James M. ABRAHAM

  General Notes:

James M. Abraham, president of the J. M. Abraham Co., is one of the extensive manufacturers and prosperous business men of Bellefontaine. He was born five miles north of Marysville, Union county, Ohio, August 20, 1856, a son of James K. and Rachel M. (Bebout) Abraham. James K. Abraham was born in Jefferson county, Ohio, April 10, 1816, a son of William and Eleanor (Kincaid) Abraham, natives of Pennsylvania and Virginia, respectively, who came to Jefferson county, Ohio in 1806, but returned to Pennsylvania in 1823, and there spent the remainder of their lives, he dying September 12, 1860, she having passed away ten years previous. James K. Abraham had the usual log cabin school advantages afforded him and sat on a slab seat in a cabin that had greased paper in place of glass in the windows. He was married June 4, 1839, to Rachel Bebout, who was born in Washington county, Pa., August 19, 1814, being the youngest in the family of eighteen children born to Benjamin and Hannah (Marlette) Bebout. Benjamin Bebout was born December 4, 1758, and he died in 1858. His wife was born November 21, 1768, and died February 11, 1830. They were married December 7, 1784. By trade Benjamin Bebout was a tailor. While still a boy in his teens, he served his country as a soldier during the American Revolution. In 1842, James K. Abraham and his wife came to Ohio, and located in Leesburg township, Union county, on the farm where James M. Abraham was born, and this continued the family home until 1867, when removal was made to Jefferson township, Logan county, to the 160-acre farm James K. Abraham had purchased. Here he lived until 1887 when he sold the farm and came to Bellefontaine, living here in retirement until his death in 1895, when he was lacking but a few months of being eighty years old. The mother survived him until 1902, when she died at the age of eighty-eight years. Both were strict Presbyterians of the old school, very devout and technical. They had three sons and two daughters, of whom but two live in Logan county. These children are as follows: Hannah M., who was Mrs. H. L. Bunker, and William M., who lived in Morrow county, Ohio, both deceased; Benjamin F., who lives on a farm in Jefferson township, Logan county, one mile east of Bellefontaine; Eleanor J., who is Mrs. Ellis Scott; and James M., who is the youngest. James M. Abraham attended the public schools of Union county until he was eleven years old, and then, after the family removal to Logan, county, completed his studies in the schools of Jefferson township.