Capt. Atkins Adams (1782-1849)
Adams was a well-to-do ship owner and whaling agent. His was the first monument to be installed in Riverside Cemetery. It was moved here from the old burial ground—now Leonard E. Pierce Memorial Park—in 1850, before Riverside Cemetery had been consecrated. Originally the monument was surrounded by an iron fence. Adams had a close connection to the Delanos, his sister Elizabeth being the second wife of Warren Delano I, the first president of the Riverside Cemetery Corporation.
There’s a story that at the time of Capt. Adams’ death, it was rumored there was “still life in the body” when he was placed in his tomb, so his Aunt Sally Eldredge found a brave and willing man with a lantern and entered the tomb at night to satisfy herself that he was, in fact, fully deceased.
