Founder of A. Adams & Sons (Sandwich Manufacturing Co.)
Augustus Adams was a pioneer manufacturer, inventor, legislator, and civic leader whose enterprise helped transform Sandwich, Illinois into an industrial center of northern Illinois. As the founder of A. Adams & Sons, later incorporated as the Sandwich Manufacturing Company, he established the first factory in DeKalb County and placed the name “Sandwich, Illinois” on agricultural machinery shipped across the nation and abroad. His career bridged frontier industry and state politics, including documented correspondence with Abraham Lincoln during the formation of the Republican Party.
Born May 10, 1806, in Cayuga County, New York, Adams was forced into independence at an early age following the death of his father. At twenty three, he established a foundry business in Pine Valley, Chemung County, New York. In 1840, drawn by opportunity in the growing Midwest, he relocated to Elgin, Illinois, transporting his wife Lydia Phelps Adams and their children by wagon to Buffalo and then by Great Lakes steamer to Chicago, then a city of just 10,000 residents.
In Elgin, Adams established what was believed to be the first foundry west of the Great Lakes. Beginning with a rudimentary charcoal furnace and salvaged pig iron found on a Chicago wharf, he gradually expanded into the manufacture of farm implements. He experimented with hard coal, among the first shipments brought beyond the Great Lakes, and continued refining his machinery designs. Among his inventions was a patented double-hinged joint for use on the sickle bar, an innovation later widely adopted in harvesting equipment.
Adams’ intelligence and integrity led to public service. In 1847, he represented Kane County at the Illinois Constitutional Convention. He was elected to the Illinois House of Representatives in 1850 and to the Illinois Senate in 1854. While serving in Springfield, he formed a personal acquaintance with Abraham Lincoln. A surviving letter dated December 17, 1854, now preserved in the Abraham Lincoln Papers at the Library of Congress, confirms Adams’ involvement in the Anti-Nebraska political movement and his correspondence with Lincoln during the critical formation of the Republican Party.
In 1856, encouraged by fellow legislator William Patten and aided by the arrival of the Burlington Railroad, Adams moved his manufacturing operation to Sandwich, Illinois. There he established the Sandwich Manufacturing Company, followed later by the Marseilles Manufacturing Company. All eight of his sons ultimately became involved in manufacturing. Under their leadership, the firm produced harvesters, binders, mowers, corn shellers, hay presses, and other agricultural machinery, shipping products throughout the United States and internationally.
Though dignified and reserved in manner, Adams was remembered by his family as deeply devoted and tender. His granddaughter Minnie Gertrude Adams Houston wrote in 1935 that he was “a man of great force,” admired and respected, yet affectionate with his grandchildren. He was described as immaculate in dress, highly educated for his era, and intensely interested in national affairs.
Augustus Adams died October 10, 1892, at age eighty-six. He is buried at Oak Ridge Cemetery in Sandwich. In recognition of his contributions, the intersection of Main and Center Streets bears the honorary designation “Augustus Adams Place.”
His life bridged pioneer industry and organized manufacturing, frontier politics and national reform. Through invention, enterprise, and public service, Augustus Adams helped shape both the economic foundation and civic identity of Sandwich, Illinois.