Chambers, Adam B.

Born: 1808-01-09 Pennsylvania

Died: 1854-05-22 Saint Louis, Missouri

Flourished: Saint Louis, Missouri

At the age of twenty-one, Chambers moved from his native state to Pike County, Missouri, settling in Bowling Green. Having read law in Pennsylvania, he earned admission to the bar and established himself as an attorney of renown. He also devoted time to agricultural pursuits and to developing Bowling Green. In 1832, he volunteered for service in the Black Hawk War, accompanying a company from Pike County on an expedition to Des Moines, Iowa Territory. Upon returning home, won election to the Missouri General Assembly, and soon thereafter became prosecuting attorney for the county, retaining that position until 1836, when he again won a seat in the legislature. In 1833, he and partner Oliver Harris established the Salt River Journal, operating that paper until 1837, when Chambers moved to St. Louis, and with partners Harris and George Knapp, purchased the Missouri Republican, which Chambers transformed into a Whig Party organ espousing the doctrines of Henry Clay. In 1850, Chambers was living in St. Louis Ward 2 with his wife and children and owned real estate valued at $35,000. Chambers remained chief editor and part owner of the Republican until his death. In addition to his journalistic activities, Chambers served as a fire warden, incorporator of a reform school for juveniles, founding member of the Mercantile Library, and a member of the St. Louis Board of Health.

Gravestone, Block 92, Lot 63, Bellefontaine Cemetery, Saint Louis, MO; Walter B. Stevens, 100 Years of the St. Louis Republic (St. Louis: St. Louis Republic, 1908), 10-11; J. Thomas Scharf, History of Saint Louis City and County (Philadelphia: Louis H. Everts, 1883), 1:816, 827, 891, 914; U.S. Census Office, Seventh Census of the United States (1850), Ward 2, Saint Louis, Saint Louis County, MO, 251.