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Below is a family biography included in the Biographical Annals of Cumberland County, Pennsylvania published in 1905 by The Genealogical Publishing Company.  These biographies are valuable for genealogy research in discovering missing ancestors or filling in the details of a family tree. Family biographies often include far more information than can be found in a census record or obituary.  Details will vary with each biography but will often include the date and place of birth, parent names including mothers' maiden name, name of wife including maiden name, her parents' names, name of children (including spouses if married), former places of residence, occupation details, military service, church and social organization affiliations, and more.  There are often ancestry details included that cannot be found in any other type of genealogical record.

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CHARLES PETER ADDAMS, of Carlisle, is descended from mixed English and German ancestry. One of his paternal ancestors, Robert Adams, came from Oxfordshire, England, shortly after the conveyance of 500 acres of land to him by William Penn, by deed dated Dec. 22, 1681, and located in what is now the city of Philadelphia.

William Adams, his paternal great-great-grandfather, settled in Lancaster county, and in 1761 founded the borough of Adamstown. His son, Isaac, the great-grandfather of the subject of this sketch, was a captain of light infantry, in the Revolutionary army. He had six sons: William, the eldest, served in the Legislature, twice as presidential elector, commissioner, associate judge, and two terms in Congress. Another son, General John Addams, in the second war with Great Britain, commanded one of the two brigades of State troops furnished by Pennsylvania for the defense of the nation. Another son was the grandparent of James Addams Beaver, Governor of this State from 1887 to 1891. Another son, Peter, the grandfather of the subject of this sketch, was a presidential elector for Jackson in 1825, and for Harrison in 1840, and in 1848 ran on the Whig ticket, with Henry Clay for President, as the candidate for Congress from the Berks district against William Strong, afterward Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States. George E. Addams, the father of the subject of this sketch, was a well known clergyman of the Reformed Church.

The name Addams was originally spelled with one d, as is customary, but Richard Adams, in order to distinguish the family, added a second d, and this mode of spelling the name has been followed for nearly a century.

On the maternal side Mr. Charles F. Addams is of German ancestry, dating back to 1765, when one of his lineal ancestors came from Germany with Pastorious and settled at Germantown.

Charles Peter Addams was born at Carlisle in 1863; graduated from Dickinson College, Carlisle, in 1884; read law with Henderson and Hays, was admitted to the Bar of Cumberland county in 1887, and located at Carlisle where he now resides. He took an active interest in politics, and served as chairman of the Republican county committee from 1887 to 1891, and again from 1901 to 1904, inclusive. He was a delegate to the Republican State Convention of 1894, which nominated Daniel H. Hastings for Governor. He was chief clerk in the Attorney General’s Department, at Harrisburg, from 1895 to 1899 and law clerk since 1899.

In December, 1888, Mr. Addams was married to Laura, daughter of Franklin and Sarah Jane Gardner, of Carlisle, and has one son, Lawrence Gray.

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This family biography is one of numerous biographies included in the Biographical Annals of Cumberland County, Pennsylvania published in 1905 by The Genealogical Publishing Company. 

View additional Cumberland County, Pennsylvania family biographies here: Cumberland County, Pennsylvania Biographies

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