Mary Electa AdamsLinnea McNallyCanada's Early Women WritersCanadian Writing Research CollaboratoryBorn digital object, initially housed by the Simon Fraser University libraryEnglishBorn digitalLife writingBiographyBibliographyMary Electa Adams (1823-1898)Image courtesy of Mount Allison University Archives Picture Collection, Sackville, NB (2007.07/254).
Dedicated to improving education for young women, Mary Electa Adams enjoyed a 50-year career that took her to 10 different institutions in Ontario and New Brunswick. At the end of her life, her poems were collected in the privately printed volume,
From Distant Shores.
10 November 1823, Westbury, QC5 November 1898, Toronto, ONName at birth: Mary ElectaAdamsNote
This author's life has been researched earlier for inclusion in the
Canada's Early Women Writers project at Simon Fraser University. Information in this entry therefore may not be comprehensive, but has been verified.
Entry revised by Linnea McNally
Mary Electa Adams (1823-1898)
Descendant of a Loyalist family, Mary Electa Adams was born in Westbury, Lower Canada, but from the age of two she grew up in Adamsville, Upper Canada (later Acton, ON). Her unusual middle name likely came from her father's sister, Electa Adams (b. c1790).
After being tutored at home, Mary began her formal education in 1840, when she moved to study classics and mathematics at her mother's alma mater, Montpelier Academy in Vermont. A year later, she transferred to and eventually graduated from the Cobourg Ladies' Seminary in 1842, with a diploma of Mistress of Liberal Arts.
A dedicated and innovative educator, at every institution with which she became affiliated, Mary worked to establish a place where women could expect the same quality of education as their brothers, in a Christian atmosphere. After some years in a sequence of Canadian and American schools, including posts as teacher at her alma mater in Cobourg, ON and as principal at Picton Academy in Toronto, in 1854 she was appointed Chief Preceptress of the "female branch" of the Wesleyan Academy in Sackville, NB (later Mount Allison University). In 1861, she became the first principal of the Wesleyan Female College in Hamilton, ON, a position at which she excelled; during her seven years there, she successfully brought the school from financial insecurity to a flourishing position.
In the late 1860s, personal considerations briefly interrupted Mary's career; when their mother died, Mary and her sister and life-long colleague, Augusta (1830-1912), left their work for a two-year journey through Europe. In 1872, upon returning home, Mary opened her own school in Cobourg, the Brookhurst Academy, near Victoria College. After closing Brookhurst in 1880, she began her final professional endeavour—a 12-year stint as principal of the Ontario Ladies' College in Whitby.
In all, Mary Adams's career covered fifty years and more than ten institutions. At the end of her life, her poems were collected by her niece, poet Helena Coleman (1860-1953), for private publication. Mary spent her final years in Morley, AB, helping Augusta and their nephew, Lucius Coleman, set up cattle farms. While visiting family in Toronto in 1898, she died (her death certificate indicates) of a likely cancerous "paraovarian tumour." In 2004, she was designated a Person of National Historical Significance by the Government of Canada for her work in women's educational reform.
For a more detailed biography, see her entry in the
Dictionary of Canadian Biography.
Published TextsPoetryFrom Distant Shores [Toronto: s.n, c1898]Family and RelationshipsFather: Rufus Adams(11 June 1783 – 16 May 1856)
A sixth-generation member of a great New England family (to which John Quincy Adams (1767-1848), second President of the United States, was purportedly related), Rufus Adams was born in Cambridge, NY, to Eliphalet Adams (1756-1844), a Connecticut-born American soldier, and Patience Rice (1753-1832).
After serving as a soldier in the American Revolution, Eliphalet received somewhere between 1200 and 1600 acres of land from the British government and moved the family north in 1798 to Stoke in Lower Canada. The Adams then settled in Westbury, Lower Canada, where Mary Electa Adams (1823-1898) was born.
Rufus's brother, Ezra (1788-1871), became an itinerant preacher on the Methodist circuit, and in 1825 convinced Rufus to move to Esquesing in Upper Canada. There Rufus built his home in what would become Adamsville. Most of present-day Acton, the name chosen in 1844, sits on Rufus's original 200 acres. One by one, members of the Adams family either died or moved closer to be near the surviving brothers in Adamsville. While Rufus has been credited as building and managing a gristmill and sawmill there, it appears that it was in fact Ezra who acted as proprietor. Rufus Adams died in Acton, Canada West, on 16 May 1856.
