Abeel and Allied Families

Lodge No. 728 of New York. He married Jesslyn Irene Forsythe, daughter of
James Forsythe and Anna Moore. They have one child, Hazel Forsythe.

Line of David Abeel,
Eldest son of Capt. David,
son of Johannes Abeel

David Abeel, Patriot of the Revolution, eldest son of Capt. David and Mary (Duyckinck) Abeel, was born in Albany, 1727. He married July 2, 1752, Neiltje, daughter of Garret Van Bergen and Annatje Meyer. He settled in Catskill as early as 1754. In 1771 he obtained a patent for one thousand acres of land "on the west side of and adjoining the brook called the Caterskill, at a place called the Bak-Oven."

     This estate was within the bounds of the Catskill Patent, and was formerly owned by Abeel's father-in-law.

They had issue:

Annatie, born in Albany, March, 1753; died in infancy.

Anthony, born in Catskill, Oct. 9, 1754; died Feb. 25, 1822; married Oct
6, 1797, Catharine Moon.

Garret, born in Catskill, March 27, 1757; died Oct. 23, 2829; married
Elizabeth Cantine.

Annatje, born April 8, 1760; married Jacobus B. Hasbrouck. Catharine,
born in Catskill, Sept. 28, 1765; died Aug. 24, 1829.

     During the War of the Revolution there were living at the Bak-Oven, David Abeel, Neiltje, his wife, and their four children-Anthony, Gerrit, Catharine and Anna. The men of the household were zealous patriots, and between them and the few Tories in the neighborhood a bitter feud existed. One of these Tories, Jacobus Rowe, was especially malignant.

     He harbored the Indians when they came into the valley of the Catskill, and guided the Indians in their depredations throughout that neighborhood.

     On a Sunday evening in 1780, a party of Indians with Jacobus Rowe and
another Tory, entered the house of David Abeel. The inmates, who had been attending prayer meeting, were then at supper and were taken entirely by surprise. They had no time to take down their guns, which lay upon wooden baskets fastened to the walls and to the great beams of the ceiling. These weapons, however, would have been of no service, as the slaves of Abeel had been notified of the coming attack, and during the absence of the family in the afternoon, had removed the priming of the guns and had stuffed ashes into their pans. David and his son Anthony were made prisoners; Lon. a large and powerful slave of Abeel, assisting in binding his master. Owing to his extreme age he would doubtless have been released had he not inadvertently recognized his neighbor. Rowe, who was disguised as an Indian.

     Gerrit Abeel, Anthony's youngest brother, had been spending the day at the Old Catskill parsonage, and as he approached his home he heard voices which at once aroused his suspicions, and, calling to his assistance a neighbor. the two hid themselves in a thicket near the path which led to the house, and waited. As the party passed, lantern in hand, Gerrit was about to fire, but his neighbor, who was paralyzed with fear, warned him that he might shoot his own father.


 

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