City Readers Digital Historic Collections at the New York Society Library

Garrett B. Abeel, an iron merchant and businessman, was born March 5, 1768. Abeel came from a family of iron merchants who emigrated from Holland to America in the seventeenth century. His father Garrett Abeel started an iron and hardware business, Abeel & Byvanck, in 1765 with his brother-in-law Evert Byvank, Jr. Garrett B. Abeel resumed the business, at the corner of James Slip and Cherry Street, in 1791 after it was interrupted by his father’s participation in the Revolutionary War (White 189). With the addition of a partner in 1816, the firm became Abeel and Dunscomb. The company dealt chiefly in the iron trade (hardware, cannon balls, anchors, chains, anvils, and nails) and also leased out retail and residential space at various properties.
 
Abeel was active in New York City politics, and in 1811 served as inspector of the New York State elections for the 6th Ward. In the 1820s he was one of the Directors of the Washington Insurance Company, and a manager of the Delaware and Hudson Canal Company, a canal building enterprise to bring anthracite coal from Northeast Pennsylvania to market in New York City. Abeel was a member of the Dutch Reformed Church.
 
Abeel’s parents were Mary Byvanck and Garrett Abeel who served as Major of the First Regiment, New York State Militia during the American Revolution, chairman of New York Committee of Safety, and was a member of the New York Provincial Congress. Garrett B. Abeel was married to Catherine Marschalk circa 1794 and; they had twelve children.
 
Garret B. Abeel died on December 21, 1829 at his home at No. 19 Park Place. His business was then taken up by his children, as G.B. Abeel & Sons, which continued as a family iron business under various names into the twentieth century (Kreutzberg 286).