Mother: Maria Hubbard(c1786 – c1867)
Farmer Zadock Hubbard (1771-1860) was the son of a lieutenant in the American Revolution and descendant of a Hubbard line dating back to at least the 1630s in Connecticut. He and his wife, Abigail Butler (b. c1772), had between eight and ten children, the oldest of whom was Maria Hubbard. In 1810, the family moved to Montpelier, Vermont, where Maria studied at Montpelier Academy. After her marriage to Rufus and their move to Esquesing, Upper Canada, she had Acton School built for the education of her children. It opened in 1826, on the grounds where Knox Church now stands. The school doubled as the Methodist Chapel. After Rufus's death in 1856, Maria moved to Dundas, ON. She died in Hamilton, ON, in about 1867.
SiblingsEmmeline Maria Adams(29 May 1822 – 23 June 1858): m. Rev. Francis C. Coleman
Emmeline and Francis were the parents of prominent geologist and explorer, Professor A.P. Coleman (1852-1939) of University of Toronto; although Emmeline is not the mother of the author Helena Coleman (1860-1953), Francis's daughter by his second wife, Jane Gould (1827-1862).
Lucius Rufus Adams(11 October 1825 – 24 August 1854)
Lucius studied at Victoria College and at Albion Institute, MI. He was the Wesleyan Methodist minister (1852-1939) of University of Toronto.
John Quincey Adams(19 June 1827 – 6 May 1849)Augusta Minerva Adams(1 October 1830 – 20 May 1912)
Augusta was a prominent educator.
Clarissa Elvira Adams(16 December 1832 – 1 December 1833)ReligionMethodistResidences
Mistress of Liberal Arts, Cobourg Ladies' Seminary, Cobourg, Canada West1842
AwardsPerson of National Historical Significance (Government of Canada,2004)Employment and Volunteer ActivitiesEmployment
Chief Preceptress of "female branch" at Wesleyan Academy (later Mount Allison University), Sackville, NB
Founder of Brookhurst Academy, Cobourg, ON
Principal at Picton Academy, Toronto, ON
Principal at Wesleyan Female College, Hamilton, ON
Principal of Ontario Ladies' College, Whitby, ON
Schooleacher at Canadian and American Schools
Schoolteacher at Cobourg Ladies' Seminary, Cobourg, ON
Archival HoldingsElsie Pomeroy Papers, Mount Allison University, Sackville, NBPublished Resources1881 Census of Canada.1891 Census of Canada.1901 Census of Canada.1906 Canada Census of Manitoba, Saskatchewan, and Alberta.Adams, Andrew N., ed. A Genealogical History of Robert Adams, of Newbury, Mass. and his Descendants, 1635-1900. (Bowie, MD: Heritage, 2002).An Item of Early History: One Branch of the Adams Family Who Founded Acton.Acton Free Press (12 June 1913): 3.Beers, J.H & Co., eds. Commemorative Biographical Record of the County of York, Ontario: Containing Biographical Sketches of Prominent and Representative Citizens and Many of the Early Settled Families. (Toronto: Beers, 1907).Carroll, John. Case and his Contemporaries; Or, The Canadian Itinerant's Memorial: Constituting A Biographical History of Methodism in Canada, from its Introduction into the Province till the Death of the Rev. William Case. (Toronto: Wesleyan Conference Office, 1874).James, Charles Canniff. A Bibliography of Canadian Poetry (English) (Toronto: Briggs, 1899).Ontario, Canada Deaths, 1869-1936 and Deaths Overseas, 1939-1947.Pomeroy, Elsie. Mary Electa Adams: A Pioneer Educator.Ontario History 41.3 (1949): 107-17.Prentice, Alison. Scholarly Passion: Two Persons Who Caught It.Historical Studies in Education 1.1 (1989): 7-27.Reid, John G. Adams, Mary Electa.Dictionary of Canadian Biography.. Web. 7 January 2014.Rowe, John Mark Benbow. The Historical Town of Acton. Esquesing Historical Society. 2014. Web. 12 January 2015.Watters, R.E. A Checklist of Canadian Literature and Background Materials, 1698-1960 (Toronto: U of Toronto P, 1972).