1849-1916
Adoniram Judson Cushing
Attorney/Public Servant MA/RI
Adoniram Judson Cushing was noted at his passing in 1916 as “one of the most prominent attorneys in Providence, Rhode Island.”[1] He was born in 1849 (the year the Adoniram Judson’s health began to fail), in North Attleboro, MA, to Alpheus Nelson Cushing and Charlotte Everett Foster. He received an A. B. degree in 1870 from Brown University and studied law in the office of Thurston & Ripley, prominent attorneys of Providence. Brown University later conferred upon him the honorary degree Master of Arts on account of his brilliant scholarship.
On June 19, 1879, at Providence, RI, Adoniram Judson Cushing and Mary E. Becker were married. They had one daughter, Alice May.
Mr. Cushing made for himself an enviable reputation not only among his professional colleagues, but in the community-at-large, where he was respected and esteemed for the high standards which he always maintained.
In the year 1899 he was elected a member of the Providence Common Council, serving in that capacity until 1902, when he was elected a member of the Board of Alderman… acting as mayor on several occasions with his usual dignity and exercising the performance of his difficult and responsible duties with the utmost tact and justice so characteristics in all his rulings.[2]
Mr. Cushing was a member of the Independent Order of Odd Fellows, Redwood Lodge of Masons and the Rhode Island Historical Society. He was prominently connected with the Rhode Island militia where he was given the honorary rank of colonel and had that title carved on his grave marker.
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[1]“Cushing, Adoniram J.: Lawyer, Public Official,” American Biography: A New Cyclopedia, Volume 4 (New York: American Historical Society, Inc., 1919), p. 59.
[2] Ibid., p. 60.