Thomas L. Lentz, Municipal Historian

Abel Buell

One of the most interesting and creative persons in Killingworth’s history is Abel Buell (1742–1822). He was born in Killingworth and became a goldsmith, silversmith, jewelry designer, engraver, surveyor, printer, type manufacturer, mint master, textile miller, and counterfeiter.

In 1755, Buell was apprenticed to master silversmith and future brother-in-law, Ebenezer Chittenden, in East Guilford (Madison). He married Mary Chittenden in 1761. In 1762, he worked as a goldsmith in Killingworth. Buell gained notoriety in 1764 at age 22 as a counterfeiter by altering engraving plates for five shilling notes to plates for five pound notes. Caught in this act of counterfeiting, he was sentenced to the mandatory punishment of imprisonment, cropping, and branding, though his prosecutor, Matthew Griswold, was lenient. Only the tip of Buell's ear was cropped off and it was held on his tongue to keep it warm until it was put back on his ear. He was branded on the forehead as high as possible. This was usually done by a hot iron, in the form of a letter designating the crime. In 1765, Buell received a patent for a lapidary machine to cut and polish gems, making him the first Connecticut resident to receive a patent. After creating a ring on the machine and presenting it to the prosecutor, Buell's counterfeiting sentence was pardoned.

In 1770, Buell moved to New Haven and went to work for cartographer Bernard Romans. He ran a type foundry and cast his own typeset, the first in America. He fled to Florida for a time because of mishandling of funds and debts. In 1784, Buell published A New and correct Map of the United States of North America Layd down from the latest Observations and best Authorities agreeable to the Peace of 1783. It was the first map of the new United States created by an American. The wall map measured 43 x 48inches, was printed in four sections, and colored with hand-applied watercolor. After the American Revolutionary War ended, Buell used a minting machine that he had invented to mint the State of Connecticut's first official copper coins. Connecticut coppers were struck from 1785 to 1788 by Buell. Buell engraved the dies for the Connecticut copper coinage as well as the dies for the Fugio cents, the United State’s first coinage. In 1789, Buell went to England on behalf of a group of investors to steal the secrets of cotton manufacturing from the British and bring that knowledge back to America. While there, he gained both practical knowledge and a sum of money that allowed him, upon his return, to establish one of Connecticut's first cotton mills. In 1799, Buell joined with David Greenleaf to fashion some of the first steel swords manufactured specifically for the U.S. government. These swords were later used in the War of 1812 and were in service through the U.S. Civil War.

Squandering or giving away all the money he earned, Buell died in 1822 at the New Haven Almshouse.

Abel Buell’s hallmark on a silver spoon owned by the Historical Society