evidence: John Adams (1735-1826) was an American lawyer, statesman, and diplomat who was a prominent leader of the American Revolution (1765-1789) before going on to serve as the first vice president (1789-1797) and second president of the United States (1797-1801). He is considered a Founding Father of the United States, having helped lead the push for independence. John Adams was born on 30 October 1735 in Braintree, Massachusetts. His father, John Adams Sr., was a farmer, shoemaker, church deacon, and selectman for the town of Braintree, who was well-liked in his 2,000-person community. The younger John greatly admired his father, later writing of him that "in wisdom, piety, benevolence, and charity…I have never known his superior" (McCullough, 33). John's mother, Susanna Boylston Adams, came from one of the most prominent medical families in New England; her uncle Zabdiel Boylston was the first American physician to perform smallpox inoculations. John had two younger brothers, Peter and Elihu, and spent his childhood "making and sailing boats…swimming, skating, flying kites and shooting marbles…running about to quiltings and frolics and dances among boys and girls". As Adams would later recall, his childhood "went off like a fairytale" (McCullough, 31).