Henry Joseph Adams.
Henry Joseph Adams, a lawyer, Free-State advocate, politician, and soldier, was born in Rodman, New York, on February 10, 1816. He was educated in the public schools, spent a short time at Oberlin College in Ohio, then read law and graduated from the Cincinnati Law School.
He came to Kansas in March 1855 and, during the summer, was located at Lawrence. The next winter, he was elected a member of the Senate of the Free-State Legislature, and from that time on, he has taken an active part in public affairs. In the spring of 1857, Adams was elected the first free-state mayor of Leavenworth and served two terms. During the 1858 session, the Territorial Legislature appointed him chairman of the committee to investigate the Oxford, Kickapoo, and other election frauds. He took a prominent part in the Leavenworth Constitutional Convention and, under that constitution, was elected governor. Still, as Congress failed to admit Kansas as a state, he was never elected. Before the 1858 convention, Adams received an equal number of votes with Marcus J. Parrott for a delegate to Congress, but Parrott was declared the nominee and elected.
Under an act passed by the Legislature of 1859, Adams was appointed a member of a committee, with Judge S. A. Kingman and F. S. Hoogland, to audit claims against the United States government for losses sustained by citizens of Kansas in the Kansas-Missouri Border War. Next to Governor Charles Robinson, he was the most popular candidate before the Republican convention, which nominated the state’s first governor. Soon after the outbreak of the Civil War, he was appointed paymaster of the army and served in that capacity until the close of hostilities. He died at Waterville, Kansas, on June 2, 1870.
Compiled and edited by Kathy Alexander/Legends of Kansas, updated July 2026.
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