Biography of Giles Thompson Abbey, pages 629/630/631/632.  History of 
DeKalb County, Indiana; B.F. Bowen & Company, Inc., Indianapolis, 1914

Giles Thompson Abbey

	The life history of Giles Thompson Abbey, one of the well known and 
highly esteemed venerable veterans, now living in honorable retirement in 
the picturesque little town of Waterloo, Indiana, shows what industry, 
good habits and staunch citizenship, will accomplish in the battle of 
acquiring property and rearing children to lead steady and respectable 
lives.  His life has been one replete with duty well and conscientiously 
performed in all of its relations.  He has not been a man to shrink from 
his duty, however irksone or dangerous, and it is such traits that win in 
life’s affairs.  He has come down to us from the pioneer period and has 
noted the wondrous transformation from that time to this, playing well his 
part in the drama of civilization.  He has been an advocate of wholesome 
living, and cleanliness in politics as well, and has ever been outspoken 
in his antipathy to wrong doing, whether by the humble citizen or by the 
incumbents of influential office.
	Giles Thompson Abbey, who for forty-nine years has been a resident 
of DeKalb county, Indiana, was born on November 24, 1827, in Sandusky 
county, Ohio, and is a son of Alanson and Lucy (Daggett) Abbey, both of 
whom were born and reared in Ontario county, New York, where their 
marriage also occurred.  The subject’s  paternal ancestry is trace back in 
an unbroken line to emigrants from England, who located in Massachusetts, 
they being the subject’s great-grandparents.  The subject’s paternal 
grandfather, Joshua Abbey, who was born in Massachusetts, was a soldier in 
the war of the Revolution, in which also his brother, John, was an officer.  
Joshua Abbey moved to Ontario county, New York, and there Alanson Abbey was 
born in 1793, and who was eventually a soldier in the war of 1812.  After 
his marriage in 1819 he moved to Sandusky county, Ohio, where he bought 
and developed a farm.   In 1838 the family moved to Steuben county, 
Indiana, settling in Steuben township about one-half mile south of 
Pleasant Lake, where the father spent the rest of his life, his death 
occurring in 1877, at the age of eighty-four years. His first wife, who 
died in 1840, was the mother of ten children, six of whom lived to 
maturity.  In November, 1841, Alanson Abbey married Mary Boyce, whose 
death occurred when the subject of this sketch was fifteen year old, at 
which time the father broke up housekeeping. His first wife, mother of the 
subject of this sketch, was born in New York in 1803 and was the daughter 
of Jacob Daggett.
	Giles T. Abbey received his education in the district schools of 
Sandusky county, Ohio.  One of his first teachers was the grandmother of 
Gen. J.B. McPherson, the latter having been a playmate of the subject in 
his youthful days.  Giles Abbey was but eleven years of age when brought 
to Steuben county, at which time the Indians were numerous here, and in 
his youth he wrestled, ran foot races and engaged in nearly all the sports 
with which the Indians were familiar.  At the age of fifteen years he 
started out in life on his own account and for a year was employed at farm 
work.  He then apprenticed himself to learn the tanner’s trade in his home 
township, at which he was employed until he was twenty-one years old.  It 
was not a hard matter to find employment, but it was extremely difficult 
to get money.  Before Mr. Abbey had attained to his majority he had, by 
dint of the most persistent economy and closest saving, accumulated money 
enough to purchase forty acres of land and about the time he became of age 
he bought one hundred and two acres adjoining his first tract, and upon 
this land he engaged in farming on his own account.  At the time he first 
engaged in learning the tanning trade he had reserved the privilege of 
going to school three months each winter.  This he did until the age of 
eighteen years, when the teacher of his school quit and Mr. Abbey was put 
in his place and taught school during the winter until twenty-four years 
old.  He had very little education except what he could pick up outside of 
the schools he attended, but by dint of the most persistent reading and 
close observation he became a well informed man.  In 1850 Mr. Abbey was 
married and then continued farming three years, at the end of which period 
he sold his farm and moved to Flint, Steuben county, and bought two hundred 
and forty acres of land there, which he sold a year later.  He then moved 
