Windsor County

ADAMS, Elmer B.

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 94-95

Elmer B. ADAMS, Circuit Judge, who resides at 25 Westmoreland Place, St. 
Louis [St. Louis County], Missouri, was born 27 October 1842 in Pomfret, 
Windsor County, Vermont, son of Jarvis and Eunice (MITCHELL) ADAMS. He was 
educated at Kimball Union Academy, 1861; Yale University, 1865; Harvard Law 
School, part of a course; LL. D., State University of Missouri, 1897; 
Washington State University, 1908.

In 1870 Elmer B. ADAMS married Emma U. RICHMOND of Woodstock, Windsor County, 
[Vermont]. After graduating at Yale he engaged one year in the work of 
aiding poor white children of the South, under the auspices of the American 
Union Commission, collaborating with Rev. Lyman ABBOTT, the secretary of that 
commission. He studied law afterwards in the office of Washburn & Marsh, 
Woodstock, and at Harvard Law School. 

Elmer B. ADAMS settled in St. Louis in 1868 and engaged in the practice of 
law, with much success for a new arrival, until 1878, when he was elected 
Judge of the circuit court in St. Louis, where for six [p 95] years, one full 
term, he tried cases in law and chancery in the court of original 
jurisdiction in such cases. He declined election to his old court or to the 
court of appeals, both of which were offered and urged upon him. In 1885 he 
re-entered the practice of law and had for ten years a large and lucrative 
practice in the higher courts, state and federal. In 1905 President 
CLEVELAND appointed him U. S. District Judge, in which position he served in 
St. Louis until 1905, when President Roosevelt promoted him to be U. S. 
circuit judge for the Eighth judicial district. 

As district judge he sat in the trial of many great cases which attracted 
widespread attention. As circuit judge from 1905 to the present time, he has 
been a member of the U. S. circuit court of appeals and has sat for the most 
part exclusively in hearing appeals from twelve or thirteen states 
constituting the Eighth circuit. He was a member of the court which tried 
among many others the great cases of the U. S. vs. Standard Oil Company, U. 
S. vs. Union Pacific and Southern Pacific R. R. Companies, and U. S. vs. St. 
Louis Terminal Company, all involving alleged violations of the Sherman 
Anti-Trust Act, and other cases controlling the judgments and decrees of the 
interstate commerce commission. 

He is still a regular attendant upon the sessions of the court of appeals, 
and at the present time has in charge the receivership of the Wabash Railroad 
Company. He appointed the receivers in December 1911, and they are now in 
full operation of the road, under his supervision and control. He has been a 
lecturer in law schools of the state, is a member and director of the Peace 
and Arbitration League of America, and a member of the committee organized to 
celebrate the 100th anniversary of peace with England. 

Democrat of the sound money kind. Has never held office except judicial 
offices. Member of many clubs in St. Louis, MO, and in Woodstock, Vermont. 
Has a country home in Woodstock, Vermont, where he has spent much of his 
summer vacations for many years, and has never failed to visit his native 
state and his home town except on two or three occasions when he spent his 
vacations in foreign lands. His office is in the Custom House.

Submitted by Cathy Kubly