Background
William Hawkins Abbott was born on October 27, 1819 in Middlebury, New Haven County, Connecticut, United States, the son of David and Hannah (Hawkins) Abbott, the eldest of a family of twelve children.
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William Hawkins Abbott
Edit ProfileEducation
Until he was eighteen years of age Abbott helped with the farm work and completed the common-school curriculum, attending during the winter months.
Career
Abbott became a clerk in a general store at Watertown, Connecticut. He remained in this position until 1844, gaining a considerable amount of business experience and developing a character recognized for its industry and ambition. When twenty-five years old, he removed to Newton Falls, Trumbull County, Ohio, where he entered the employ of a large general mercantile business. A year later, when the partners for whom he worked gave up this business relationship, Abbott joined with one of them and continued the store as Bronson & Abbott for another year. This partnership was dissolved a year later, both members continuing separate businesses. Another year passed and Abbott bought out his former partner as well as an established real estate business in Newton and continued the two on his own account with marked success until 1862.
In 1859 Colonel E. L. Drake had brought in the first oil well near Titusville, Pennsylvania, and partly from curiosity but mainly as a matter of business, Abbott visited there the following spring. What he saw prompted him to take a part interest in the lease of the near-by Parker farm, on which a well was being drilled. When this came into production some months later, Abbott, still a resident of Ohio, went to New York to establish a market for this oil and succeeded in selling 200 barrels at thirty-five cents a gallon to Schieffelin Brothers, an extensive drug and chemical house in New York. This deal may be said to mark the beginning of the oil trade. Abbott, too, was the moving spirit in the construction of the first refinery at Titusville, the plant beginning operations in January 1861.
Throughout year Abbott carried on his oil interests chiefly from his Ohio home, but in 1862 he moved with his family to Titusville, and during the same year brought the first coal for domestic use to Titusville and thus established the first retail coal business. Three years later he leased a large acreage of coal lands in Mercer County, Pennsylvania, and for years thereafter engaged successfully in coal mining.
In 1865 he organized a company and built at a cost of $200, 000 the Titusville and Pitt-Hole plank road. Meanwhile he was expanding his oil interests. In 1867 he formed with Henry Harley the Pennsylvania Transportation Company, the first of the great oil pipe-line consolidations, and finally in 1870 he was instrumental in reviving active interest in the earlier projected Union & Titusville Railroad Company, with the result that the road was opened in 1871.
Thereafter until his death, Abbott divided his time generally amongst his various interests, including the presidency of the Citizens Bank of Titusville. From the time of his permanent residence in Titusville, because of his business ability, reliability, and far-sightedness, he was prominently identified with almost every civic development of the city.
Achievements
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Abbott was one of the first people involved in the oil trade, and the refinery he built in Titusville, Pennsylvania in 1861 was the first petroleum refinery. In 1862 he established the first retail coal business in Titusville. He also established the first oil pipeline consolidation and revived interest in the Union & Titusville Railroad Company, which he reopened. He also served as the president of the 1st National Bank of Titusville.
Connections
Abbot was married twice: first he married Amanda Georgiana Conover, but the couple divorced; In September 1845 he was married to Jane Wheeler. They had three children.
