Marcus W. Adams

NJGenWeb ~ Morris County, New Jersey

Marcus W. Adams

Source: History Morris County New Jersey, Volume II, Lewis Publishing Co., 1914

Marcus Whitfield ADAMS, now deceased, retired from business in 1906, in the town of Chatham, Morris county, New Jersey, where he had been prominently and very successfully identified with insurance matters in the States of New York and New Jersey, and in the south, for many years. He was successful in launching new enterprises, and his progressive methods were the means of coining money for the corporations with which he was connected.

Mr. ADAMS was born in Newark, Essex county, New Jersey, February 13, 1839, died June 3, 1913, the son of John and Eliza (TOWNLEY) ADAMS, the former engaged in business as a mason. He was educated in Pennsylvania Academy, and upon the completion of his studies he entered the employ of his father, and then engaged in the fruit business, but this line of endeavor was not to his liking. He now determined to learn the jeweler's trade, and this was accomplished at first with Riker & Gobel, and later with Carter, Howe & Company. Having learned this business very thoroughly and practically, Mr. ADAMS established himself in it independently, and was thus engaged for a number of years. He then sold out and turned his attention to the insurance business, forming a connection with the Prudential Life Insurance Company of Newark. At the end of four years he had demonstrated his executive ability in so admirable a manner that he was sent to Louisville, Kentucky, to become the agent of this company at the point. During the few years he spent in Louisville in this capacity, he managed the responsible duties of his position in a masterly manner, and won the confidence of the highest class of people in that section of the country. Through his suggestion and enterprise a sufficient capital was raised to organize a new life insurance company, of which Mr. ADAMS was elected president. It was called the Sun Life Insurance Company, of Louisville, Kentucky, and Mr. ADAMS was at the head of this corporation for more than twenty years. The Metropolitan Life Insurance Company of New York then purchased the interests of this company as individual members, as the business done by the company in the dozen years of its existence was of considerable importance. Altogether Mr. ADAMS lived in Louisville, Kentucky, for a period covering a quarter of a century. He then returned east, where he made his home in Newark, New Jersey, until after the death of his first wife. Removing then to Chatham, New Jersey, he made his home in that town up to the time of his death, when he was still on the pay roll of the Metropolitan Life Insurance Company, doing special work for them when they had need of his services.

Mr. ADAMS married (first) 1859, Anna Amelia LEE, and of this marriage there are now living:

John L., who is a physician;
Eliza Townley, who had charge of her father's home

Mr. ADAMS married (second) February 5, 1908, Helen, daughter of Rufus Palen and Agnes (ALLEN) NORTHROP. Mr. ADAMS was a member of St. John's Lodge, Free and Accepted masons, of Newark, and before his retirement was affiliated with a large number of insurance societies. In the short time which elapsed since he first made his home in Chatham he won many friends in the town, and was held in the highest esteem by the entire community. In spite of his seventy odd years he could easily have passed for a man much his junior in point of age.