John Adams (shoemaker)

John Adams was born on February 1, 1745 [O.S. January 21, 1744] in Worcester, then part of Province of Massachusetts Bay, to Captain Thomas Adams and Lydia Chadwick.[1] He moved to Ashburnham, Massachusetts in 1766. There, Adams became a permanent resident and was frequently elected as a selectman and assessor. He married Joanna Munroe on July 9, 1770, in Lexington, Massachusetts. After her death in 1822, Adams married Lucy Simonds Munroe, who was the widow of his first wife's half-brother.[2][3]

Adams fought in the Continental Army during the American revolution. He enlisted in Whitcomb's Regiment for 10 days, shortly after the Battles of Lexington and Concord on April 19, 1775. On July 6, 1780, Adams received a commission as a lieutenant in the 8th Worcester County Militia, where he served in Captain Francis Lane's company.[3][4] Adams never applied for a pension.[2]

Adams moved to Harford, Pennsylvania in his later life, where his son, James, lived. On the occasion of his 100th birthday, Adams returned to Ashburnham and posed for a daguerreotype portrait, making him possibly the earliest-born person to have been photographed alive. His date of birth surpasses that of Conrad Heyer, who is often credited as the earliest-born person photographed.[5] However, there are photographs of others who claimed to have been born earlier, including Baltus Stone, a veteran of the American revolution whose date of birth is given between 1743 and 1754, Caesar, an enslaved man allegedly born in 1737 and a man named John Owen, supposedly born in 1735 or 1741.[1]

According to local accounts, Adams' hearing was perfect until two years before his death and he could read without glasses. A shoemaker, Adams made a pair of shoes for himself in his last year. Adams died on March 26, 1849,[Note 1] aged 104, in Harford.[1][2]

John Adams at findagrave.com