Chittenden County
ADAMS, Charles

Vermont Historical Magazine, No XI, October 1867, p 616

Charles ADAMS was born 12 March 1785 in Arlington [then in Fairfax County], 
Virginia. At the age of nineteen, after a term of three years study, he 
received a degree with three others at the University of Vermont, in the 
first class that was graduated at that institution. He immediately entered 
the law office of William C. HARRINGTON (Colonel HARRINGTON), in Burlington, 
Chittenden County, Vermont, and in due course of time was admitted to the 
Chittenden County Bar, where he soon became distinguished in his profession.

In 1814 Charles ADAMS married Maria WAITE, by whom he had four children, of 
whom two survive, one of whom is J. S. ADAMS, Esq., the present able 
Secretary of the Vermont Board of Education. For one or more terms Mr. 
[Charles] ADAMS served his fellow citizens at Montpelier, Washington County, 
Vermont, as "Councillor" from Burlington, as our legislators were then 
called, and in 1825, during the visit of General LAFAYETTE, at the laying of 
the corner stone of the University building, was aid to Governor Van NESS, 
and to him was assigned the duty of introducing strangers who desired to 
shake hands with that distinguished friend of America, and friend of just and 
impartial liberty everywhere.

Charles ADAMS died on Wednesday morning, 12 January 1861, aged seventy-six 
years, widely known throughout the State for his eminent ability and public 
services for more than forty years, and esteemed by his fellow men for the 
purity of his character, and his generous and earnest public spirit. The 
characteristics of Mr. ADAMS, his intellectual qualities and his public 
merits are well set forth in the following notice of his death, taken from 
the "Burlington Daily Times" [exact date of issue not given in the biography]:

"He was an able lawyer. In the preparation of his cases industrious and 
thorough; in their management, acute, ingenious, quick in perception, full of 
resources, tasking the strength of the strongest opponents, and manifesting 
an ability of which the reports preserve abundant evidence. As a citizen he 
was distinguished or his public spirit. In the affairs and prosperity of 
Burlington, he always took a lively interest. Of the university, of whose 
corporation he was for many years an active member, he was an efficient and 
liberal friend and patron; indeed, in the many difficulties and reverses the 
institution has had to encounter from the fire and other circumstances, Mr. 
ADAMS was one of the few to whom its preservation as well as prosperity and 
usefulness are mainly due. But he was public spirited always and everywhere. 
As a son, brother, and father, he has left a record of duties nobly 
performed, which is impressed on the community where he passed his days. 
Thus has passed away one of the few remaining men of a past epoch. The 
members of the Chittenden County Bar met yesterday afternoon at the office of 
the State's Attorney. Jeremiah FRENCH, Esq., was chosen President of the 
meeting, and L. B. ENGLESBY, Secretary."

Submitted by Cathy Kubly