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Abraham Wing
Abraham Wing was born August 4, 1721, in Dartmouth, Province of Massachusetts. He was the son of Edward and Sarah (Tucker) Wing. He married Anstis Wood in 1740 or 1741. They moved to Oblong, Dutchess Co., N.Y., ca. 1744.
In June of 1762 Mr. Wing purchased several of the Queensbury Patent lots from the patentees for a nominal sum. He was granted as a free gift, a lot of 10 acres containing the valuable water privileges on the left bank of the river, in consideration of his erecting a grist mill and saw mill at that point. Mr. Wing, his dependents and laborers built three log houses in the fall of 1765. In the spring of 1766, their families moved into the houses. Mr. Wing's first farm was on the site of the present Glens Falls Home on Warren Street.
In May 1766, their first town meeting was held. Abraham Wing was elected supervisor of the town, a position to which he was reelected every year for many years." He was looked up to as the great man of the place, the merchant, the lawyer, the minister and the innkeeper." He and other settlers suffered great material losses during the Revolutionary War.
At a very early period, a log dwelling of considerable dimensions was erected on the corner of what is now Ridge and Warren Streets for the purpose of a store and inn. There was a well at this site used for the accommodation of early settlers. It furnished very clear, pure, cold water. Here, according to the Wing papers, hundreds of pounds worth of liquor of various kinds were brought from Albany, Montreal, and on one occasion from Nova Scotia. Here the Jessups, Hugh Munro, Capt. Bradshaw and the neighbors with but few exceptions, held high revel and ran up bar bills of lusty proportions. From the location of this tavern, the little settlement soon became known, in addition to its proper name of Queensbury patent, and its foster name of Wing's Falls, as Wing's Comers and finally as The Corners. Here too, according to the tradition of the Wing family, was held the entertainment and revel, which resulted in the loss of the children's birthright, the name of the place. The legend of the name change is as follows, Colonel Glen offered to pay the expenses of a wine supper for the entertainment of a party of mutual friends if Mr. Wing would consent to transfer his claim and title to the name of the falls.
Children of Abraham and Anstis Wing:
| Phebe | b. 3-5-1742 m. Nehemiah Merritt Jr. * |
| Sarah | b. 12-7-1745
m. Ichabod Merritt * Their son, Joseph was the first white child born in this town 12-17- 1766 |
| Hannah | b. 12-28-1745 m. Daniel Merritt * |
| Benjamin | b. 9-18-1748 m. Thankful Lockwood |
| Deborah | b. 7-6-1750 m. David Jones |
| Patience | b. 9-6-1751 m. Phineas Babcock |
| Content | b. 4-11-1755 m. Jacob Hicks |
| Abraham Jr. | b. 6-29-1757 m. Mary McKie |
| Mary | b. 11-9-1760 m. Andrew Lewis |
* The three Merritts were brothers
Abraham Wing died May 3, 1795. Anstis Wing died May 29,1807. Their remains, with those of many other of the first settlers here, repose in the little burial ground by the Half-way Brook, where the old Quaker church stood. They were buried without tablet or monument, as is the Quaker tradition.
Source: History of Queensbury, N.Y. by A.W. Holden