Quite Possibly the finest gunmaker to work in the state, George T. Abbey was born in England in about 1823. He came to Illinois from New York State, having worked in Utica, Oneida County, New York, from as early as 1840. In Utica he worked with his brother, Robert Abbey, until Robert left Utica and moved to the town of Albion, Oswego county, New York in about 1848. George remained in Utica with a shop at 6 Catherine Street, from 1849 until 1851 when he left for the "West".
George T. Abbey's name first appears in Chicago Directories in 1852, with a shop at 220 Lake Street, home at 152 State Street. It is believed that he bought out the shop of Peacock & Thatcher who were Chicago's earliest prominent gunsmiths. His shop address remains 220 Lake Street in the ILLINOIS & MISSOURI STATE DIRECTORY, (Montague) 1854-55 and in the Chicago Directory for 1855-56. By 1860 his shop had been moved to 186 Lake Street and his home to 156 State Street.
In 1860 census lists him to the second ward, Chicago, as a gunsmith, age 37, born in England. His real estate and personal estate were each valued at $10,000, attesting to the extent and success of his business....
George T. Abbey produced a quantity of percussion rifles and shotguns, as well as fine quality breech loading shotguns employing his patent of March 16, 1869 (Pat. #87,184). His percussion rifles range from very plain, though well fitted, halfstock rifles to fine heavy target rifles and nearly always stocked in walnut. A walnut buttstock of .50 caliber, with full brash patchbox has been reported. He also produced a number of side-by-side percussion double rifles.
His plain, cheaper guns would compare with the products of the average gunsmiths of his time, but his better pieces are of a quality which compare well with even the finest English guns of the day. Some of the finest examples of his work are shotguns, both percussion and breechloading, and are sometimes cased. One of the breechloading shotguns was entered in the Chicago Gun Trial of 1874. He is listed in Chicago Directories through 1874 but is not found thereafter.
