Dr. Edward C. Adams (b. 1855, Hudson, New Jersey) was a prominent physician in Watertown, South Dakota. A descendant of the distinguished Adams family, he pursued higher education at Northwestern University and earned medical degrees from Jefferson Medical College and Hahnemann Medical College. After honing his skills through hospital work and private practice, Dr. Adams moved to Watertown in 1886, where he built a successful practice and became a respected figure in the community. He was active in civic affairs, serving in various local offices and the state militia. In 1892, he married Marion Flint, and they had two children.
Edward C. Adams, M.D., of Watertown, is a native of the state of New Jersey and comes of distinguished ancestry, the name which he bears having long been prominently identified with the history of the nation, while the two Presidents of the name were of the same family line. He was born in the town of Hudson, New Jersey, on the 20th of May, 1855, being a son of Rev. Edward W. and Mary P. (Purdy) Adams, his father being a widely known clergyman of the Methodist Episcopal Church and a descendant of the famous Massachusetts family of the name. His death occurred at Aurora, Illinois, as the result of an accident, in February 1904, at the age of seventy-four years, while the Doctor’s mother died in 1902 at Maywood, a suburb of Chicago. Rev. Edward Adams came to Dakota in 1885 and devoted two years to establishing the Methodist Episcopal Church throughout South Dakota. When the subject was a child, his parents removed to Illinois, and the Doctor secured his early educational training in the public schools of that state, later attended a seminary in Plainfield, that state, and after a preparatory course at Evanston, he entered the celebrated Northwestern University, in that beautiful suburb of Chicago, and there completed the classical course, being graduated as a member of the class of 1879 and receiving the degree of Bachelor of Arts, and in 1882 the degree of Master of Arts was bestowed. He then passed two years as a student in Jefferson Medical College, graduating in 1881. He then devoted two years to hospital work, which proved of inestimable value to him, and was engaged in private practice for one year, when he took a course in Hahnemann Medical College, Philadelphia, graduating in 1886. Soon afterward he came to South Dakota and located in Watertown, where he has ever since maintained his home and where he has built up a very large and distinctively representative practice, the while gaining high prestige in professional circles in the state. The Doctor is essentially loyal and public-spirited as a citizen and shows a lively interest in all that makes for the advancement and well-being of the city and state of his adoption, while he has served in various city and county offices and was for nine years a member of the state militia. He is a staunch Republican in his political proclivities and is identified with various professional societies and fraternal organizations. He is a zealous member of the Methodist Episcopal Church, while Mrs. Adams is active in the Episcopalian Church.
In Watertown, on the 20th of September, 1892, Dr. Adams was united in marriage to Miss Marion Flint, who was born in Iowa, being a daughter of Mortimer D. and Ella Flint. To Dr. and Mrs. Adams were born two children, Violet Marion, who died January 9, 1900, at the age of eighteen months, and Edward M., who was born on the 16th of August, 1899.
Source: Robinson, Doane, History of South Dakota: together with mention of Citizens of South Dakota, [Logansport? IN] : B. F. Bowen, 1904.