ADAMS. AGASSIZ. 7 local enterprises, having been one of the incorporators of the Lynn Hospital, Lynn Electric Light Company, and of the Thomson- Houston Electric Light Com- pany. Captain Adams was married in Boston, April 5, 1866, to Mary E., daughter of Benjamin E. and Almira Dodge. Of this union were two children, both deceased. ADAMS, Marshall L., son of John and Abigail ( Sampson ) Adams, was born in Provincetown, Barnstable county, De- cember 4, 1842. His early educational work was done in the Provincetown schools until 1856. He attended Paul Wing's Academy, Sandwich, and subsequently Frost Academy, Fram- ingham, and was graduated from the Cot- ting Academy, Arlington. Mr. Adams was first connected in busi- ness with Fairbanks, Adams & Co., Boston, ship brokers. Later on he was with O. D. Witherell, coal dealer, Boston, and with John P. Squire & Co., pork dealers, Boston. From 1S65 to 1S79 he was a grocer and ice dealer in Provincetown. He is at the present time engaged in town business, having always been active in all public matters that pertained to the growth and development of his native place. He was elected selectman, assessor, overseer of the poor, 1S80, and has held the office up to date. He was elected county treas- urer November, 1SS6, and was appointed immigrant agent for the Commonwealth of Massachusetts in 1885. He is disbursing agent for Shaw Asylum for Mariners' Children, and regent of the Mayflower Council, Royal Arcanum. He was chairman of the building com- mittee of the new town hall, which was dedicated August 25, 18S6, and in 1889 was appointed chairman of the committee on water supply for Provincetown. January 23, 1863, at Boston, Mr. Adams was married to Mary A., daughter of Wil- liam and Elizabeth Moore. He has one son : John Adams. ADAMS, WILLIAM T., son of Laban and Catharine (Johnson ) Adams, was born in Med way, Norfolk county, July 30, 1822. He was educated in the public and pri- vate schools of Boston and vicinity, and when a mere lad displayed a talent for writing, his first article being published in the " Social Monitor." For three years Mr. Adams was the master of the " Lower Road " school in Dor- chester. In 1846 he resigned his position to assist his father and brother in the man- agement of the Adams House, Boston. Mr. Adams resumed teaching in 1848, in the Boylston school, Boston, becoming the master in i860, and on the establishment of the Bowditch school, he was transferred and held the post of master of that school till he resigned in 1865. He then went abroad and traveled throughout Europe, dating his career as an author from this period. Mr. Adams's noin de plume, "Oliver Optic," originated from his having written a poem in 1851 which was published under the heading of "A Poem delivered before the Mutual Admiration Society, by Oliver Optic, M. D." The name "Optic" was suggested by a character in a drama at the Boston Museum, called "Dr. Optic." To this Mr. Adams prefixed " Oliver," with no thought of ever using it again. But soon after two essays appeared in the " Waverley Magazine," by "Oliver Optic," which were so well received that he con- tinued to write under this pseudonym until it became impracticable to abandon it. His books, numbering over a hundred volumes, are widely and deservedly known. Mr. Adams was married October 7, 1846, to Sarah, daughter of Edward and Martha ( Reed ) Jenkins. Mrs. Adams died in 1885. Their children are : Alice Marie, wife of Sol. Smith Russell, and Emma Louise, wife of George W. White, a mem- ber of the Suffolk bar. Mrs. White died in 18S4. In 1867, Mr. Adams was unanimously elected a member of the school com- mittee of Dorchester. He served until the town was annexed to Boston, and was elected a member of the Boston school committee and served for ten years. In 1869 he was elected a member of the House of Representatives and served one year, and declined a re-nomination. In 1870, he went to Europe a second time, and three times recently, traveling through the countries not previously visit- ed, and the books which he has since pub- lished show the result of his observa- tions. AGASSIZ, ALEXANDER, son of Louis and Cecile (Braun) Agassiz, was born in Neufchatel, Switzerland, December 17, His early educational training was re- ceived in the gymnasium of his native place. He came to this country in 1849, after his father, the celebrated naturalist, and entering Harvard College, was grad- uated therefrom in the class of 1855. He inherited the tastes of his father, and
