Daniel Abell of Malahide (1784 - 1868) ‘Quaker Cabinet-Maker On The Talbot Road’1 Donald G. Anger From as far back as I could remember, knowledge of the old cupboard. His reply the old pine cupboard had stood in my was unequivocal. The cupboard had always father’s workshop holding the typical odd been in the old Anger Homestead in assortment of jars, cans, and little Bayham Township, the house of his great- containers. Years later, after I had grandparents Elisha and Deborah (Kilmer) developed an interest in both genealogy and Anger, and had belonged to them.2 It was early furniture of Upper Canada as an the same old frame house where my father outgrowth from my teaching of Canadian was born four generations later in 1915. history, it began to dawn on me that the old Now, through inheritance, this old pine cupboard then standing somewhat forlornly cupboard stands today in our own dining in my father’s workshop bore an uncanny room, continuing to preside as a silent resemblance to early pine cupboards that I witness to history. had noticed in books about early furniture Our interest now piqued, my wife and I of Upper Canada. In those books, such began to examine very carefully every pine cupboards were given the more dignified cupboard we encountered in museums, title of ‘Pine Dish Dressers’. They were historic homes, and antique furniture popularly found in most log or early frame research. Interestingly, during our research houses from about 1790 to the early 1840s, one thing was becoming increasingly clear. the era during which most were built. The Despite all the general similarities of both lady of the house displayed her small construction and early artisans’ techniques collection of pewter or china plates on the which we found across all of eastern North open upper shelves while the closed America, there was one way in which our cupboard below contained some of the cupboard was unlike virtually all the others. utensils she used in meal preparations. This Ours was ‘plain’ and the others, to varying solitary pine cupboard, working in degrees, were not. It was puzzling to say the conjunction with the nearby open hearth, least. usually constituted the totality of her Then, it happened! While preparing for a kitchen. book on the War of 1812 in the Sugarloaf As soon as possible after the ‘lightbulb’ Settlement on the Niagara Peninsula3 flashed within me, I questioned my father’s (where the city of Port Colborne and 1 All information contained in this study of Daniel Abell is abstracted from the following book by this same author: Daniel Abell of Malahide (1784-1868): Quaker Cabinet-Maker on the Talbot Road (Toronto, 2014). 2 The Anger frame house was built in 1859 on Lot 5, Concession 8, Bayham Township, and replaced a log house built there by Elisha Anger in 1842, the year he was located on that land by Colonel Talbot. 3 Donald G. Anger, Scruples Of Conscience: The War of 1812 In The Sugarloaf Settlement (Port Colborne: Port Colborne Historical and Marine Museum, 2008). Canadian Quaker History Journal 80 (2015) 1 Daniel Abell of Malahide Anger Pine Dish Dresser: Much of the Abell Book that I omitted had to do with the various technical occupations that Daniel worked at. I probably spent the better part of a year studying colonial and pre-industrial occupations, with a concentration on cabinet-making. This allowed me to objectively examine in considerable detail the specific tools and methods used in making our pine cupboard. Consequently, even if I had no inkling of the related family story, It can be objectively proven that this cupboard had to have been constructed in the early 1840's. surrounding area are today), I encountered divergence of interests within this family in my research, on pre-war Niagara, a young was shaping up as an interesting social school-teacher and carpenter by the name experiment in the Sugarloaf Settlement on of Daniel Abell who had recently married the eve of war. As further research would Annis Bearss and was in the process of soon illustrate, most families on the Niagara acquiring his cabinet-maker’s tools just Peninsula were about to experience their before the war. Curiously, I also discovered own severe stress of one kind or another. that, unlike his wife’s male Bearss and Now, several years later following this Kilmer relatives who had recently joined the discovery and after a period of intensive ranks of the 3rd Lincoln Militia, Daniel research, the trail of evidence reveals that Abell had instead applied to join the Black the ‘Anger Pine Dish Dresser’ in question Creek Quakers almost immediately after the was constructed in the