Orlin A. Abeel Biography


	This biography appears on page 1711 in "History of South 
	Dakota" by Doane Robinson, Vol. II (1904) and was scanned, 
	OCRed and edited by Maurice Krueger, mkrueger@iw.net.

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	ORLIN A. ABEEL, cashier of the Alcester State Bank, in Alcester, 
Union county, is a native of the city of Albany, New York, where he was 
born on the 17th of August, 1849, being a son of Waldo and Maria Abeel, 
who were likewise born in that state. The Abeel family is one of the old 
and honored ones in the Empire state, and the records extant show that 
John Abeel, of whom the subject is a direct descendant, was mayor of 
Albany in 1694, and that he signed the charter for historic old Trinity 
church in New York city. Henry V. S. Abeel, grandfather of our subject, 
was a valiant soldier in the war of 1812. Orlin A. Abeel received an 
excellent common-school education, but his training has been most 
effectually rounded out under the discipline of that wise headmaster, 
experience. When he was three years of age his parents removed to 
Wisconsin, locating in Madison, and his father became superintendent of 
the Madison division of the Chicago & Northwestern Railroad, retaining 
the incumbency until his death. In 1865, at the age of sixteen years, 
our subject inaugurated his independent career, securing a position as 
clerk in the office of the Chicago & Northwestern Railroad at Madison, 
and later being promoted to the office of cashier for the same company 
in its office at Missouri Valley, Iowa. Later he was for three years in 
charge of the country department of the Bradstreet Mercantile Agency, in 
its-Chicago office, and then became pool clerk for the Chicago & 
Northwestern Railroad, in the same city. In 1884 he became private 
secretary to Charles M. Hays, at St. Louis, Missouri, in the general 
manager's office of the Gould system, retaining this incumbency until 
1884, in December of which year he came to what is now the state of 
South Dakota and located on a farm in Union county. In 1888 Mr. Abeel 
was elected cashier of the Bank of Centerville, Turner county, and was 
elected county treasurer in 1890. In 1896 he took up his residence in 
Alcester and here was publisher and editor of the Alcester Union from 
1896 until January 1, 1903, when he was elected to his present position 
as cashier of the Alcester State Bank. He is a fine accountant and 
endowed with excellent executive ability, and the affairs of the 
institution are most consistently placed in his charge. He has disposed 
of his newspaper plant and business, having made the Union a true 
exponent of local affairs and interests and an able advocate of the 
principles of the Republican party, to which he has ever given an 
uncompromising allegiance. He is identified with the Masonic fraternity, 
and was master of the lodge at Parker, South Dakota, for three years, 
while he served for three years in the same capacity in Alcester Lodge, 
No. 115, Ancient Free and Accepted Masons. He and his wife are members 
of the Methodist Episcopal church. 

	On the 14th of December, 1888, Mr. Abeel was united in marriage 
to Miss Edith L. Hall, of Union county, Dakota territory, daughter of 
Samuel W. Hall, who served with distinction in the Civil war, as a 
member of a Missouri cavalry regiment. Mr. and Mrs. Abeel have five 
sons, whose names are here entered, with respective ages at time of this 
writing, in December, 1903: Charles Wallace, fourteen; Verne Waldo, 
twelve; Paul Jordan, six; Clyde Ambrose, four; and Orley, one.