John Dabney arrived in Horta towards the end of 1808 with the mission of serving as the first consul in the Azores of the young republic of the United States of America. A far-sighted business man. he soon set up store houses that attracted ships to Horta to put on fresh provisions and repair rigging and hulls, Outstanding among these ships were the whalers that would stay there for a month to rest their crews and unload whale oil. John Dabney, and later his heirs, also engaged in the export of Pico wine (then very famous) and oranges; the latter were then an exotic fruit in the United States, and thousands of cases of them were sent there every year in specially chartered ships.
The destruction of the vineyards and orange orchards by blights in the second half of the l9th century resulted in a sharp drop in the volume of business which led the Dabney family to leave Horta and therefore the Azores in 1892. Traces of their stay in Horta can still be seen in the town houses Fredónia and The Cedars and the charming villa called Bagatelle, as well as the former storehouses situated on the isthmus connecting Monte Oueimado and Monte Guia at Porto Pim.
The destruction of the vineyards and orange orchards by blights in the second half of the l9th century resulted in a sharp drop in the volume of business which led the Dabney family to leave Horta and therefore the Azores in 1892. Traces of their stay in Horta can still be seen in the town houses Fredónia and The Cedars and the charming villa called Bagatelle, as well as the former storehouses situated on the isthmus connecting Monte Oueimado and Monte Guia at Porto Pim.
3 comments:
Some of your information about the Dabneys is not completely correct, although I am glad that you are mentioning them. I wrote a book: On the Edge of History, a biography about the Dabney family on Faial. It was well accepted by the members of the family that I know and some historians. If you are interested in the book, please contact me, and it is available from Amazon.
Please continue writing about the Dabneys since I think not enough people know about them.
Joe
I am very interested in learning more about my families root their history. Could you tell more? my email is Justin5861@hotmail.com My name is Justin M. Dabney
Where can I find out information of any illegitimate children born of any Dabney daughters around the 1860's. I was told that my great grandmother was given to a made in the Dabney household to raise as her own. In my genealogy research she is my brick wall. Her family that raised her was from Cedros Faial, Azores. I know the Dabneys helped some of the locals in hard times and included adopting out some of the local children. I have taken a dna test but have not come across any connections to any Dabneys.
Post a Comment