Colonel John Milton Adams (September 19, 1819 – October 29, 1897) was an American lawyer, politicians, and journalist from Maine.
He taught in Bethel for a year prior to leaving education to join a volunteer force organized to fight the Aroostook War with Britain over Maine's northeastern boundary with the British Empire.
His Bowdoin College-educated relative was hired as a teacher in Maryland and invited Adams to join him in teaching there, which he did.
Desiring to speak the French language fluently, he traveled northward and studied at St. Hyacinthe College in Quebec.
However, the Republican Party dominated government in the state during this period and he lost to Henry Lord of Bangor.