Abraham Okie

ABRAHAM OKIE, son of Abraham Okie and Elizabeth Penier was bp 11 December 1784 at N.Y.D.C. He died 30 November 1836 in Philadelphia ae 51.11.19 having been born 6 December 1784 according to his baptismal record.

Philadelphia Board of Health Records 1834-1837 (at Pa. Gen. Soc.): “Abraham Okie 53 years - consumption. W. Smale, M.D." Poulson's Daily Advertiser (Phi1a.) for 1 Dec. 1836: "Died yesterday Abraham Okie, Esq. late President of the Western Bank in the 53rd year of his age. Funeral from his residence 329 North 6th Street.”

Abraham Okie's marriage was performed by a Justice of the Peace and reported as follows: “ 8 February 1813. Married at Mansfield, N. J. on the 21st ult. by Samuel J. Read, Esq., Mr. Abraham Okie, merchant of Philadelphia to Miss Abigail Brognard, daughter of Dr. John Brognard of the former place.” (The True American, 8 Fe. 1813 on file in N.J. State Library Archives Room, Trenton, N.J.)

(Note of the copyist: The previous data corresponds to the marriage before the Justice of Peace, though in his own Family Bible, he recorded his religious marriage date, this is January 21st, 1813).

Abraham Okie appears first in Philadelphia Directories in 1806 when he is listed as Abraham Okie & Co., merchants, 67 High Street. He was then 22 years of age and his father had been dead for three years. Searches in N.Y., Conn., Delaware, Pennsylvania and N.J. have failed to account for him between 1803 and 1806.

He continued in Philadelphia as a merchant until 1813 when his company is listed as Okie and Brognard. He had apparently taken into partnership one of his wife's brothers, probably Joseph, since Abraham Okie and Joseph Brognard in 1813 purchased a building and a lot from Isabella Morrison Kennedy near the Okie store on Front Street. (Philadelphia City and County Records.) Abraham seems to have been a land speculator for there are on record a number of purchases and sales of land in his name and his wife's name. This was during the period when some of the choice land seized from the Loyalists was being offered for sale.

In 1831 Abraham moved from 83 High Street to 171 South 5 Street, became president of' the Western Bank in 1833, but continued his dry goods business with his son, John Brognard Okie, whom he took into partnership in 1835. (Phila. Directories ). (Joseph Brognard who had been listed separately in the Directories, but as a merchant at the same address as the Okie stores, 83 High Street, dissapears from the listing in 1822) [handwritten note: (He died April 15, 1822, age 36)]

Abraham was a prosperous and careful man as is evidenced by his will dated 24 November 1836, but in it he left a statement which thus far has yielded to no proof: he left a legacy “to my sister Lydia Van Dyke." of $ 300 plus wearing apparel. That there must have been such a person is proved only by the fact the accounts of the estate filed in Orphans Court Records, Philadelphia, Pa. Book 40 # 69 p 452 and dated December 1846 note that Lydia Van Dyke received payments on her inheritance 6 Feb. 1837 $ 60; 1 Nov. 1837 $111 and waring apparel worth $ 100; 31 Dec. 1836 balance of legacy plus interest e $250.

Under the terms of Abraham’s will he ordered the partnership with his son dissolved, his brother-in-law John Smith Brognard, attorney, to be consulted; his sons A. Howard and Edwin to be under the guardianship of their older brother John Brognard Okie until they reached age 21, but he appointed Girard Life Insurance and Annuity and Trust Company guardians of his daughter Caroline’s share of the estate until she was 21, when it should be transferred to the Care of John Brognard Okie. John Smith Brognard and John Brognard Okie were executors. The latter survived his uncle and the accounts of settlement made when Caroline reached age 21 in 1846 are rendered by her brother. It is from these that we learn many more details of Abraham:

He held a good-sized portfolio of stocks in banks, fire insurance companies and loan companies. He had owned a pew in the Unitarian Church of Philadelphia which was sold in 1840 for $220, but the estate continued to pay rent on a pew in the same church at the rate of $ 74.50 a year. Cash $ 3.75 was paid 2 January 1837 to Black Boy, "decedents servant". Mary Herd Brognard, Abraham’s mother-in-law whom he had mentioned in his will for her many kindnesses to him, received regular but varying payments "a/c of note" and finally on 28 November 1837 she received payment in full for principal and interest on the note, followed on 1 December 1837 by her "annual legacy due this day, $ 300". Remembering the name of the administrator of the estate of Abraham's father, Abraham5, it is startling to see it appear again on these accounts: "10 May 1837 C. J. De la Croix $1,000 and balance $ 840.51.” One wonders if this is part of the termination of Clement Joseph Dela Croix's responsibility for his father-in-law's estate of 34 years previous or whether the families had continued all this time to be so closely allied that Abraham6 had borrowed money from his brother-in-law.

The sale of stocks with divisions to each of Abraham’s sons went on from 1842 to 1846. Then, very near the end of the accounting is one item which needs clarifying: “May 1846, Edwin Okie, share of expenses of removing body to Laurel Hill, $36.25. From the records of the Unitarian Church of Philadelphia: "Abraham Okie, upwards of 50years, was buried in the churchyard. Body removed before 1846 to Laurel Hill". The cemetery record states the body was moved 29 April 1851 to Lot 124, Section M owned by John Brognard Okie.

Issue: from Bible record:
i. John Brognard Okie b December 1813
ii. Mary Brognard Okie b 8 July 1815 d. ae 16.8.28
iii. Edwin Okie b. 9 Aug. 1817
iv. A. Howard Okie b. 30 December 1819
v. Jackson Okie b. 29 August 1821; d. 14 September 1823 ae 1.10.16
vi. Caroline b. 8 June 1825

Source: Untitled lineage of Aucke Janz van Nuys (C. 1621-1698), unknown author, privately printed circa 1950, transcribed by Eligio Gael Rodriguez, May 2016.

"Abraham Okie, husband of Abigail Okie died on Wednesday morning at half past ten o’clock Nov 30th 1836 Aged 51 Years 11 months 24 days".

Source: Records accounted in Family Bible of Abraham Okie (1784-1836)

Merchant, Unitarian, Bank President, founder of Girard Life Insurance Co., later Girard Trust Company

Birth: Dec. 6, 1784 New York New York County New York, USA Death: Nov. 30, 1836 Philadelphia Philadelphia County Pennsylvania, USA

Family links:

Children:

 Edwin Okie (1817 - ____)*

*Calculated relationship

Note: Buried first in Churchyard of Unitarian Church, Pennsylvania, PA, removed to Laurel Hill interred 29 April 1851

Burial: Laurel Hill Cemetery Philadelphia Philadelphia County Pennsylvania, USA Plot: Section M, Lot 124