Fayette County PA Archives Biographies.....Abraham, James, Capt November 14, 1830 - ????
************************************************
Copyright.  All rights reserved.
http://www.usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm
http://www.usgwarchives.net/pa/pafiles.htm
************************************************

File contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by:
Marta Burns marta43@juno.com August 26, 2024, 7:43 am

Source: Gresham and Wiley, 1889: Biographical & Portrait Cyclopedia, Fayette Co, PA, pg 488
Author: John H. Gresham & Samuel T. Wiley

Capt JAMES ABRAHAM of Scotch Irish Lineage and a brave 
soldier in the war of the great Rebellion is a son of James 
Abraham and Mary Jones Abraham, and was born in Georges, now 
Nicholson, township, November 14, 1830.  

    James Abraham was a soldier in the War of 1812, was a 
captain in James McClelland's company of cavalry and fought 
at Tippecanoe and Fort Meigs, where he had a horse shot from 
under him.  He was a whig and afterwards a republican, a 
member of no church and yet a liberal contributor to all. 
His wife was a member of the Mt Moriah Baptist church.  He 
owned a fine farm of 280 acres and was a moral and upright 
man.  He was born in Fayette county, December 19, 1786, and 
died January, 1862.  He married Miss Mary Jones and unto 
them were born eleven children: Sarah Abraham, dead; Isaac 
Abraham; Aaron Jones Abraham (dead); Jane Abraham; Elizabeth 
Abraham (dead); Mary Abraham; Enoch H Abraham and A Jones 
Abraham (twins); James Abraham; Caroline Abraham (dead); and 
William Abraham.  

    Enoch Abraham was one of the fifteen hundred passengers 
lost on the steamer Independence that went down off the 
coast of California, February 16, 1853.  William Abraham was 
a sergeant in the Fourteenth Pennsylvania Cavalry and died 
in Jarvis hospital at Baltimore of disease contracted in the 
Shenandoah Valley under Sheridan in 1864, and sleeps in the 
Baptist cemetery at Smithfield.

    Captain Abraham was reared on a farm and educated in the 
common schools. He wen to Virginia in 1854, was engaged in 
business there until spring of 1861 when he returned home, 
and  in connection with Captain George W Gilmore recruited a 
company of cavalry under a special order from General 
McClellan; was elected and commissioned first lieutenant of 
the same and with the company was mustered into the service 
at Clarksburg, Virginia, July 24, 1861, as "Pennsylvania 
Dragoons," and immediately sent to the front.

    His company scouted over most of the counties of West 
Virginia from Pennsylvania to the Kentucky line, and 
encountered in their line of duty every conceivable hardship 
of military life.  Captain Abraham was in the battles of 
Carnifex Ferry and Cotton Mountain, and in six months thirty 
five percent of the company were killed or wounded.  

    In 1862 he served under General Pope and took part in 
the second Bull Run battle.  After Pope's retreat, his 
company led McClellan's advance into Maryland and fought 
gallantly at South Mountain and on the bloody field of 
Antietam.  After the last battle the company helped drive J 
E B Stuart across the Potomac, when Captain Abraham was 
ordered back to Clarksburg.

    In 1863 he was with Colonel Tolland in an ill-starred 
raid to Wytheville, where twenty two out of thirty men of 
the company engaged were killed and wounded.  In 1864 he was 
with General Averill in his celebrated cavalry raids.  He 
was next with General Hunter in his disastrous Lynchburg 
expedition, later served in the Shenandoah Valley under 
Generals Crook and Averill, and participated in the fights 
at Stephenson's Depot and Winchester.

    Afterwards his company was engaged in the pursuit of the 
Confederate force that burned Chambersburg, July 30, 1864, 
and helped to drive it into the mountains of West Virginia.  
At Wheeling, West Virginia, August 24, 1864, he was mustered 
out of the federal service after thirty seven months of 
continuous hard fighting and marching.

    Captain Abraham wrote a very accurate and interesting 
account of his company and its campaigns, which has been 
published in the Republican Standard.  Returning home from 
the army, he engaged in farming for two years when he 
removed to Springhill Furnace and engaged in stock raising 
until 1873.  From 1873 to 1876 he was a resident of 
Smithfield, removed thence to his present comfortable 
residence in Nicholson township.

    On May 16, 1868, he was married to Miss Jennie 
O'Donovan, daughter of Captain James O'Donovan.  Of this 
union nine children have been born: William R Abraham, Mary 
Abraham, Roy Abraham, Hayes Abraham, Lucy Gertrude Abraham, 
Donald Abraham, Perie Abraham, Jones Rudolph Abraham, and 
Birdie Abraham.  

    He owns 50 acres of the home farm, and his sister Mary 
Abraham resides with him and owns an additional 25 acres of 
the same farm.  He was engaged in carrying the mail and 
operated a hack line from Morgantown, West Virginia, to 
Uniontown for several years.  He is an Odd Fellow and is a 
prominent and influential republican of Fayette county.  He 
is a member and was the first commander of Jerry Jones Post, 
No 541, the Grand Army of the Republic.  

Additional Comments:
Originally submitted 2000.

This file has been created by a form at http://www.usgwarchives.net/pafiles/

File size: 5.3 Kb