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Transcribed and submitted by Linda Talbott
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Our Country and Its People, Part II
by Daniel Wager
pub. The Boston History Company - 1896


         p. 124 - 125

         CAPT. JAMES STILLIE ABEEL
	 Capt. JAMES STILLIE ABEEL was a lineal descendant of (1) CHRISTOPHER
	 JAMES ABEEL, who was born in 1621 in Amsterdam, Holland, whence he came
	 to this country in 1657 and settled at Fort Orange (now Albany), where
	 he engaged in trade as agent for the Dutch West India Company. The line
	 of descent from that patron to the subject of this memoir is (2)
	 JOHANNES, (3) DAVID, (4) JAMES, (5) JOHN N., and (6) JAMES S. JOHANNES
	 ABEEL (2) was the second mayor and for several years recorder of the
	 city of Albany, holding the first named office two terms. DAVID (3) was
	 a merchant and for some assessor of New York City. JAMES ABEEL (4) was
	 a colonel in the Revolutionary army and served through the war as
	 deputy quartermaster-general on the staff of General WASHINGTON, under
	 General GREENE. It was largely through his exertions that the troops
	 were provisioned and the army maintained during the historical winter
	 at Valley Forge, and a number of letters bearing his name are still
	 extant. He married a daughter of Dr. JOHN NEILSON, a physician of
	 Belfast, Ireland, who came to New York and practiced his profession
	 with success. Rev. JOHN NEILSON ABEEL (5) son of Colonel JAMES, was
	 born in New York City in 1769, was graduated from Princeton College in
	 1787, and read law with Hon. WILLIAM PATTERSON, L. L. D., in New
	 Brunswick. Later he studied theology, became a tutor in Princeton, and
	 was licensed to preach in 1793; two years after he became one of the
	 ministers of the collegiate church (Dutch Reformed) of New York and
	 remained there until his death in 1812. In 1804 Harvard College
	 conferred upon his the degree of D. D. Dr. ABEEL was a trustee of
	 Queen’s and Columbia Colleges and in 1804, with eleven other citizens,
	 founded the New York Historical Society. He married, January 29, 1794,
	 MARY STILLIE, who died January 13, 1826. She was a member of an old and
	 respected Swedish family of Philadelphia before the days of WILLIAM
	 PENN, when that city was known as New Stockholm, and the State of
	 Pennsylvania as New Sweden. Of their five children two daughters died
	 in infancy; the others were JAMES S.; NEILSON, born in 1797, married
	 CAROLINE LAWRENCE, and died in 1827; and GUSTAVUS, born June 6, 1801,
	 graduated from Union College in 1823 and from the Theological Seminary
	 in New Brunswick in 1824, and died in September, 1887.

         Capt. JAMES STILLIE ABEEL was born in Philadelphia, Pa., November 15,
         1795, and received his education in the grammar and select schools of
         New York City under ARTHUR STANSBURY and JOHN BORLAND. Upon the death
         of his father in 1812 he entered the counting house of ROBERT LENOX,
         but soon entered the United States Army and was assigned to duty on the
         Niagara frontier in the war of 1812-15. May 3, 1813, he was made third
         lieutenant, and on February 20, 1815, President JAMES MADISON
         commissioned him first lieutenant in the 23rd Regt. Inf. To rank from
         October 1, 1814, at which time he and Gen J. A. DIX were the youngest
         officers on the force. He was present at the sortie on Fort Erie and
         the taking of Fort George and was wounded at the battle of Lundy’s
         Lane, where it was subsequently supposed his voice became impaired. At
         the close of the war in December 1815, he was retained as second
         lieutenant with brevet of first lieutenant in the reorganized army and
         transferred to the 4th Artillery. April 20, 1818, he was made first
         lieutenant of artillery, his commission signed by President JAMES
         MONROE, being dated July 10, 1820. September 1, 1829, he was brevetted
         captain for ten years’ faithful service in one grade, by President
         ANDREW JACKSON, to rank for April 20, 1828.