inc. type public traded as nyse adx industry investment founded 1854 founder alvin adams headquarters baltimore maryland u. s. key people mark e. stoeckle ceo james p. haynie president nancy j. f. prue executive vice president website www.adamsfunds.com adams diversified equity fund formerly adams express company is a publicly traded diversified equity fund . it was founded in 1854 and traces its roots to 19th century freight and cargo transport business . the adams express building was constructed in 1911 and adams express is one of the oldest companies listed on the new york stock exchange nyse adx . it is one of only five companies that continues to operate as a closed end fund since 1929 . the company has paid dividends continuously since 1935 . adams funds uses a conservative investment philosophy and its portfolio is managed with the expectation that it will generate solid returns with lower than market risk for long term investors . investments are made with an eye toward protecting investors original investments and generating dividends and capital gains that can be used as a source of income or reinvested to increase investor holdings in the fund . contents 1 history 2 cultural references 3 see also 4 further reading 5 references 6 external links history edit in 1839 alvin adams a produce merchant ruined by the panic of 1837 began carrying letters small packages and valuables for patrons between boston and worcester massachusetts . he had at first a partner named burke who soon withdrew and as adams & company adams rapidly extended his territory to new york city philadelphia and other eastern cities . by 1847 he had penetrated deeply into the south and by 1850 he was shipping by rail and stagecoach to st. louis . adams express was used by abolitionist groups in the 1840s to delivery anti slavery newspapers from northern publishers to southern states ; in 1849 a richmond virginia slave named henry box brown shipped himself north to philadelphia and freedom via adams express . 1 in 1855 the company was reorganized as the adams express company . meanwhile a subsidiary concern adams & company of california had been organized in 1850 and spread its service all over the pacific coast under the management of isaiah c. woods . not being under adams personal management woods badly handled it and it failed on february 23 1855 causing a panic which shook california to its depths . child messengers norfolk virginia 1911 the south was almost entirely covered by the adams express service in 1861 when the american civil war necessitated the splitting off of another company under henry b. plant which for political reasons was given the name of southern express . there was a mysterious kinship between the two ever afterward having joint offices at common points . southern stock was never quoted in the market and it was even charged by some adams stockholders that southern was secretly owned by adams . the current official history of adams written in 2004 acknowledges that southern was its subsidiary . 2 the parent company held a strong position from new england and the mid atlantic coast to the far western plains . its stock holdings were enormous . in 1910 it was the second largest stockholder in the pennsylvania railroad and the third largest in the new york new haven & hartford railroad besides owning large blocks of american express norfolk & western railroad and other shares . the company s antebellum employment of allan pinkerton to solve its robbery problems was a large factor in building up the noted pinkerton national detective agency . along with the other expresses its shipping interests were merged by the government into the american railway express company which later became the railway express agency . adams express continued its corporate existence as a wealthy investment trust . it has been a closed end fund nyse a.d.x. since 1929 and is located in baltimore maryland . as of 2015 update it has paid a dividend every year for 80 years since 1935 . 3 effective april 1 2015 the company changed its name to adams diversified equity fund in recognition of the fact that its express activities had long ended ; it continues to operate as a closed end fund traded on the new york stock exchange under its previous symbol . cultural references edit adams express is mentioned as former slave jourden anderson s preferred form of payment in letter from a freedman to his old master 4 see also edit kate warne william f. harnden adams express during the civil war civil war mail with adams postmark petroleum & resources corporation further reading edit dictionary of american history by james truslow adams new york charles scribner s sons 1940 references edit hollis robbins fugutive mail the deliverance of henry box brown . american studies 50 1 2 spring summer 2009 5 30 adams express history about freedman s book pg 265 external links edit adams funds digitized images of adams express company journal 1855 1863 housed at the university of kentucky libraries special collections research center retrieved from https en.wikipedia.org w index.php title adams express company & oldid 744259844 categories companies listed on the new york stock exchangetransport and distribution companiesmassachusetts in the american civil warfundscompanies based in baltimorecompanies established in 1854financial services companies based in marylandrailway express agencyhidden categories articles containing potentially dated statements from 2015all articles containing potentially dated statements navigation menu personal tools not logged intalkcontributionscreate accountlog in namespaces article talk variants views read edit view history more search navigation main pagecontentsfeatured contentcurrent eventsrandom articledonate to wikipediawikipedia store interaction helpabout wikipediacommunity portalrecent changescontact page tools what links hererelated changesupload filespecial pagespermanent linkpage informationwikidata itemcite this page print export create a bookdownload as pdfprintable version languages svenska edit links this page was last modified on 14 october 2016 at 03 50 . text is available under the creative commons attribution sharealike license ; 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