From the OHS PC Database, derived from A Guide to North American Organbuilders by David H. Fox (Organ Historical Society, 1991).

Father of Charles W. Adams; jeweler and watchmaker; a tuner in 1866; organbuilder in Providence, Rhode Island, 1870; partner with son in W. K. Adams & Son of Providence, Rhode Island, 1883; died in the 1890s.

Staff: Louis F. Adams.

Sources:

• Orpha Ochse, The History of the Organ in the United States (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1975), 252.


• Barbara Owen, The Organ in New England (Raleigh: Sunbury Press, 1979), 396.

Updated through online information from Eric Read [March 22, 2026]: According to public death records, Welcome Kelly Adams, born in Connecticut in 1820, died in 1902 of apoplexy. This contradicts the previous assumption that the C.W. Adams firm, of his son Charles Welcome Adams, succeeded the W.K. Adams & Sons firm after his father’s death, since Charles died in 1900, two years before his father. While it is unclear why Charles established his own firm, it now seems possible that Welcome could have remained in business concurrently to his son’s firm, and even perhaps went on to build an instrument (or more) of his own. One entry in the database suggests an instrument built by Welcome K. Adams (not W.K. Adams & Son) in Connecticut in 1901. This could be investigated more fully. Either way, the assumption that he died in the 1890s is unfounded based on this recently uncovered evidence.