grave import

Obituary

Yesterday evening at 6:30 o'clock, Mr. James Fox Abrahams, an old and well-known resident of Burlington, breathed his last at the residence of Mr. James Love, on Columbia Street and although his demise had been anticipated for some time by his many friends and acquaintances in this city, the sorrow caused by the intelligence of his death was none the less universal, and there was a general feeling of regret that one who was so closely connected with all the interests of Burlington in its early days, should be removed at a time when the city was apparently just entering upon a new and hitherto unequaled career of prosperity.
James Fox Abrahams was born in Philadelphia, PA in the year 1812, and was consequently sixty-three years of age at the time of his death, His father was an Irishman, and did gallant service in the war of 1812, under that celebrated naval hero Commodore William Bainbridge, and received a sword from the Commodore as a mark of approbation for his services. The sword is still in the family, we believe in possession of a sister of the deceased, now living in Philadelphia. His mother was a Quaker, and the name by which he was so familiarly known to the people of Burlington was given him in honor of George Fox, the distinguished founder of the Society of Friends. He came from Philadelphia to Burlington in the year of 1846, being then 34 years of age, and has been a resident of the city ever since. He engaged in the book and stationery business soon after his arrival in the city and finally sold out to Mr. John L. Corse, the father of General John M. Corse. Mr. Corse continued in the book trade until his death, when the stock was sold to Mr. Wesley Jones, who has continued in the business up to present time.
During the existence of the Burlington and Mt. Pleasant plank road, Mr. Abrahams was secretary of the company and during his frequent trips over the line made hosts of friends by his cheerfulness of disposition and many social qualities. After disposing of his interest in the book store to Mr. Corse he engaged in real estate transactions in this city and continued thus engaged up to the first year of Lincoln's administration when he was appointed Postmaster which position he held for some years and then resigned in favor of Mr. Clark Dunham. Since that time he has been retired from all active business, residing in his property on Valley street between Eighth and Boundary, until recently, when he took up his residence with Mr. James Love, who is a brother to Mrs. Abrahams.
The deceased leaves no family except his wife, and no relatives except a sister, in Philadelphia, the last surviving member of his father's family.
Mr. Abrahams was a man of strong impulses of kindly feelings to his acquaintances and of many private deeds of generosity. He was of a very energetic, driving disposition, and of a nervous, active temperament which kept him, mind and body, continually in a state of unrest, and during his more active years, there was no one so well known on the streets of Burlington, and none more generally welcomed in all circles, business and social, than Fox Abrahams. He was a man of brilliant intellect, the files of the Hawk-Eye containing many pieces of evidence of his ability, and his writing, always attracted general attention in the city, and many of them received a very extensive circulation through the exchanges. By his death, the city loses one who witnessed all her early struggles for supremacy, and who was probably more generally acquainted with the older residents of Burlington and this section of Iowa than any man now residing among us.