Two life-size oil portaits of notable Detroiters of 100 years ago have been placed in the coustody of the Burton Historical Collection at the Detroit Public Library by Miss Irene Toll, great-grandaughter of the couple, who is the owner. These portraits perpetuate the images of James Abbott, Jr. for whom Abbott street was named, and of his wife, Sarah Whistler Abbott, who also belonged to a very distinguished American family. Detroit, as all the older residents know, flourished under three flags and three nationalities have contributed to it's founding and development. The French founded and ruled it from 1701 to 1760. the British took possession in 1760 and remained in control until 1796. The Americans took possession in 1796, lost it for a period of 14 months in 1812 and, having recovered possession in September 1813 have remained in control ever since.

James Abbott, Jr. was one of the first children of British blood to be born in Detroit. His father, James Abbott, Sr. was born in Dublin, Ireland in 1744. Soon after he attained his majority, he came to America and was employed by a fur-trading firm of Montreal for a time. Desiring to enter the fur trade on his own account, he came to Detroit in 1768 where he associated himself with a group of notable traders; Joshn Askin, George Meldrum, William Park, John Wallace, George Sharp, Thomas Sheppard, George Leith and Angus Mackinstosh, who was commonly known as the Earl of Moy although his ancestors had been deprived of their title because of their Jacobite activities in opposing the succession of the House of Hanover in Great Britain.

These men and their hired agents roved far and wide over the middle west before the American Revolution. They ranged through Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Michgan, Wisconsin and far into Iowa trading merchandise for furs in competition with the older trading firms like the Hudson Bay Company. In 1779, after ten years of partnership, they separated and divided their profits. Among the assets awarded to James Abbott, Sr. was an Indian grant of 4,500 acres of wild land in what is now Knox County of southwestern Indiana.

Mr. Abbott made his headquarters in Detroit and associated himself with a trader named Finchley. Abbott and Finchley built a large warehouse at the river front near what is now the northwest corner of Woodward avenue and Atwater street and for a time the Finchly's had their living quarters on the ground floor adjoining the store. In that early day a number of the founders of notable Detroit families were living there. ........ James Abbott was born June 1, 1776 shortly before the signing of the Declaration of Independence and he lived in Detroit all his 82 years. He succeeded the earlier firm of Abbott & Son. The Abbott home was a one-story log house built at the southwest corner of Woodward Avenue and Woodbridge street many years before Woodward avenue was laid out. When the street was established, the Abbott house stood ten or 15 feet back from it. The house had a very high and steep gable roof which was pierced with dormer windows on the side toward the river. The door was a massive affair of oak planks with a brass knocker and a brass plate at the level of the eye on which the name James Abbott was engraved. The house was painted yellow and the warehouse a violent venetian red...........

The victory of Gen. Anthony Wayne at the battle of Fallen Timbers on August 20,1794 destroyed the morale of the Indians who had been fighting the American invasion of their lands for 15 years. The treaty of Grenville followed. Detroit could not be occupied until the Jay Treaty with Great Britain had prepared the way for it and then Col. John Francis Hamtramck came to Detroit with the First United States Infantry regiment to take formal possession in July 1796.