Frederick Baldwin Adams (5 February 187823 October 1961) was an American businessman and philanthropist.

Early life

Adams was born in

Toledo, Ohio Toledo ( ) is a city in and the county seat of Lucas County, Ohio, United States. A major Midwestern United States port city, Toledo is the fourth-most populous city in the state of Ohio, after Columbus, Cleveland, and Cincinnati, and according ...

, the son of a bank cashier. His father had moved to

Ohio Ohio () is a state in the Midwestern region of the United States. Of the fifty U.S. states, it is the 34th-largest by area, and with a population of nearly 11.8 million, is the seventh-most populous and tenth-most densely populated. The sta ...

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 ...

. Frederick was sent east to attend St. Paul's School in

Concord, New Hampshire Concord () is the capital city of the U.S. state of New Hampshire and the seat of Merrimack County. As of the 2020 census the population was 43,976, making it the third largest city in New Hampshire behind Manchester and Nashua. The village of ...

, at the age of fourteen. From St. Paul's, he went to

Yale Yale University is a private research university in New Haven, Connecticut. Established in 1701 as the Collegiate School, it is the third-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and among the most prestigious in the wor ...

, where he received an AB in 1900. He was a member of the

Skull and Bones Skull and Bones, also known as The Order, Order 322 or The Brotherhood of Death, is an undergraduate senior secret student society at Yale University in New Haven, Connecticut. The oldest senior class society at the university, Skull and Bone ...

society.

Career

His first job after Yale was as a claim agent for the Mohawk Division of the

New York Central Railroad The New York Central Railroad was a railroad primarily operating in the Great Lakes and Mid-Atlantic regions of the United States. The railroad primarily connected greater New York and Boston in the east with Chicago and St. Louis in the Midw ...

. In 1902 he became secretary to Robert C. Pruyn, and the following year became secretary of the Union Trust Company of Albany. It was only a few years later when Robert Pruyn would hire Charles Edward Adams as his secretary, Frederick's brother, a graduate of St. Paul's and a member of

. Adams moved 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 ...

in 1905 to become a partner in the firm of Potter, Choate and Prentice. During his lifetime he served as Chairman of the West Indies Sugar Corp. He was also connected with the

Atlantic Coast Line Railroad The Atlantic Coast Line Railroad was a United States Class I railroad formed in 1900, though predecessor railroads had used the ACL brand since 1871. In 1967 it merged with long-time rival Seaboard Air Line Railroad to form the Seaboard Coast L ...

; the

Louisville & Nashville Railroad The Louisville and Nashville Railroad , commonly called the L&N, was a Class I railroad that operated freight and passenger services in the southeast United States. Chartered by the Commonwealth of Kentucky in 1850, the road grew into one of the ...

; the

Clinchfield Railroad The Clinchfield Railroad was an operating and holding company for the Carolina, Clinchfield and Ohio Railway . The line ran from the coalfields of Virginia and Elkhorn City, Kentucky, to the textile mills of South Carolina. The 35-mile segmen ...

; and the Chicago, Indianapolis & Louisville Railroad. Adams also branched out into other areas, becoming involved with the Union Trust Company of Albany; the Wright Aeronautical Company; the Air Reduction Company; Potter, Choate & Prentice; and Schroder, Rockefeller & Co. Adams was Chairman of the Board of the Air Reduction Company. It was engaged in the manufacture and sale of

oxygen Oxygen is the chemical element with the symbol O and atomic number 8. It is a member of the chalcogen group in the periodic table, a highly reactive nonmetal, and an oxidizing agent that readily forms oxides with most elements as wel ...

acetylene Acetylene (systematic name: ethyne) is the chemical compound with the formula and structure . It is a hydrocarbon and the simplest alkyne. This colorless gas is widely used as a fuel and a chemical building block. It is unstable in its pure ...

