In all their various ramifications of business, Mr. Abbey has occupied an important position. In addition to providing for the home trade, he has exercised constant personal supervision over the supplying of the western branches. The negotiations between dealers and manufacturers have mostly been managed by him, and the importance of these negotiations may be judged from the fact that the requirements of the customers of Abbey & Co. regulate the amount of stoneware manufactured in Summit county, and thus affect the business and revenues of the county. The business of the Cleveland house of G. N. Abbey & Co. has gradually been increased by the introduction of other articles of a kindred nature, such as the brown and yellow ware, manufactured at East Liverpool, Ohio, glassware from Pittsburgh and New York, and fire-brick and fire-clay. The position of Cleveland renders it the natural distributing point for those wares, and the extensive facilities possessed by Mr. Abbey, and his long experience in the business, place the monopoly of the trade in his hands. That nothing but good has grown out of this virtual monopoly, is seen in the fact that the business is steadily increasing, that no dissatisfaction is expressed by the customers, and that no litigations have taken place during the long business career of the house, extending over a hundred years in Cleveland. During the last six years the firm has had some interest in vessels on the lakes, and these interests have been carefully watched by Mr. Abbey, who has entire control. It will be rightly inferred from what has already been said, that Mr. Abbey has achieved success in business. That success is due to no lucky accident or extraneous circumstances, but is the natural result of devoted attachment to business, keen insight, and a determination to follow, as far as practicable, the golden rule of doing as you would be done by, and of a desire to avoid all misunderstandings. If there be one business faculty more than another, prominent in Mr. Abbey, it is that of ability to do a large business, on a small capital; having, like nearly all of our merchants, commenced business with nothing that his own hands had not earned, and passing through all the trials incident to mercantile life in a young country, he has become an excellent financier. Naturally of a genial temperament, and inclined to look on the bright side of things, he glides over reverses and difficulties easier than some people, yet he has always keenly felt, and often deplored, the want of such early advantages as children of the present day possess.