early days of the declaration of war. Obviously, this stark Talbot Settlement in 1843 by Township of Canadian Quaker History Journal 80 (2015) 2 Daniel Abell of Malahide Elisha and Deborah (Kilmer) Anger House - It was situated on Lot 5, Con.8 Bayham Township, close to the township line where the 'Kilmer Settlement' was on the Malahide side. The pine cupboard was in the log house preceding this one from 1843 until 1859; then it was in this frame house from 1859 until 1920 when the frame house was replaced by a brick house which is still there. The image of the frame house is in the form of an oil painting, with the artist using several early 1900's photos (each showing part of the house) to help accurately portray the entire house. Deborah Kilmer was the niece of Daniel Abell. Malahide Quaker cabinet-maker Daniel placed on some of the powerful societal, Abell as a wedding present for his niece, religious and political forces in Upper Deborah Kilmer, who was born in her Canada which were set in motion after the nearby Malahide home in 1825. onset of the War of 1812, forces which Consequently, we now know why our pine necessarily helped to mould, shape and cupboard is not like the others. It follows define the life and work of Daniel Abell. As the preferred Quaker esthetic for their a result, the reader will find him to be a furniture: ‘Of the best sort, but plain’,4 a man who, to his dying day, remained true to quality and principle which is now ‘plainly’ his wartime acquired Quaker faith and who evident in this example of the cabinet- worked tirelessly as a leader on its behalf at making of Daniel Abell and his sons. Black Creek, at Pelham, and finally at In the pages that follow, the spotlight is Malahide. These obvious leadership 4 This phrase, quoted often by scholars studying Quaker culture, was first used on 25 November 1738 when wealthy Quaker merchant John Reynell of Philadelphia ordered two “Black Corner Cubbards, with 2 door to each, no Red in ‘em, of the best Sort, but Plain.” John Reynell to Daniel Flexney, 25 November 25, John Reynell Letter Book (1738-1741), 6. Historical Society of Pennsylvania. Canadian Quaker History Journal 80 (2015) 3 Daniel Abell of Malahide qualities would eventually thrust him onto a ABELL REMEMBERS WALNUT much larger civic stage in the Talbot C O F F I N S AT F I V E D O L L A R S Settlement. Largely unrecognized to date, APIECE,” today we can push back the the long cabinet-making careers of Daniel mists of time and see with an unusual Abell and his sons extended over a period clarity the story of the Abell family as they of forty-eight years in the Talbot developed their pioneer home beside the Settlement. Consequently, much of the Talbot Road in Malahide Township.5 early furniture produced in Bayham and Malahide Townships must have emanated The Trail from Connecticut to Niagara from the Abell Shop. Preliminary research indicated that Of great assistance in painting the Daniel Abell was a native of the State of picture of the life and times of Daniel Connecticut where he was born 22 Abell is a remarkable newspaper interview December 1784 in the village of Middle given by Daniel’s youngest son, Robert Haddam; he was baptized on 18 June 1786 Abell (1828 - 1923). Late in his life, but with in the Congregational Church. With this a mind still razor-sharp, Robert sat down knowledge in hand, and with our typical with a well-known local columnist named sense of adventure, my wife and I set out Louise Hatch who possessed a historical on a motoring trip to Connecticut. At the frame of mind and who wrote under the small library in Middle Haddam, we soon pseudonym of A. S. Paragus. From that made the very pleasant discovery that the lengthy interview, published on 16 Abell ancestral house was still in existence December 1916, and headlined: “ROBT. and, in fact, was listed on the local historical St. Thomas Journal, Dec.16, 1916 - Shows the headlines and beginnings of the article on Robert Abell. 5 A. S. Paragus was the pen name of Miss Louise Dean Hatch (1878-1970). She was descended from the Talbot Settlement pioneering Hatch family of Bayham Township and was a journalist for Tillsonburg and St. Thomas newspapers. This lengthy article about Robert Abell, published in the St. Thomas Journal on 16 December 1916, is fairly typical of the nostalgic search for the past in many of her articles. Canadian Quaker History Journal 80 (2015) 4 Daniel Abell of Malahide registry.6 And so, armed with a very rudimentary local map showing many small roads twisting and turning through the forested hills and valleys, we headed out to find the Abell House.