Biographical Sketch of David ABRAHAM (1893); Chester County, PA

Contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by John Morris <jMcDmorris@comcast.net>.

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http://www.usgwarchives.net/pa/pafiles.htm
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Source: "Biographical and Portrait Cyclopedia of Chester County, Pennsyl-
vania, comprising a historical sketch of the county", by Samuel T. Wiley
and edited by Winfield Scott Garner, Gresham Publishing Company, Phila-
delphia, PA, 1893, pp. 383-4.

"DAVID ABRAHAM, a well known and prosperous farmer residing near New 
Centreville, is a gentleman of wide experience, great information and fine 
conversational powers.  He is the elder of the two surviving sons of Daniel 
and Eliza (Philips) Abraham, and was born August 29, 1814, at Willistown, 
Chester county, Pennsylvania.  He was educated in the public schools of 
Delaware county, and at Haddinton college, in the county of Philadelphia, 
and after leaving school engaged in farming, which has been his principal 
business in life.  Since 1839 he has been a continuous resident of his 
native county, and owns a fine farm of one hundred and seventeen acres of 
choice land in Tredyffrin township, which is all highly improved and in 
first-class condition.  Politically he is a republican, giving his party 
a loyal support on all general questions, and keeping well posted on pass-
ing events.

The Abraham family is of English-Welsh descent, and was founded in this 
country by James Abraham, whos emother was Sarah Abraham, who emigrated to 
America in 1700 with her three sons and two daughters, and settled in 
Montgomery county, Pennsylvania.  Here he passed the remainder of his life 
and died at a good old age.  He was a farmer, and his wife was Margaret 
Davis.  Two sons, James and Isaac, and three daughters were born to them.  
The son, Isaac Abraham (great-grandfather), was born in Upper Merion town-
ship, Montgomery county, and lived there all his life.  He also was a 
farmer by occupation, and married into a Quaker family, his wife being 
Dinah Howard, by whom he had two children.  One of these was a son named 
Isaac Abraham (grandfather), who was born on the old homestead in Mont-
gomery county, and resided there for a time, but latger sold out and re-
moved to Delaware county, settling near the present site of Wayne, where 
he died about 1813, aged nearly fifty-eight years.  His remains sleep in 
the cemetery adjoining the Great Valley Baptist church, of which he was a 
prominent member, deacon and ordained elder for many years. In politics
he was a federalist, and he married Jane Carnogg, to whom was born a 
family of four children, three sons and one daughter.  

Daniel Abraham, son of Isaac and Jane Abraham, and father of the subject 
of this sketch, was born January 11, 1781, on the spot where the village 
of Wayne now stands.  At the age of sixteen he removed to Willistown 
township, this county, where he lived until 1817, when he went to Radnor 
township, Delaware county, and resided there until 1835.  In that year 
he removed to Philadelphia county, but returned to Delaware county in a 
couple of years, and in 1839 came to Tredyffrin township, this county, 
where he died November 30, 1861, aged eighty years.  His life was prin-
cipally devoted to agriculture, in which he was very successful, owning 
three fine farms at the time of his death, one containing one hundred 
and thirty acres, and another consisting of two hundred acres, all well 
improved.  He was a man of more than ordinary ability and judgment, and 
in 1812 was appointed justice of the peace by the governor of Pennsyl-
vania, Simon Snyder, and held that office until his removal to Delaware 
county in 1817.  He was again appointed to the same office by Governor 
John Andrew Shultz, and held the position until he changed his residence 
in 1835.  In politics he was a federalist until Jackson's election to 
the presidency, when he became a whig and ever after adhered to that 
party.  He was a Baptist in religious belief, and was for many years a 
prominent member and a deacon of the Great Valley church of that denom-
ination.  His service as deacon extended from 1832 to his death, in 
1861.  In 1807 he married Eliza Philips, a daughter of Jonathan Philips, 
and to them was born a family of eleven children, five sons and six 
daughters, all of whom are now deceased except Daniel and the subject 
of this sketch."