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CAPT. JAMES STILLIE ABEEL
Capt. James Stillie Abeel was a lineal descendant of (1) Christopher James Abeel, who was born in 1621 in Amsterdam, Holland, whence he came to this country in 1657 and settled at Fort Orange (now Albany), where he engaged in trade as agent for the Dutch West India Company. The line of descent from that patron to the subject of this memoir is (2) Johannes, (3) David, (4) James, (5) John N., and (6) James S. Johannes Abeel (2) was the second mayor and for several years recorder of the city of Albany, holding the first named office two terms. David (3) was a merchant and for some assessor of New York City. James Abeel (4) was a colonel in the Revolutionary army and served through the war as deputy quartermaster-general on the staff of General Washington, under General Greene. It was largely through his exertions that the troops were provisioned and the army maintained during the historical winter at Valley Forge, and a number of letters bearing his name are still extant. He married a daughter of Dr. John Neilson, a physician of Belfast, Ireland, who came to New York and practiced his profession with success. Rev. John Neilson Abeel (5) son of Colonel James, was born in New York City in 1769, was graduated from Princeton College in 1787, and read law with Hon. William Patterson, L. L. D., in New Brunswick. Later he studied theology, became a tutor in Princeton, and was licensed to preach in 1793; two years after he became one of the ministers of the collegiate church (Dutch Reformed) of New York and remained there until his death in 1812. In 1804 Harvard College conferred upon his the degree of D. D. Dr. Abeel was a trustee of Queen’s and Columbia Colleges and in 1804, with eleven other citizens, founded the New York Historical Society. He married, January 29, 1794, Mary Stillie, who died January 13, 1826. She was a member of an old and respected Swedish family of Philadelphia before the days of William Penn, when that city was known as New Stockholm, and the State of Pennsylvania as New Sweden. Of their five children two daughters died in infancy; the others were James S.; Neilson, born in 1797, married Caroline Lawrence, and died in 1827; and Gustavus, born June 6, 1801, graduated from Union College in 1823 and from the Theological Seminary in New Brunswick in 1824, and died in September, 1887.

Capt. James Stillie Abeel was born in Philadelphia, Pa., November 15, 1795, and received his education in the grammar and select schools of New York City under Arthur Stansbury and John Borland. Upon the death of his father in 1812 he entered the counting house of Robert Lenox, but soon entered the United States Army and was assigned to duty on the Niagara frontier in the war of 1812-15. May 3, 1813, he was made third lieutenant, and on February 20, 1815, President James Madison commissioned him first lieutenant in the 23rd Regt. Inf. To rank from October 1, 1814, at which time he and Gen J. A. Dix were the youngest officers on the force. He was present at the sortie on Fort Erie and the taking of Fort George and was wounded at the battle of Lundy’s Lane, where it was subsequently supposed his voice became impaired. At the close of the war in December 1815, he was retained as second lieutenant with brevet of first lieutenant in the reorganized army and transferred to the 4th Artillery. April 20, 1818, he was made first lieutenant of artillery, his commission signed by President James Monroe, being dated July 10, 1820. September 1, 1829, he was brevetted captain for ten years’ faithful service in one grade, by President Andrew Jackson, to rank for April 20, 1828.

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