William L. Adams (pioneer)

William Lysander Adams (1821–1906) was an American writer, newspaper editor, and medical doctor from Oregon.

[1] He worked as a teacher and made two trips to the California gold fields before publishing the play Treason, Strategems, and Spoils, A Melodrame in Five Acts under the pen name Breakspear in 1852.

[1] The play, a political satire that skewered the Democratic party, including Asahel Bush and his Salem Statesman, was first printed in The Oregonian, and is often cited along with Margaret Jewett Bailey's The Grains as one of the earliest works of literature written in Oregon.

[1] The Whig newspaper, published in Oregon City, became politically influential in the late territorial period.

Adams' younger brother, Sebastian C. Adams (1825–1898), was an Oregon State Senator and writer, best known for publishing a popular illustrated history chart.