Rutland County

ADAMS, James Pickney Henderson

Encyclopedia of Vermont Biography: A Series of Authentic Biographical 
Sketches of the Representative Men of Vermont and Sons of Vermont in Other 
States. Dodge. Burlington: Ullery, 1912, pp 95-96

James Pickney Henderson ADAMS, manufacturer, Fair Haven [Rutland County, 
Vermont], was born 05 April 1879 in the Grand Duchy of Saxe-Weimer, Germany, 
son of Edward White and Julia Biddle (HENDERSON) ADAMS. Julia Biddle 
HENDERSON was the daughter of James Pinckney HENDERSON, the first governor of 
Texas and a U. S. Senator. James Pickney Henderson ADAMS graduated from 
Neward Academy, Newark, New Jersey; Yale University, B. A.; and studied law 
at Columbia University and New York Law School.

In 1901 Mr. ADAMS was with the German-American Fire Insurance Company of New 
York City; in 1902 became one of its chief inspectors, and was one of the two 
inspectors chosen by the National Board of Fire Underwriters to compile data 
for re-rating the city of Brooklyn. In 1903 he was treasurer of a Maine 
slate company, with office in New York City. In 1904 he was treasurer of the 
Vermont Unfading Green Slate Company, and removed to Fair Haven, Rutland 
County, Vermont, where he has since resided. In 1906 he was elected 
president and treasurer of the same company, which position he still holds.

He is the official delegate of the National Association of Manufacturers and 
of the State of Vermont on the commission which went under the auspices of 
the Boston Chamber of Commerce to study industrial and municipal problems in 
Europe in 1911. He is director of the Western Vermont and Rutland County 
Agricultural Societies, president of the Vermont Structural Slate Company 
since 1909, chairman of the executive committee of National Slate 
Manufacturers Association since 1908, former president of the Vermont State 
Operators' Association, and chairman of the executive committee since 1909, 
vice president of the National Association of Manufacturers in 1908, 1910, 
and 1911.

In 1902 James Pickney Henderson ADAMS married Florence Louise DAY of East 
Orange [Essex County], New Jersey. They have three daughters: (1) Julia 
Henderson, deceased; (2) Florence Day; and (3) Elizabeth McCall. Mr. ADAMS 
is a Republican, and was a delegate to the state and district conventions of 
1906 and 1908, and the county convention of 1910. He was first alternate 
delegate-at-large to the national Republican convention in Chicago in 1908, a 
delegate to the National Tariff Commission conventions at Indianapolis in 
1909, and at Washington, D. C. in 1911. He is a member of St. Luke's 
Protestant Episcopal Church, warden 1906-1912, lay reader 1910-1911, elected 
delegate to the diocesan convention in 1906, 1907, 1909 and 1910, delegate 
from the diocese of Vermont to the Episcopal General Convention at Cincinnati 
in 1910, and is president of the St. Luke's Mens' Club.

Mr. ADAMS is a member of Eureka Lodge No. 75, Free & Accepted Masons; 
Poultney Chapter No. 10, Royal Arch Masons; Killington Commandery No. 6, 
Knights Templar, of Rutland; Cairo Temple, Mystic Shrine, of Rutland; 
delegate to the Imperial Council at Rochester, New York, in 1911, and at Los 
Angeles, California, in 1912; past member of Modern Woodmen of America; 
member Prospect Grange; Yale Alumni Association of Vermont; Yale Club of New 
York City; Masonic Association of Fair Haven, member of board of Governors; 
National Geographic Society; American Association for the Advancement of 
Science; American Society for the Judicial Settlement of Industrial Disputes; 
American Academy of Political and Social Science, and Texas Historical 
Association.

While at Yale he was on several championship athletic teams, first as a mile 
walker, and later became the college champion half-mile runner; held the 
Yale-Harvard half-mile record for seven years; in 1899 went to England on the 
Yale-Harvard athletic team that raced against Oxford and Cambridge at 
Queen's Club, London; was a member of the Yale relay team that won the 
intercollegiate two-mile relay championship at Philadelphia in 1899, and 
broke the record; in 1898 was on the team that won the intercollegiate cross 
county championship of America; in 1899 was captain of the Yale team; in 1900 
while at Columbia Law School won the Columbia cross country championship, and 
broke the six and two-thirds mile record.

Submitted by Cathy Kubly