous escapes incident to frontier life.
On December 25, 1849, he first set
foot in California, and was in turn miner, merchant, stock-raiser, until 1859,
when he commenced reading law, and was admitted to the bar. He has served as
Deputy Sheriff, U. S. Marshal, County Treasurer, County Judge, and several
minor official positions. He was captain in several expeditions against the
Snake Indians in Eastern Oregon, served in the Modoc war in 1856, and as a
scout for eight months in the Rogue River war, 1855.
During the civil war his position as
a U. S. Marshal gave him great power and grave responsibilities. While acting
in this capacity he showed great executive ability and tact, and his official
acts met with the highest approval by the heads of the Government.
He is of Scotch descent, and his
characteristics---bravery, independence and patriotism---are an inheritance
from a noted ancestry. Through a career of privation and hardships on the
frontier, or in the heyday of life with wealth and civic honors, his benevolent
nature has always drawn him to fraternal societies, and he finds his best
enjoyment in advancing and promoting them.
Transcribed By: Cecelia M. Setty.
Source: “Illustrated
Fraternal Directory Including Educational Institutions on the Pacific Coast”,
Page 198, Publ. Bancroft Co., San Francisco. Cal. 1889.
© 2012 Cecelia
M. Setty.