John Bass Dabney was born in 1767 in Boston, a few years before the proclamation of independence of the United States. Born in a family of merchants, he was 17 years old when his father died.
So begins the story of an American family in Faial, whose presence, throughout the 19th century, indelibly marked the dinamics of the commercial, economic and social relations of the Azores, and Faial Island in particular, with both sides of the Atlantic.
As a visionary businessperson, Jonh Bass Dabney created several warehouses in Horta city, attracting, to this Island, big ships crossing the North Atlantic in order to load fresh provisions and to do repairs. Among them also came the boats from the East Coast of the United States, dedicated to whale haunting and that found here the perfect place for its crews to rest.
From the Horta bay was exported wine, coming from Pico Island, oranges, limes, tangerines and products from the whale hunting, which was developed by the Dabney family, mostly to the United States, Europe and Baltic, and even reaching India and Macao.
Until the departure of the Dabney, in 1982, as a result of the destruction of their vineyards and orange groves by diseases in the second half of the 19th century, the family left its mark/symbol/stamp, not only in the livings but also in the Horta city’s architecture, as it is visible on some of the properties that persisted to this day, such as Fredonia, Cedars House, Bagatelle or the house next to the Porto Pim beach.
This family, who lived on this Island for three generations, for 86 years was responsible for a season of prosperity and political influence as it has not been witnessed again.
He then decided to leave for Alexandria, in Virginia and establish a business to export American products to Europe and import French wines. Despite the turmoil of the French Revolution, he decided to go to France in 1794, where he set up a new commercial establishment.
The political tensions between Great Britain and France, and the declaration of war between the two nations in 1803, led John Bass Dabney to relocate his family to the United States, to close the business and leave Bordeux definitively. On the return trip to his homeland, he stopped on Faial where he spent the winter of 1804.
The Portuguese neutrality in relation to the conflict, the geographic location of the island, in the middle Atlantic, the natural conditions of the Horta bay and the prospect of new businesses, especially from the wine produced on Pico island, led John Bass Dabney to consider the possibility of settling in Horta. In 1806 he returned to Faial with the title of first General Consul of the United States to the Azores.
