Billy Adams

William Herbert Adams (February 15, 1861 – February 4, 1954), better known as Billy Adams, was the 25th Governor of the State of Colorado, United States, from 1927 until 1933.

Biography

Adams was born in Blue Mounds, Wisconsin. In 1878, when he was 17, Adams moved to Alamosa, Colorado. He was later elected to City Treasurer, then Mayor of Alamosa, and later as Conejos County commissioner. In 1886, he was elected to the Colorado General Assembly as a member of the Colorado House of Representatives. In 1888, he was elected to the Colorado Senate where he served until 1926, when he was elected as Governor of Colorado.^[1]

In 1921, during his term as Colorado Senate Senator, Adams received approval on a bill that formed Alamosa State Normal School in Alamosa, Colorado. The college’s name was later changed to Adams State Teachers College in honor of its founder and finally to its present name Adams State University. Adams died on February 4, 1954, in Alamosa, Colorado, at the age of ninety-two where he is buried.

Personal life

John Adams, Billy's father, was a member of the Wisconsin State Assembly and the Wisconsin State Senate. Billy’s older brother, Alva Adams, was also governor of Colorado from 1887 to 1889, from 1897 to 1899, and 1905. Billy's nephew, Alva Blanchard Adams, was a United States Senator from Colorado from 1923 until 1925 and from 1933 to 1941.

See also

• Governor of the State of Colorado
• List of Governors of Colorado

References

External links

• The Governor William H. Adams Collection at the Colorado State Archives
• William Adams at Find-A-Grave

Governors of Colorado
Territorial (1861–76)	Gilpin Evans Cummings Hunt McCook Elbert McCook Routt
State (since 1876)	Routt Pitkin Grant Eaton A. Adams Cooper Routt Waite McIntire A. Adams Thomas Orman Peabody A. Adams McDonald Buchtel Shafroth E. Ammons Carlson Gunter Shoup Sweet Morley W. Adams E. Johnson Talbot T. Ammons Carr Vivian Knous W. Johnson Thornton E. Johnson McNichols Love Vanderhoof Lamm Romer Owens Ritter Hickenlooper