Abraham Lincoln Nebel 
Abraham Lincoln Nebel Abraham Lincoln Nebel (1891-1971), Collector, was borne in Zanesville, Ohio, the son of Benjamin and Rose Nebel, as one of seven children. His
family, Jewish immigrants, left Austro-Hungary several years earlier to settle in the United States. In 1892 the family moved
to Shawnee, Ohio, where Benjamin Nebel established a general merchandizing store. In 1900, seeking better economic opportunities,
the family moved to Cleveland. Financial success, however, eluded Nebel's father and at the age of 15, young Nebel quit school
to contribute to the support of his family. With the help of his brother Emmanuel, they formed the Commonwealth Oil Company,
the first chain of gas stations in Cleveland. In 1915 the gas company was sold, and Abraham Nebel established the Nebel Manufacturing Company.
Although he never graduated from high school, Nebel involved himself in scholarly activities. His interest in his Jewish heritage inspired him to devote much of his spare time to collecting material relating to the history of the Jewish community in the greater Cleveland, Ohio area.
Abraham Nebel was an amateur historian whose interest in the Jewish community was prompted by a desire to learn more about his wife's family,
the Richard's, who had been living in Cleveland for several generations. As his research progressed on the Richard family,
Nebel began acquiring material on other prominent Jewish families. By 1948, he was avidly collecting material on families
with the following surnames: Peixotto, Seixas, Kalisch, and Cohen. His collecting eventually expanded to include the records
of well known Jewish businesses and of several of the early synagogues. Nebel hoped that his research would result in a publication
that would document the political, economic, and cultural contributions of the Jewish community in the Western Reserve. Unfortunately,
the book was not written during Nebel's lifetime, but Nebel's research notes provide much historical information about the
Jewish community in Northern Ohio.