William Lysander Adams

1821 (age 85)

Oberlin, Ohio , United States

He came to Yamhill County, Oregon in 1848. 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. 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. In 1855, Adams bought the Oregon Spectator and renamed it the Oregon Argus. The Whig newspaper, published in Oregon City, became politically influential in the late territorial period. Adams left the newspaper business and studied medicine in Philadelphia, later practicing medicine in Portland and Hood River.

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Background

Adams was born in Oberlin, Ohio on February 5, 1821.

Career

He came to Yamhill County, Oregon in 1848. 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. 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.

In 1855, Adams bought the Oregon Spectator and renamed it the Oregon Argus.

The Whig newspaper, published in Oregon City, became politically influential in the late territorial period. Adams left the newspaper business and studied medicine in Philadelphia, later practicing medicine in Portland and Hood River.

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William Lysander Adams

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