JOHN ADAMS
1797 - 1801
Arizona Timeline
1700' s and early 1800' s -
The northwest area of Arizona is populated by native American people: Mohave, Hualapai and Paiute indians.
Spanish Troops campaign against the Apache Indians in lands that belong to Spain as part of northern Mexico.
Mining, Ranching, and Missionary activity continues to increase in the area that will some day be Arizona.
John Adams was born in 1735 in
what is now Quincy,
Massachusetts, son of a farmer.
He became a lawyer after
graduating from Harvard. He
married Abigail Smith; they had
two daughters and three sons, one
of whom, John Quincy Adams,
became the sixth president of the
United States. John Adams died
on July 4, 1826, the 50th
anniversary of the adoption of the
Declaration of Independence.
Abigail Smith Adams was born
in Weymouth, Massachusetts in
1744. She is remembered as one
of the most influential of the first
ladies in U. S. history, and many
volumes of her letters have been
published. She is the first First
Lady to be both wife and mother
of a United States president.
Abigail died in 1818.
After graduation from Harvard, President John Adams practiced law in Massachusetts, gaining prominence for his opposition to unjust taxation by the
Crown. He became an influential member of the Continental Congress and supported George Washington, helping to draft the Declaration of
Independence and had a leading part in the debate which led to its adoption. After the Revolutionary War he, along with John Jay and Benjamin Franklin,
negotiated the treaty of peace with Great Britain, and was the country's first minister to the Court of St James in 1785. He served as George Washington's
vice- president for Washington's entire eight- year administration. Adams' presidency was a stormy one due to differences between the two political
parties, the Federalists and the Democratic- Republicans. John Adams was a leader of the Federalists. Probably because of the factional strife, he was not
elected to a second term. He died in 1826 at the age of 91.
Abigail was the chief figure in the social life of her husband's administration, and her correspondence shows that she took an active interest in the
government. When John Adams was away from their home, she took responsibility for running the farm with great success.