, and other gasses and

oxy-acetylene Principle of burn cutting Oxy-fuel welding (commonly called oxyacetylene welding, oxy welding, or gas welding in the United States) and oxy-fuel cutting are processes that use fuel gases (or liquid fuels such as gasoline or petrol, diesel, ...

cutting and welding equipment. It was the leading company of its field and had links to Lee, Higginson & Co., the

Chase Manhattan Bank JPMorgan Chase Bank, N.A., doing business as Chase Bank or often as Chase, is an American national bank headquartered in New York City, that constitutes the consumer and commercial banking subsidiary of the U.S. multinational banking and fina ...

, and the Guaranty Trust Co. In 1930, the company made over $5 million in profits. Adams was an elected member of the

American Academy of Arts and Sciences The American Academy of Arts and Sciences (abbreviation: AAA&S) is one of the oldest learned societies in the United States. It was founded in 1780 during the American Revolution by John Adams, John Hancock, James Bowdoin, Andrew Oliver, and ...

and the

American Philosophical Society The American Philosophical Society (APS), founded in 1743 in Philadelphia, is a scholarly organization that promotes knowledge in the sciences and humanities through research, professional meetings, publications, library resources, and communit ...

. He was involved with the Boys Club of New York, the

National Foundation for Infantile Paralysis March of Dimes is a United States nonprofit organization that works to improve the health of mothers and babies. The organization was founded by President Franklin D. Roosevelt in 1938, as the National Foundation for Infantile Paralysis, to comba ...

, the Fifth Avenue Hospital, and served on the planning committee of the Roosevelt National Memorial. He was a member of the

Knickerbocker Club The Knickerbocker Club (known informally as The Knick) is a gentlemen's club in New York City that was founded in 1871. It is considered to be the most exclusive club in the United States and one of the most aristocratic gentlemen's clubs in th ...

of New York.

Personal life

In 1907, he was married to Ellen Walters Delano. Ellen, a first cousin of

President President most commonly refers to: *President (corporate title) *President (education), a leader of a college or university *President (government title) President may also refer to: Automobiles * Nissan President, a 1966–2010 Japanese ful ...

Franklin Delano Roosevelt Franklin Delano Roosevelt (; ; January 30, 1882April 12, 1945), often referred to by his initials FDR, was an American politician and attorney who served as the 32nd president of the United States from 1933 until his death in 1945. As the ...

, was the daughter of

Warren Delano IV Warren Delano IV (July 11, 1852 – September 9, 1920) was an American horseman and coal tycoon. Early life Delano was born at Algonac, the family estate in Balmville near Newburgh, New York in 1852. He was a member of the Delano family as a s ...

, and the granddaughter of

William Thompson Walters William Thompson Walters (May 23, 1820 – November 22, 1894) was an American businessman and art collector, whose collection formed the basis of the Walters Art Museum. Early life Walters was born on the Juniata River in Liverpool, Pennsy ...

, a merchant and art collector. They had two children: * Frederick Baldwin Adams, Jr., who graduated from Yale * Laura Delano Adams (1927–2005), who married John Eastman, Jr. With the small fortune he made from his business interests, Adams maintained a house in

, a summer home on

Campobello Island Campobello Island (, also ) is the largest and only inhabited island in Campobello, a civil parish in southwestern New Brunswick, Canada, near the border with Maine, United States. The island's permanent population in 2021 was 949. It is the s ...

, and a plantation on the

Cape Fear River The Cape Fear River is a long blackwater river in east central North Carolina. It flows into the Atlantic Ocean near Cape Fear, from which it takes its name. The river is formed at the confluence of the Haw River and the Deep River (North Carol ...

. Adams died in 1961 at River House,

, from a long illness.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Adams, Frederick Baldwin 1878 births 1961 deaths American railroad executives American philanthropists St. Paul's School (New Hampshire) alumni Yale University alumni Businesspeople from Toledo, Ohio Skull and Bones Society Members of the American Philosophical Society