He was a member of the Wisconsin State Assembly for two terms, representing southeastern Dane County.
Adams moved to the Wisconsin Territory in 1846 and lived in Fort Atkinson, in Jefferson County.
Adams was a candidate for Assembly in 1852, but was defeated by former Lieutenant Governor John Edwin Holmes.
[2] He died of pneumonia in Madison, Wisconsin,[1][3] leaving an estate worth $20,000 to his son, Henry Cullen Adams.
[4] His son, Henry Cullen Adams, also served in the Wisconsin Assembly and was elected to the United States House of Representatives for two terms before dying in office in 1906.