Gesner, Abraham

  • DICTIONARY OF CANADIAN BIOGRAPHY ARTICLE: Loris S. Russell, “GESNER, ABRAHAM,” in Dictionary of Canadian Biography, vol. 9, University of Toronto/Université Laval, 2003–. https://www.biographi.ca/en/bio/gesner_abraham_9E.html
  • DCB profile notes:
    • Physician and surgeon, geologist, and inventor; b. 2 May 1797 in Cornwallis Township, N.S., third son of Colonel Henry Gesner and Sarah Pineo; d. 29 April 1864 at Halifax, N.S.
    • The Gesner family was of German origin. About the middle of the 18th century Abraham’s grandfather, Nicholas Gesner, came from the Netherlands and settled in the Hudson valley near Tappantown (Tappan, N.Y.). When the American revolution broke out he had a large and prosperous farm, but being of loyal sentiments he was dispossessed by the insurgents. His twin sons, Abraham and Henry, 16 years of age, joined the loyalist forces, fought throughout the war, and then came to Nova Scotia. Their land grant in New Brunswick proved unsuitable for farming, and they remained in Nova Scotia, purchasing, in 1785, a small farm in Cornwallis Township, Kings County. There Henry married Sarah Pineo, daughter of an Acadian family. In 1807 and again in 1812 Abraham Sr and Henry petitioned for a grant of land in the Annapolis valley, and the former was awarded 500 acres in Wilmot Township. Meanwhile the brothers had purchased a large farm near Chipman Corner, about three miles northeast of Kentville. 
    • Gesner settled in Parrsboro, on the north side of Minas Basin, and began to practise medicine. He deliberately chose Parrsboro because it lies in an area rich in mineral occurrences and curious geological features. As he made his visits to patients, either on foot or on horseback, he recorded observations and gathered specimens. Soon he had a representative collection and a fund of knowledge, not only of the local area, but also of Cape Blomidon across the basin and of the Chignecto shore north to Joggins. He acquired such geological books as were available, and was especially impressed with a paper on the geology and mineralogy of Nova Scotia written by Charles Thomas Jackson and Francis Alger of Boston. Using this as his model, Gesner, in 1836, wrote his first book, Remarks on the geology and mineralogy of Nova Scotia (Halifax).
    • For a time he stayed in Brooklyn, practising medicine and writing a book that would have been a claim to fame in itself. This was entitled A practical treatise on coal, petroleum, and other distilled oils (1861). In this modest volume Gesner outlined the history of natural hydrocarbons, described the various source materials for distillates, and gave highly practical accounts of how to build and operate a hydrocarbon refining factory. This work, and its second edition completed in 1865 by George Weltden Gesner, became the textbook for petroleum refining and was translated into several other languages. But Abraham Gesner derived little profit from it.
    • Abraham Gesner was a man who believed that science was good, and that through technology it could make a better world in which to live. This philosophy, together with his religion, enabled him to meet his many disappointments without self-pity, and to pick up the pieces and go on to the next project with undiminished enthusiasm. If he could come back today and see the great aircraft now propelled over continents and oceans by his kerosene, he would be delighted but not surprised.
  • Son of Proven Loyalist listed in Loyalist Directory –https://uelac.ca/loyalist-directory/detail/?wpda_search_column_id=3144
  • Find a GRAVE: https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/8895690/abraham-pineo-gesner