James "Grizzly" Adams

James "Grizzly" Adams
"Grizzly" Adams, with his grizzly bear, Benjamin Franklin, from the 1860 Hutchings' Illustrated California Magazine
Born	James Capen Adams 1812 Medway, Norfolk County, Massachusetts
Died	1860 (aged 47–48) Neponset, Boston, formerly Suffolk County, Massachusetts
Cause of death	reinjured head wound from an earlier grizzly bear attack
Nationality	American
Other names	John "Grizzly" Adams, Grizzly Adams
Occupation	cobbler, zoological collector, merchant, miner, rancher, farmer, frontiersman, fur trader, hunter, trapper, animal trainer, circus performer
Known for	For his love of grizzly bears and performing with the trained bears in the circus.

John "Grizzly" Adams (also known as James Capen Adams and Grizzly Adams) (1812–1860) was a famous California mountain man and trainer of grizzly bears and other wild animals he captured for menageries, zoological gardens and circuses. When Theodore H. Hittell met Adams in 1856 at Adams' Mountaineer Museum in San Francisco, California, Adams first represented himself as William Adams, then a short time later told Hittell (also incorrectly) his name was James Capen Adams, an alias he maintained until 1860. He also told Hittell he was born on October 20, 1807, in Maine.

In the 1970s the motion picture The Life and Times of Grizzly Adams starring Dan Haggerty was released. An NBC TV series of the same name starring Haggerty followed. Eventually the Grizzly Adams brand was trademarked by the film and television series creator Charles E. Sellier, Jr.

Sellier's 1970s movie and TV series used the same "James Capen Adams" name incorrectly conveyed by Hittell. The real John Adams did not have a middle name. His mother's maiden surname was 'Capen.' He did, however, actually have a younger brother named James Capen Adams. Information on his Massachusetts death record (Vol. 139, p. 225) also indicates that his name was John and gives an estimated birth year of 1813, based on age at death (48 years). His tombstone lists his first name as John and his date of death as October 25, 1860, age 48 years.

Born and raised in Medway, Massachusetts, a suburb of Boston, Massachusetts, he received an education typical of the era. Adams began as an apprentice in the footwear manufacturing industry at age fourteen. He was of English ancestry. At age twenty-one, he left that occupation, seeking to satisfy his true love - the outdoors and nature. He signed on with a company of showmen as a zoological collector. John hunted and captured live wild animals in the wildest parts of Maine, Vermont and New Hampshire, where he honed his woodsman, survival, and marksmanship skills. However, Adams told Hittell, his hunting and trapping career ended abruptly when he received severe back and spine injuries from a Bengal tiger he was attempting to train for his employers. Not wanting to become a burden on his family, after a year of recuperating he returned to his cobbler’s bench in Boston, Massachusetts. In 1836, John married Cylena Drury and they had three children: Arabella, Arathusa, and Seymour.