to Lagrange county, this state, and for three years was engage in the 
milling business at Mongo, formerly called Mongoquinon.  In 1860 he moved 
back to Steuben county, where he resided four years and where his wife 
died in 1864.  He then moved to DeKalb county and for a year was engaged 
in the livery business at Waterloo, but sold the business back to the 
parties of whom he bought it.  The next year he erected a three-story 
brick business block on the east side of Main street, about a block south 
of the railroad, and during this period he lost three thousand dollars 
through endorsing notes for a Waterloo merchant.  During the following two 
years Mr. Abbey was engaged in a mill at Waterloo, doing the buying and 
selling.  In 1870 he became agent of the Fort Wayne, Jackson & Saginaw 
Railroad, which runs north and south through Waterloo, retaining this 
position for six years. In 1876 Mr. Abbey became cashier of the DeKalb 
Bank, and during the following twenty-seven years he filled this position 
to the entire satisfaction of his associates in the bank and to the patrons 
of the institution. Since that time Mr. Abbey has not engaged in any 
permanent business because of impaired health, though he has settled a 
number of estates and bought and sold some real estate.  In 1909 he 
unfortunately fell and received an injury to his spine which has since 
rendered him and invalid, though until the summer of 1913 he was able to 
go about and, to some extent, attend to business.  He is now residing in 
Waterloo, where he has a pleasant and attractive home on the south edge of 
the town, his daughter and her husband, Mr. and Mrs. Hollester, living with 
him.
	Politically, Mr. Abbey has always been a staunch Republican, and was 
and enthusiastic worker in the interests of the party in early days, having 
assisted in forming the Republican organization in Steuben county.   
Fraternally, he has been a member of the Masonic order for forty-eight 
years and has been appreciative of the work and, in fact, has endeavored 
to exemplify the sublime precepts of that time-honored order.
	In 1850 Mr. Abbey was united in marriage to Martha A. Long, who was 
born in Steuben county, Indiana, the daughter of James and Mary (Guthrie) 
Long.  Mrs. Abbey died in 1864, leaving two children, Ella J., now the 
wife of Wellington H. Hollester, of Waterloo, and Carrie J., the wife of 
John B. Parsell, who is a cashier in the First National Bank at Angola, 
Indiana.  In 1866 Mr. Abbey married Mrs. Lurene (Howe) Davis, the widow of 
Joseph D. Davis, deceased, late of Auburn.  She was born in New York state 
and was the daughter of James Howe.  She came to Fort Wayne, Indiana, with 
her parents and there married Mr. Davis, by whom she had two sons, Hugh and 
Emmett. To her union with Mr. Abbey were born two children, Edith L., the 
wife of Albert Teiss, of Memphis, Tennessee, and Earl G., who lives in 
Kansas City, where he is employed in the secret service.  He is a man of 
great physical courage and is sent by the service to the most important 
cases. He was recently assigned to recover two pictures of rare value that 
had been stolen and his finding of them caused a great deal of favorable 
comment.  He married Maude Drake, who died leaving two children, Ethel and 
Mino.  Mr. Abbey’s second wife died in 1882, and in 1885 he married 
Saphronia (Holmes) McEntarfer, the widow of Anthony McEntarfer.  She had 
two children by her first marriage, both of whom are deceased.  Mrs. Abbey 
died in 1909 after twenty-four years of happy wedded life together, and, 
being a woman of many fine qualities of head and heart, her death was 
considered a distinct loss to the community.  Mr. Abbey’s life record 
exhibits a career of unswerving integrity, indefatigable private industry 
and wholesome home and social relations, a most commendable career crowned 
with success.  It is a record of a well-balanced mental and moral 
constitution, strongly marked by those traits of character, which are of 
special value in such a state of society as exists in this country.  A 
resident of DeKalb county for nearly a half century, he has been an eye 
witness and participant in the wonderful development which has characterized 
this locality, and among the venerable and honored citizens of the county 
no man enjoy to a more eminent degree the respect and veneration of the 
people with whom he has mingled so long.  Because of his genuine worth and 
his record in the community he is clearly entitled to representation among 
DeKalb county’s representative citizens.

Submitted by:
Arlene Goodwin
Auburn, Indiana
Agoodwn@ctlnet.com