Cleveland Abbe - Early Life

Early Life

Cleveland Abbe was born in New York City, and grew up in the prosperous merchant family of George Waldo and Charlotte Colgate Abbe. One of his younger brothers, Robert, became a prominent surgeon and radiologist. In school, Cleveland excelled in mathematics and chemistry, and graduated in 1857 from the Free Academy in 1857. He then taught engineering for two years at the University of Michigan while at the same time studying astronomy under Franz Brunnow at the University. When the Civil War broke out, he tried to join the Union Army; however, he failed the vision test and spent the War years in Cambridge, Massachusetts, working as an assistant to Benjamin Gould (astronomer and head of Longitude Department of the United States Coast Survey). He then studied abroad in Russia and later returned to the U.S. eager to study astronomy. In 1868 he was hired by the Cincinnati Astronomical Society, but the organization lacked funding and he lost his job less than a year later. He then made the decision that would change his career path. Remembering that meteorological conditions directly affect the work of astronomers, he began working in the field of meteorology. He won approval to report on and predict the weather, working on the premise that forecasts could and should be generated at minimal expense and in such a way as to perhaps even produce income.