Adams Funds, formerly Adams Express Company, is an investment company made up of Adams Diversified Equity Fund, Inc.(NYSE: ADX), a publicly traded diversified
equity fund
A stock fund, or equity fund, is a fund that invests in stocks, also called equity securities. Stock funds can be contrasted with bond funds and money funds. Fund assets are typically mainly in stock, with some amount of cash, which is generall ...
, and Adams Natural Resources Fund Inc. (NYSE: PEO), formerly Petroleum & Resources Corp., a publicly traded
closed-end fund
A closed-end fund (CEF) is a fund that raises capital by issuing a fixed number of shares which are not redeemable, and then invest that capital in financial assets such as stocks and bonds. Unlike open-end funds, new shares in a closed-end fund ...
focused on energy and natural resources stocks.
Adams Funds traces its roots to Adams Express Company, a 19th-century freight and cargo transport business that was part of the
pony express
The Pony Express was an American express mail service that used relays of horse-mounted riders. It operated from April 3, 1860, to October 26, 1861, between Missouri and California. It was operated by the Central Overland California and Pik ...
system. It became an investment company in 1929, just prior to the October 1929 stock market crash. Adams survived the Great Depression and is now one of the oldest closed-end funds at 91 years old. The firm uses a disciplined investment process consisting of three core tenets: identifying high-quality companies through a proprietary research process; employing rigorous analysis to assess company fundamentals; and executing a portfolio management strategy focusing on generating long-term capital appreciation. Both funds make investment decisions with an eye toward protecting investors’ principal and generating dividends and capital gains that can be used as a source of income or reinvested to increase investors’ holdings. Both funds have consistently paid dividends for over 80 years and are committed to paying an annual distribution of at least 6%.
Adams Express was founded in 1854 and is one of the oldest companies listed on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE: ADX). It is one of only five companies that has continued to operate as a closed-end fund since 1929. The company has paid dividends continuously since 1935. The
Adams Express Building, the former New York headquarters for Adams Express, was constructed beginning in 1912. In 1976, Adams relocated its headquarters to Baltimore, where it is based today.
Adams Funds is located in Baltimore, Maryland, with an office in Boston, Massachusetts. Mark E. Stoeckle has been CEO and Senior Portfolio Manager of Adams Funds since joining the firm in 2013.
History
![Louisville Kentucky 1861 cover+3c](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/9/93/Louisville_Kentucky_1861_cover%2B3c.jpg)
In 1839,
Alvin Adams, a produce merchant ruined by the
Panic of 1837
The Panic of 1837 was a financial crisis in the United States that touched off a major depression, which lasted until the mid-1840s. Profits, prices, and wages went down, westward expansion was stalled, unemployment went up, and pessimism abound ...
, began carrying letters, small packages and valuables for patrons between
Boston
Boston (), officially the City of Boston, is the state capital and most populous city of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, as well as the cultural and financial center of the New England region of the United States. It is the 24th- mo ...
and
Worcester, Massachusetts
Worcester ( , ) is a city and county seat of Worcester County, Massachusetts, United States. Named after Worcester, England, the city's population was 206,518 at the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, making it the second-List of cities i ...
. He had at first a partner named Burke, who soon withdrew, and as Adams & Company, Adams rapidly extended his territory to
New York City
New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...
,
Philadelphia
Philadelphia, often called Philly, is the largest city in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, the sixth-largest city in the U.S., the second-largest city in both the Northeast megalopolis and Mid-Atlantic regions after New York City. Sinc ...
and other eastern cities. By 1847, he had penetrated deeply into the South, and by 1850 he was shipping by rail and
stagecoach
A stagecoach is a four-wheeled public transport coach used to carry paying passengers and light packages on journeys long enough to need a change of horses. It is strongly sprung and generally drawn by four horses although some versions are draw ...
to
St. Louis
St. Louis () is the second-largest city in Missouri, United States. It sits near the confluence of the Mississippi and the Missouri Rivers. In 2020, the city proper had a population of 301,578, while the bi-state metropolitan area, which e ...
.
Adams Express was used by abolitionist groups in the 1840s to deliver anti-slavery newspapers from northern publishers to southern states; in 1849, a Richmond, Virginia slave named
Henry "Box" Brown
Henry Box Brown (c. 1815 – June 15, 1897) was a 19th-century Virginia slave who escaped to freedom at the age of 33 by arranging to have himself mailed in a wooden crate in 1849 to abolitionists in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
For a short tim ...
shipped himself north to Philadelphia and freedom via Adams Express. In 1855, the company was reorganized as the Adams Express Company.
A subsidiary, Adams & Company of California, had been organized in 1850 and offer express service throughout the
Pacific Coast
Pacific coast may be used to reference any coastline that borders the Pacific Ocean.
Geography Americas
Countries on the western side of the Americas have a Pacific coast as their western or southwestern border, except for Panama, where the Pac ...
. The enterprise was led by Isaiah C. Woods. Not being under Adams' personal management, Woods badly handled it, and it failed on February 23, 1855.
By the time the
Civil War
A civil war or intrastate war is a war between organized groups within the same state (or country).
The aim of one side may be to take control of the country or a region, to achieve independence for a region, or to change government policies ...
started in 1861, Adams had operations throughout the American South, operating as Southern Express, led by
Henry B. Plant
Henry Bradley Plant (October 27, 1819 – June 23, 1899), was a businessman, entrepreneur, and investor involved with many transportation interests and projects, mostly railroads, in the southeastern United States. He was founder of the Plant Sy ...
