Collections : [Westport Museum for History & Culture]

This collection documents the Adams family descended from Nathaniel Adams (1716-1784) from the late 18th century to the mid 20th century. The Adams family settled in Fairfield in the 1650s and later moved to the Green's Farms and Westport area. They were landowners and farmers in the early days with later generations were involved in education, commerce, and the church. Regular detailed letters between parents and children, siblings, aunts, uncles, and cousins show how this New England family stayed in close touch even as branches of the family moved to the Midwest or California. The Adamses were pillars of Westport area society and the collection shows their interconnectedness with other area families, including the Davies, Jennings, Wakeman, and Hyde families. From 1837 until his retirement due to ill health in 1867, Ebenezer Banks Adams Sr. was head of the Adams Academy, which had been built by his future father-in-law Thomas F. Davies, Pastor of the Green's Farms Congregational Church. Adams Academy was a successful college preparatory school that played a major role in Westport. Writings from various generations of the Adams family, legal and property documents, financial records, biographical documentation and collected memorabilia are a treasure trove of detailed information about civic and family life in the Westport area.