Abell, Bennett

Born: 1796-10-09 Washington County, Kentucky

Died: 1876-05-08 Fulton County, Illinois

Flourished: 1834-05-05 Sangamon County, Illinois

Alternate name: Abel

In the early 1830s, Dr. Abell moved from Green County, Kentucky, to what would become Menard County, Illinois. In 1836, he and his wife Elizabeth lived in New Salem, where they befriended a young Abraham Lincoln, who lived with them for a time. By 1860, Bennett was a farmer living in Blandinsville with Elizabeth and their two children. He owned $270 in real estate and $2,100 in personal property.

Gravestone, Avon Cemetery, Avon, IL; U.S. Census Office, Fifth Census of the United States (1830), Green County, KY, 3; Election Returns for Clary's Grove Precinct in Sangamon County, Illinois; U.S. Census Office, Eighth Census of the United States (1860), McDonough County, IL, 233; Douglas L. Wilson and Rodney O. Davis, eds., Herndon's Informants: Letters, Interviews, and Statements about Abraham Lincoln (Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1998), 738.