Abdiel Crossman (1804-13 June 1859) was the Whig Mayor of New Orleans from 11 May 1846 to 26 March 1854, succeeding Joseph Edgard Montegut and preceding John L. Lewis.
Biography[]
Abdiel Crossman was born in Greene, Maine in 1804, and he traveled to Philadelphia and then to New Orleans in 1829 in search of business opportunities. Crossman became a successful merchant on Canal Street before entering the world of banking and benevolent societies, and he served in the State House from 1845 to 1846. Crossman reduced expenditures and increased revenues to increase the city's credit rating, and this reputation for administrative skill resulted in his election as Mayor from 1846 to 1854. He won the support of the old quarter of town, and he oversaw the city's service as America's chief military depot during the Mexican-American War, oversaw the city's recovery from a major flood in 1849, allowed for an anti-Spanish riot to consume the city in 1851 in response to Narciso Lopez's execution in Cuba, created a new city charter in 1852, and promoted railroad links between New Orleans and the rest of the country. He died in 1859.