Augustus Adams Biography

5/1/1806 - 10/10/1892

Hon. Augustus Adams was born in Genoa, Cayuga County, New York, May 10, 1806.  His first business venture was the establishment of a foundry at Pine Valley, NY in 1829, a business he ran successfully until 1838.  In 1840 he established a foundry and machine shop at Elgin, Illinois.  The first establishment of the kind so far as we can learn in Northern Illinois. In 1857 he moved to Sandwich and commenced the manufacture of corn shellers at that place and under the firm name A. Adams & Sons and placed the Sandwich-Adams corn shellers upon the market.  In 1867 the business of the firm was reorganized into the Sandwich Manufacturing Company, and Mr. Adams became its first president, an office he resigned in 1871.  In his comfortable and pleasant home in the evening of his life he sees with satisfaction that continued development of the business enterprise, which he founded, and the gradual and healthy growth of the little city - to the intellectual, moral, and material interests of which he has so largely contributed. 

From the "DeKalb County Manufacturer" year and author unknown