Adams (Charles Francis Jr.) is born in Quincy.

The son of Charles Francis and Abigail (Brooks), Charles Francis Adams Jr. graduates from Harvard College, becomes a lawyer, and serves as an officer with Fifth Massachusetts African-American Cavalry in the Civil War, rising to the rank of brigadier general. Adams serves as president of the Union Pacific Railroad (1884-1890), then becomes a financier, educational reformer, conservationist, and historian. He builds a home on Gloucester Street in 1886,* and dies in Washington, D.C. on May 20, 1915. Adams is buried in Mount Wollaston Cemetery.