Joseph Abbott was born in Sacarappa, Maine on March 12, 1830. He came to Dover in 1850. In 1856 he started his own venture in the teaming business. A few years later he engaged in the Ice business and continued in that business until his death. He cut all his ice on the upper Cochecho Rover and had four horses in constant use.
In the 1860s he went into the stone and excavation business and had a granite quarry in Durham. He did the stone work for the main building of the Frank Jones Brewery in Portsmouth and the Sawyer Woolen Mills in Dover.
Mr. Abbott served in the state legislature in 1891 & 1892. In 1854 he joined the Strafford Guards and remained in that organization for over thirty years, working his way up from Private to Major. He was a member of the GAR, the Odd Fellows, Knights of Pythias and a Mason.
In 1853 he married Delia Brownell, daughter of William and Lydia Brownell of Dover. They had seven children, four of whom died young. The three who lived to adulthood were; Grace who died unmarried at the age of thirty in 1892, Arabella who married William K. Vickery of Lewiston, Maine and a son Samuel B. Abbott who married Edna B. Durgin daughter of Albert and Myra Durgin on Oct. 10, 1887.
Major Abbott died Feb. 13, 1901 and his wife Delia died March 22, 1903. They lived in the house at 35 Atkinson Street. After Major Abbott’s death, his son, Samuel B. Abbott, who lived next door to his father at 45 Atkinson Street, took over his businesses and ran them until he died on Sept. 7, 1912 at age 52.
Photograph from Dover Public Library archives, text from Marston, Robert, Dover, NH: People, Businesses and Organizations: 1850 to 1950. Dover, NH, 2004.