Here’s a Rare SIGNED Biographical and Genealogical Book Titled
“ABIEL WASHBURN AND HIS DESCENDANTS”
Published in 1914 at Patchogue, New York.
The booklet is Signed by the Compiler,
WILLIAM LEWIS WASHBURN
(1862-1947)
Son of Civil War Brevet Brigadier General, Abiel Washburn, and Publisher of Miniature Books and Broadsides.
The book is signed by Washburn on the title page:
“To my friend Frank Onkenbrand, Jr.
William Lewis Washburn
October 1936”
The book is a slim 23pp, measures 6½” x 10” and is in very good condition, with loose pages (complete).
BIOGRAPHICAL NOTES
Birth 2 Mar 1862
Death 29 Nov 1947 (aged 85)
Burial Locustwood Memorial Park, Cherry Hill, Camden County, New Jersey,
Plot Sec 6 Lot 465 Site 1
Famous
for his Miniature Books.
Bulletin of the ‘Nederlands Omar Khayyám Genootschap'
Omariana
OMAR AND THE CONSUMER MARKET
Volume 7, nr. 2, Nov. 2007
Washburn
William Lewis Washburn, owner of the Palmetto Press, published a miniature
newspaper as a young boy in Connecticut in the 1870s. Later he became
associated with a newspaper and his languished hobby, playing with toy presses,
turned into a "typus fever" again. His first productions breathe an
Arts and Crafts air, where his later miniatures attracted attention. The
Palmetto Press
actually dates from 1875 but it wasn't until 1900 that the press came into
being. Washburn produced three mini Omars: The Pots. A cry to God, 1935, Chess,
the game of life, 1936 and Wine songs from Omar Khayyam, 1936
(1827 - 1891)
Home State: Connecticut
Branch of Service: Infantry
Unit: 16th Connecticut Infantry
Before Antietam
He lived in West Stafford, CT, was first apprenticed as a cabinetmaker, and worked as a bookkeeper. He was then successful in the insurance business as an agent and adjuster. He was commissioned First Lieutenant and Regimental Quartermaster, 4th Connecticut Volunteer Infantry (3 months service) on 14 May 1861. He then was First Lieutenant, 1st Connecticut Heavy Artillery. He was promoted to Captain, Company M on 22 May 1862. He enrolled as Major, 16th Connecticut Infantry on 22 June [or 24 August] 1862.
On the Campaign
He was seriously wounded in action on 17 September 1862 at Antietam. He was later honored by brevet for "meritorious service" there.
The rest of the War
He resigned and was discharged on disability 17 January 1863. He returned to service as First Lieutenant, Veteran Reserve Corps (VRC) on 18 June 1863, and was promoted to Captain on 27 June. He was made Major on 28 October, and Lieutenant Colonel, 20th Regiment, VRC on 30 March 1864. He was honorably discharged on 30 June 1866. He was awarded brevets on 13 March 1865 to Colonel of Volunteers for War service, and to Brigadier General for Antietam.
After the War
He moved to Aiken, SC in 1883 for his health.
References & notes
Military information from Ingersoll1, with details from Heitman2, who has his last name as Washburne. VRC information from Frederick Phisterer's Statistical Record of the Armies of the United States (1883). His photograph from one in the MOLLUS Massachusetts Collection3. His gravesite is on Findagrave.
See more about this family from George Abiel's son William Lewis Washburn's Abiel Washburn and his Descendants (1914), online from the Internet Archives. A large full-length portrait of him in uniform is in the collection of the Connecticut Historical Society, Hartford. His wartime papers are at the Connecticut State Library in Hartford.
Birth
04/23/1827; Belchertown, MA
Death
05/19/1891; Walhalla, SC; burial in Spring Grove Cemetery, Hartford, CT
1 Ingersoll, Colin Macrae, Adjutant-General, Catalogue of Connecticut Volunteer Organizations in the Service of the United States, 1861-1865, Hartford: Brown & Gross, 1869, pp. 643 - 663 [AotW citation 5404]
2 Heitman, Francis Bernard, Historical Register and Dictionary of the United States Army 1789-1903, 2 volumes, Washington DC: US Government Printing Office, 1903, Vol. 1, pg. 1004 [AotW citation 14905]
3 US Army, Heritage and Education Center (USAHEC), Military Order of the Loyal Legion of the United States (MOLLUS)-Massachusetts Photograph Collection, Published 2009, Source page: Vol. 112, pg. 5751-5800 [AotW citation 14906]
I am a proud member of the Universal Autograph Collectors Club
(UACC), The Ephemera Society of America, the Manuscript Society and the
American Political Items Collectors (APIC) (member name: John Lissandrello). I
subscribe to each organizations' code of ethics and authenticity is guaranteed.
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