. The company served as paymaster for both the Union and Confederate sides.
The
parent company
A holding company is a company whose primary business is holding a controlling interest in the securities of other companies. A holding company usually does not produce goods or services itself. Its purpose is to own shares of other companies ...
held a strong position from
New England
New England is a region comprising six states in the Northeastern United States: Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, and Vermont. It is bordered by the state of New York to the west and by the Canadian provinces ...
and the mid-Atlantic coast to the far
Western plains. In 1910, it was the second largest stockholder in the
Pennsylvania Railroad
The Pennsylvania Railroad (reporting mark PRR), legal name The Pennsylvania Railroad Company also known as the "Pennsy", was an American Class I railroad that was established in 1846 and headquartered in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. It was named ...
and the third largest in the
New York, New Haven & Hartford Railroad
The New York, New Haven and Hartford Railroad , commonly known as The Consolidated, or simply as the New Haven, was a railroad that operated in the New England region of the United States from 1872 to December 31, 1968. Founded by the merger of ...
, besides owning large blocks of
American Express
American Express Company (Amex) is an American multinational corporation specialized in payment card services headquartered at 200 Vesey Street in the Battery Park City neighborhood of Lower Manhattan in New York City. The company was found ...
,
Norfolk & Western Railroad
The Norfolk and Western Railway , commonly called the N&W, was a US class I railroad, formed by more than 200 railroad mergers between 1838 and 1982. It was headquartered in Roanoke, Virginia, for most of its existence. Its motto was "Precisio ...
and other shares.
The company's
antebellum
Antebellum, Latin for "before war", may refer to:
United States history
* Antebellum South, the pre-American Civil War period in the Southern United States
** Antebellum Georgia
** Antebellum South Carolina
** Antebellum Virginia
* Antebellum ar ...
employment of
Allan Pinkerton
Allan J. Pinkerton (August 25, 1819 – July 1, 1884) was a Scottish cooper, abolitionist, detective, and spy, best known for creating the Pinkerton National Detective Agency in the United States and his claim to have foiled a plot in 1861 to a ...
to solve its
robbery
Robbery is the crime of taking or attempting to take anything of value by force, threat of force, or by use of fear. According to common law, robbery is defined as taking the property of another, with the intent to permanently deprive the perso ...
problems was a large factor in building up the noted
Pinkerton National Detective Agency
Pinkerton is a private security guard and detective agency established around 1850 in the United States by Scottish-born cooper Allan Pinkerton and Chicago attorney Edward Rucker as the North-Western Police Agency, which later became Pinkerton ...
. Along with the other express shipping companies, Adams' shipping interests were forcibly merged by President
Woodrow Wilson
Thomas Woodrow Wilson (December 28, 1856February 3, 1924) was an American politician and academic who served as the 28th president of the United States from 1913 to 1921. A member of the Democratic Party, Wilson served as the president of ...
into the American Railway Express Company, which later became the
Railway Express Agency
Railway Express Agency (REA), founded as the American Railway Express Agency and later renamed the American Railway Express Inc., was a national package delivery service that operated in the United States from 1918 to 1975. REA arranged transp ...
.
Since 1929, Adams Express has operated as a
closed-end fund
A closed-end fund (CEF) is a fund that raises capital by issuing a fixed number of shares which are not redeemable, and then invest that capital in financial assets such as stocks and bonds. Unlike open-end funds, new shares in a closed-end fund ...
, (), located in
Baltimore, Maryland
Baltimore ( , locally: or ) is the List of municipalities in Maryland, most populous city in the U.S. state of Maryland, fourth most populous city in the Mid-Atlantic (United States), Mid-Atlantic, and List of United States cities by popula ...
. , it had paid a dividend every year for 80 years (since 1935). Effective March 31, 2015, the company changed its name to Adams Diversified Equity Fund in recognition of the fact that its express activities had long ended; it continues to operate as a closed-end fund traded on the New York Stock Exchange under its previous symbol.
Cultural references
Adams Express is mentioned as former slave
Jordan Anderson
Jordan Anderson or Jourdon Anderson (December 1825 – April 15, 1907) was an African-American and former slave noted for an 1865 letter he dictated, known as "Letter from a Freedman to His Old Master". It was addressed to his former mast ...
's preferred form of payment in ''Letter from a Freedman to His Old Master''.
Adams Express Company is referenced in the punchline to a Biblical joke found in ''The Big Fun Book'':
Q: "Why was Eve made?"
A: "For Adams Express Company."
See also
*
Adams Express during the Civil War
*
Petroleum & Resources Corporation
Further reading
* Dictionary of American History by
James Truslow Adams
James Truslow Adams (October 18, 1878 – May 18, 1949) was an American writer and historian. He was a freelance author who helped to popularize the latest scholarship about American history and his three-volume history of New England is well r ...
, New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1940
References
External links
*
Digitized images of Adams Express Company Journal, 1855-1863housed at the University of Kentucky Libraries Special Collections Research Center
{{Authority control
Companies listed on the New York Stock Exchange
Logistics companies of the United States
Massachusetts in the American Civil War
Companies based in Baltimore
Financial services companies established in 1854
Financial services companies based in Maryland
Railway Express Agency
1854 establishments in the United States