From the "History of Steuben County, Indiana, 1885", page 771-772. Jacob D. Abbey, section 26, Steuben Township, was born in York Township, Sandusky Co., Ohio, Oct. 16, 1823, a son of Alanson and Lucy (Daggett) Abbey. Alanson Abbey was born in Naples, Ontario Co., N. Y., in 1792. He was a soldier in the war of 1812, and participated in the battle of Queenstown. He was married in New York, and in 1819 removed with his wife to Sandusky County, Ohio, where they lived till the fall of 1838, when they moved to Steuben County, Ind., and settled on section 22, Steuben Township, on land he had entered two years before. He partially improved his land, built a large log house, and set out an orchard. In 1843 he sold the place to Jared H. Miner, a Free-Will Baptist minister of Otsego Township, and returned to the State of New York, remaining there two years. He came again to Steuben County and lived several years at the head of Pleasant Lake; then bought eighty acres of land on section 34, but subsequently returned to Pleasant Lake. He afterward went to Kansas, where he lived three years, and then returned to Indiana and lived with his son, Jacob D., till his death, March 22, 1877. His wife died in Steuben Township in 1839. They had a family of ten children, six of whom grew to maturity, viz.: Henrietta, widow of Henry Bixler; Jacob D.; Nancy, wife of Chauncey Gilbert, who removed to Kansas in 1862; Giles T., of Waterloo; George J., of Kansas; Minerva, who died in 1869. Jacob D., the only representative of the family now living in Steuben County, was married in 1848 to Eliza A. Gilbert, daughter of Bela and Anna Gilbert. They have two daughters – Rosalthe, wife of John Renner, and Jannette. Their only son, Orrin, died March 16, 1871, aged seventeen years. Aug. 11, 1862, Mr. Abbey enlisted in Company H, Seventy-fourth Indiana Infantry, and served till the close of the war. From 1848 till 1856, Mr. Abbey lived on the farm of his father on section 22. In 1856 he bought and located on his present farm. He owns 120 acres of valuable land, with good improvements, all made by himself. He is one of the representative farmers of the township, and a highly respected citizen. In politics he is a Republican. Submitted by: David D. Masterson