The Birthday of Eternity

Adelbert Ames, died April 12, 1933

Adelbert Ames retired from business pursuits in Lowell, Massachusetts around the turn of the century, but continued in real-estate and entertainment projects in Atlantic City, New Jersey and Florida. 

Ormond Beach, Florida

Ames died in 1933 at the age of 97 in his winter home, located in Ormond Beach, Florida, next to the estate of his friend John D. Rockefeller.

Ames Winter Home

"The Casement", Rockefeller Estate

At the time of his death, Ames was the last surviving full-rank general who had served in the Civil War.

Ames Monument and Grave site

Ames is buried in the Hildreth family cemetery—the family of his mother-in-law, Sarah Hildreth Butler—behind the main cemetery on Hildreth Street in Lowell.  Buried with him are his wife Blanche Butler Ames, their six children, and the spouses of his son Butler and his daughter Edith.  Also buried in the plot are his father-in-law, Benjamin Butler, and his wife, Sarah.

Benjamin Butler

Ames' widow, Blanche, died at the Ames winter home in Ormond Beach on December 26, 1939, at the age of 92.

Blanche Butler Ames

A Medal of Honor plaque for Ames' grave site was dedicated at a ceremony honoring his father-in-law Benjamin Butler's 191st birthday, held at the Hildreth family cemetery—the only time of the year it is open to the public—on November 1, 2009.  

Medal of Honor Plaque

Since 2004, a "Benjamin F. Butler Society" has met at the Hildreth family cemetery in early November to celebrate the birthday of General Butler, and to replace the American flag that flies over the cemetery.

Benjamin Butler Monument in Cemetery

Ames's widow, Blanche, compiled a collection of her correspondence with Ames, Chronicles from the Nineteenth Century; the family published it posthumously in 1957.

His daughter Blanche Ames Ames (she married into another Ames family) was a noted suffragist, inventor, artist, and writer.  She wrote a book about her father, Adelbert Ames, in 1964.

 

Blanche Ames Ames