Samuel Adam Drake, author, was born in Boston, Mass., Dec. 20, 1833; son of Samuel Gardner and Louisa Maria (Elmes) Drake. He was educated in the Boston schools and in 1858 removed to Leavenworth, Kan., where he was a journalist and merchant until the breaking out of the civil war. He joined the Kansas militia as captain in 1861, and was promoted brigadier-general of militia in 1863 and colonel of the 17th Kansas volunteers in 1864. He returned to Boston in 1871 and devoted his time to literary work. He published: Hints for Emigrants to Pike's Peak (1860); Old Landmarks and Historic Personages of Boston (1873; new ed., 1895); Historic Fields and Mansions of Middlesex (1874); Nooks and Corners of the New England Coast (1875; new ed., 1897); General Israel Putnam (1875); Bunker Hill (edited, 1875); Captain Nelson (1879); History of Middlesex county, Mass., to the Present Time (2 vols., edited, 1880); Around the Hub (1881); The Heart of the White Mountains (1882); A Book of New England Legends and the Folk Lore in Prose and Poetry (1884); Our Great Benefactors (edited, 1884); The Making of New England (1886); The Old Boston Taverns and Tavern Clubs (1886); Burgoyne's Invasion of 1777 (1889); The Pine Tree Coast (1891); The Taking of Louisburg, 1745 (1891); The Battle of Gettysburg (1892); The Making of Virginia and the Middle Colonies, 1578-1701 (1893); Our Colonial Homes (1894); The Making of the Ohio Valley States, 1660-1873 (1894); The Campaign of Trenton, 1776-77 (1895); The Watch Fires of '76 (1895); On Plymouth flock (1897); The Border Wars of New England (1897).