Anthony Abbing: A Revisit
American born third class stories Pt. 3
For the Titanic sinking anniversary (April 14-15), I would like to share some additional information I was able to find about American born passenger Anthony (Tony) Abbing, who I wrote about in my first Silent Sod post about a year ago (April 11, 2024). I would suggest reading this prior post if you haven’t already or need to refresh on the information about him as I will expand on what I have already written.
A Responsible Young Man
Tony, born in 1870, was the oldest of six children of German immigrants Gerhard and Catharina Abbing. On a personal note, I was drawn to Tony’s story because his origins were similar to my ancestors. His family was from a neighborhood in Cincinnati called St. Bernard. Many people (including my family) who have lived in this neighborhood and those nearby, are of a similar background to Tony’s family and attended Catholic churches like St. Clement, where Tony’s memorial service was held. I would not be too surprised if my ancestors at some point might have crossed paths with his family, though I cannot be certain of that. But knowing the close knit community that I grew up around in this area, I can imagine he and his family were most likely people of strong faith. Though we don’t know Tony’s final whereabouts during the sinking, I would not be surprised if at some point he joined other Catholic passengers and clergy in prayer and saying the Rosary.
Tony’s father died soon after the birth of the couple’s sixth child. Anthony would have been young at the time, but being the eldest son, he became responsible for his siblings and supported his mother, who worked as a wash woman, by taking up the blacksmith trade, which is what eventually led him to South Africa. I cannot say this is for certain, but I could understand if the reason that Abbing, who was almost 42 at the time of the sinking, never married was that he felt responsible for the welfare of his mother and siblings and chose to devote his life to ensuring their financial stability.1
Tony the Well-Known Wrestler
I thought it would be neat to do a deeper dive into Tony’s wrestling career in Cincinnati, Ohio. Today, I will share a few of the accounts related to his wrestling career that I found. These clips appeared in The Cincinnati Enquirer between 1892 and 1896:
"Tony Abbing, the well-known heavy-weight wrestler of the Trio Club, called at The Enquirer office last night and issued a challenge to wrestle anybody in the state Graeco-Roman for from $50 to $300 a side, barring Tom McInerney and Charlie Wittmer. He would like to hear from somebody."2
"Tony Abbing does not hold any championship, but next to Wittmer he is by far the best heavy-weight wrestler in the city at Graeco-Roman style. He is not yet 19 years of age, and if he keeps on improving as he has in the last year the champions will have to look to their laurels. Abbing, Lanium and Kindt are members of the Trio Athletic Club. They constitute the sole membership of this organization, and take a great interest in athletic work. All of them are hard working boys, and will have nothing to do with a match that is not strictly on its merit."3
"What with 'Denver' Smith, Kid McCoy, Tony Abbing and Bob Carlos in Johannesburg, Cincinnati has quite a liberal representation in South African athletic circles."4
A Visit to the People’s Theater
In a few of the accounts of Tony’s matches, it was mentioned that he wrestled at a place called the People’s Theater, a venue that closed in 1926 and was located on the corner of Vine and West 13th Streets in downtown Cincinnati. Today, the only part of structure left is the front lobby of the building as the auditorium was torn down. This existing portion of the building is now a pizza place. We recently visited this restaurant, and I was amazed by the ceiling in the building. Though I cannot be certain it looked exactly the same, the ceiling seemed like it fit the times that Abbing would have been at the People’s Theater. I could imagine him walking through the lobby, preparing for an exhilarating match.
A Final Visit to his Roots
Prior to his voyage on the Titanic, Abbing was able to spend a few days in the area of Germany that his parents lived in, Munsterland, and visit relatives there. He was able to stay in a red brick house that his father grew up in, with his father’s family living upstairs. The area that his parents had grown up in had become more successful economically since they left for America. He had a leather bag with him which he later checked in on the Titanic. According to descendants in Munsterland, Abbing had gold nuggets in the leather bag, which he was taking home to provide support to his mother and siblings. They said he had also provided this support at other times prior to the Titanic disaster.5
A Wrestling Tribute
Last year when I was reading news articles about Abbing from 1912 after the sinking of the Titanic, I found it surprising that none of them mentioned his wrestling career. However, over the past year, I found a write up in the sports section of the newspaper that spoke of him from the sport worlds’ point of view.
"The death of Tony Abbing, a Cincinnati man, on the Titanic, was made known in this city last week, and caused much sorrow among his friends. Abbing was an athlete and well known in wrestling circles. He was a trainer of Charley Wittmer for several years and appeared at local clubs on numerous occasions when the wrestling game was good. Abbing left the city for Johannesburg, South Africa, in June 1898, with Bob Carlos, also well known in local wrestling circles. He came back to the Queen City 11 years ago, but returned after a visit to his folks. Abbing is supposed to have considerable money on his person when he drowned. He was coming home to attend a family reunion, and the news of his death was not made known until after considerable correspondence with the steamship people. He was to have made the voyage on the steamship Philadelphia, but missed connections and took the ill-fated Titanic. Abbing was 42 years of age and single. His mother resides in St. Bernard. Two young boxers from Wales bound for Pittsburgh were also lost on the same boat."6
Everything I have found about Abbing so far seems to consistently state that he intended to sail on the steamship Philadelphia, whose Western voyage was cancelled due to a coal strike, and that he had something of value with him that must have gone down in the sinking.
A special thanks to my friend George Behe for providing me with some additional information to tell more of Tony’s story. In next week’s post, we will discuss the experience of an American born female passenger aboard the Titanic rescue ship, the Carpathia.
Anthony Abbing, The Alpha Passenger, Phil Gowan.
"Abbing's Challenge" The Cincinnati Enquirer, December 11, 1892
From a section titled "Sport", The Cincinnati Enquirer, February 19, 1893
From a section titled "Match", The Cincinnati Enquirer, December 22, 1896
"Comment on Various Branches of Sport" The Cincinnati Enquirer, June 2, 1912
I think it's interesting that Roeber's wrestling company was described as vaudeville and an athletic association. I wonder if their shows incorporated acts other than wrestling. Or if the wrestling was more WWE entertainment style wrestling versus like Olympic competition. Like you mentioned in your first post this month, learning about the Titanic leads to so many more questions about what things were going on in the time period.
Charlotte the photos of what is left of The People’s Theater are fantastic! I felt the same as you did looking at those ceilings!
Your unboxing the individual lives of third class passengers who were on board Titanic is just brilliant.
I enjoyed this read so much!