Today is the birthday of Abram (sometimes spelled Abraham) Nash (November 13, 1783-September 1871). He was born in Ridgefield, Connecticut, and in 1817 he started a successful ale brewery in Troy, New York. Beginning around 1846, Nash employed his son-in-law, Ebenezer Beadleston to establish a branch office in Manhattan, but in 1865 sold the Troy brewery to James Daley and John Stanton and concentrated on their booming New York business. After Abram Nash died in 1871, the brewery he founded in Troy (later known as the John Stanton Brewery) thrived for almost 80 more years, surviving Prohibition before finally closing in 1950.

In 1806, he married Sarah Sally Benedict of New Haven, Connecticut, and they had five children, two sons and three daughters. Both of his sons, Alfred (the oldest) and John (the youngest) and went into the business with their father, probably beginning in 1836 when the business name was changed to A. Nash & Son.