Soon after his commencement at Lowell, he was promoted to the position of second overseer in the weaving department, a post he retained until 1831, when he passed to a similar position in the Methuen Company's mill, of which his uncle was agent. In 1833 he made another change, going to Hooksett, where he became overseer in the Hooksett Manufacturing Company's mills, of which his father was then the agent. Not long afterwards he assumed a similar position in the Pittsfield Manufacturing Company's mill, at Pittsfield, then under the administration of Ithamar A. Beard. Mr. Adams remained in Pittsfield from December, 1834, until Mr. Beard resigned. On the 7th of March, 1835, Mr. Adams, who had previously decided to return to Lowell, left Pittsfield; embarked in the mail stage, and found himself about noon of the next day at Nashua, where his parents then resided. In those days there was no city of Manchester, neither was there a splendid railroad service running through the fertile Merrimack valley. But the waters of the Merrimack, though scarcely at all utilized at that time to propel water-wheels, carried upon its bosom heavily laden vessels from Boston, _via_ the old Middlesex canal, which ran as far north as Concord. Locks were in use at Garvin's Falls, Hooksett, Manchester, Goffe's Falls, Nashua, and at other points. A passenger steamer plied in those days between Lowell and Nashua upon the river. Mr. Adams remained at home only until Monday. He was industriously inclined, and proceeded immediately to the Merrimack Mills in Lowell, the scene of his earlier labors, where he accepted the office of overseer. He remained with this company until he came to Manchester, in 1846. In December, 1841, John Clark, the agent of the Merrimack Mills at Lowell, proposed that Mr. Adams should enter the office as a clerk. This idea was very distasteful to Mr. Adams, but he yielded to the wishes and advice of Mr. Clark, to get acquainted with book-keeping and the general business of the mills, to prepare for a higher position. For five years he held this position. In the year 1846, Mr. Adams left Lowell to assume the agency (succeeding the Hon. William P. Newell) of the "Old Amoskeag Mills," then located on the west side of the Merrimack River at Amoskeag Falls,--now a part of the city of Manchester,--on the present site of ex-Governor P. C. Cheney's paper-mill. The building of the Amoskeag mills was the beginning of Manchester's wonderful career of prosperity, which has developed to such great proportions. Her many mills, now running more than three hundred thousand spindles, many looms, and many cloth-printing machines, and the many other signs of industry, are abundantly attesting to the truth of the statement. With the Amoskeag company Mr. Adams remained until the 17th of November, 1847, when he became agent of the Stark Mills.