Encyclopedia Dubuque
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ADAMS COMPANY (Encyclopedia Dubuque)
ADAMS COMPANY (The). In 2017 The Adams Company is located at 8040 Chavenelle Road in Dubuque. The state-of-the art Dubuque manufacturing facility is entirely devoted to the manufacturing of custom gears and shafts. These products, all made to the customers’ specifications, are sold to original equipment manufacturers of construction machinery, agricultural machinery, oil recovery equipment, commercial pumps, and to many other industries throughout the United States and Canada.
In June, 1884 Eugene ADAMS purchased an interest in the ROBERTS AND LANGWORTHY IRON WORKS. He served as secretary and manager even after the company, in 1885, was re-named the LANGWORTHY AND ADAMS IRON WORKS when Roberts sold his interest. (1)
Herbert ADAMS, Eugene's brother, bought Langworthy's interest in 1892, and the brothers became partners. Since 1892 the company was known as The Adams Company, a foundry and machine shop. The plant was originally located on Main Street. When the company was destroyed by fire in 1893, it was relocated to E. 4th Street. Eugene Adams became president and general manager in October 1893. (2)
In 1892 the company was renamed The Adams Company, a foundry and machine shop, when Herbert Adams, Eugene's brother, bought the Langworthy interest. In 1892 the company moved to East Fourth Street after a disastrous fire destroyed the plant on Main Street. The foundry department made a specialty of machine castings.
Under Adams' and Fay Oliver FARWELL supervision, ADAMS-FARWELL AUTOMOBILES were manufactured in Dubuque. The company made the first sedan in 1905 and for the next eleven years was one of the major automobile manufacturers in the United States. (3)
The company continued to specialize in gear cutting and early in the twentieth century developed and perfected an air-cooled ROTARY ENGINE that proved crucial to the aircraft industry. In the mid-1950s the company closed down its foundry and focused on metal fabrication. (4)
In 2002 the City of Dubuque received a $2 million Economic Development Administration grant to assist in relocating the historic company from its location near the ICE HARBOR to the Dubuque Industrial Center West. Negotiations were not complete at the time of the announcement, but the grant covered a great share of the estimated $3.5 million relocation. The company was among three remaining industrial properties near the Port of Dubuque. Development standards excluded industrial use near the $188 million America's River project. (5)
In 2011, the company offered customers over one hundred years of experience making gears, shafts & power transmission parts for customers throughout the United States Canada. Relocated from the ICE HARBOR to 8040 Chavenelle Road, the company continued manufacturing precision gears and shafts to customers' specifications. Custom made gears and shafts were sold to original equipment manufacturers of agriculture and construction machinery, oil recovery equipment, pumps, winches, wind turbines and many other industries. The firm manufactured bevel gears, helical gears, spur gears, worms and worm gears, sprockets, and couplings. It also produced a variety of shafts: keyed, pinion, threaded or splined.
The address in the 1948 Dubuque Classified Business Directory through 1993 Dubuque City Directory was 100 E. 4th St.
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Source:
1. "Eugene Adams, 91, Head of Adams Co., Dies," The Telegraph-Herald, August 10, 1952, p. 1
2. Ibid.
3. Ibid.
4. Kittle, M. D., "Iron, Cars and Gears: A Quick History of The Adams Co.," Telegraph Herald, Sept, 30, 2004, p. 2
5. Kittle, M. D., "City Getting $2 Million to Relocate Adams Co." Telegraph Herald, October 25, 2002, p. 1A
Adams Company website
