Rare Antique American Civil War Era Beer Brewer Wilson Abbott! Signed CDV Photo

  

Rare Antique American Civil War Era Beer Brewer Wilson Abbott! Fantastic Antique Victorian American CDV Photograph!

ID'd Portrait of "Wilson Abbott". Born in Philadelphia in 1829, Wilson Abbott was named for his mother's family. When his father, James Abbott, died in 1846, the seventeen-year-old Wilson was initiated as a third-generation ale brewer. Quaker William Abbott, Wilson's grandfather, had relocated the family to Philadelphia from Chesterfield, New Jersey around 1800.

Isaac Morris, a scion of a Philadelphia brewing dynasty founded in the seventeenth century. The Pear Street plant had been erected about 1745 and since expanded. Here, Abbotts & Sheward made porter, strong beer and table beer for several years, until William bought out his partners. After the War of 1812, William's young son James joined the firm as junior partner. And Samuel Abbott, doing business as Abbott, Newlin & Company.

In 1835, James Abbott and Robert Newlin relocated to 86 North Second Street, above Arch, to another brewery established by the Morris family decades earlier. They continued to provide the public porter, brown stout and lighter ales. James died eleven years later, leaving Robert Newlin sole proprietor. Nonetheless, Newlin expanded the plant, boasting a 20,000-barrel cellar capacity in 1853. As the Abbott family still held an interest in the property, Wilson Abbott followed his father into the business in his late teens. In 1858, the prosperous Newlin partnered with the 29-year-old Abbott and Charles Zell-an accountant by training but previously engaged in the liquor trade-in the renamed Robert Newlin & Company. But Newlin, too, passed away in 1860, and the company reorganized as Newlin, Thomas & Company, with J. Thomas and the widow Anne P. Thomas cashed out the following year, Mrs.

Now, the 34-four-year-old Wilson Abbott came to the fore as Abbott & Company, in partnership with his younger brother, druggist James Henry Abbott, who presumably inherited an interest in the property. The firm dissolved about 1867, perhaps a victim of the growing popularity of lager, but the plant continued until 1869 under new management.

Today an obscure figure in Philadelphia brewing, Wilson Abbott devoted half his career to the field before becoming proprietor of a cigar store. He is best remembered for his leadership of brewers' organizations. German-American lager brewers organized the United States Brewers' Association in August 1862 to fight the excise and, the following year, extended membership to their native-born competitors. The attendees elected Wilson Abbott the organization's secretary, assuming perhaps the most important role of correspondence with like-minded associations.

The brewers did convince Congress to drop the excise to 60 cents per barrel, but only temporarily. A new, WASP-dominated Brewers' Association of Philadelphia showed Wilson Abbott some brotherly love, voting him its secretary-treasurer. As acting chairman at an 1866 meeting, he offered this toast to one of his forebears: To the memory of William Penn, the Quaker founder of the State of Pennsylvania; the pioneer brewer in the State of Pennsylvania, he proved himself the benefactor of its people. The war years were difficult for Wilson.

Louisa Jane Love Abbott, his wife of nine years and mother to their daughter Mary, died in October 1864. He may have thrown himself into his work with the brewer's associations, and with ale brewing losing ground to lager, the Abbott brothers gave up the business in 1867, opening their cigar store and consolidating their households with their mother's. Contributor: Timothy Dennee (Find A Grave). MORE INFO: More information can be found at the end of the gallery images.

This info is for Reference Only and does not come with the CDV Photograph. A great piece of 19th Century American Photography Ephemera! Item comes as seen and as is!

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