William Henry Low (1795 – March 22, 1834) was an American entrepreneur, businessman and trader from Salem, Massachusetts, who was one of the American pioneers of the Old China Trade. In 1828, having settled in Canton, China,
 
Low was admitted as a partner of the Russell & Co. trading company, as a replacement chosen by founding partner Philip Ammidon.
 

Senior partner of the firm, he retired in 1833 after having recruited his nephew, Abiel Abbot Low, and died in the Cape of Good Hope the following year; while returning home in the company of his wife and niece.

A.A. Low of A.A. Low & Brothers; also a Trustee of the Central Trust

Abiel Abbott Low had been in Canton for seven years serving with the merchant firm of Russell & Company. One Low brother after another followed him to Canton to work for the same firm. Abbott had made his fortune by 1840 and returned to New York the following year and continued to conduct his business in New York and established the family firm of A. A. Low & Bros.

Some recollections by Captain Charles P. Low, commending the clipper ships ...By Charles Porter Low

Text

Some Recollected lions BY Captain Charles P. Low
Commanding the Clipper Ships "Houqua," "Jacob Bell," "Samuel Russell," and "N. B. Palmer," in the China Trade 1847-1873

Copyright By FRANCES LOW PARTRIDGE 1905

Abiel Abbot Low (1812-1893), was born in Salem, Mass. His uncle, Capt. William Henry Low, was admitted as a partner of Russell & Co. in 1828, as a replacement chosen by founding partner Philip Ammidon. (Samuel Wadsworth Russell House, US National Parks Service.) William H. Low retired in 1833 and died at the Cape of Good Hope on his way home; A.A. Low became a partner of Russell & Company from 1837 to 1839.

Based on an interview with his son, Seth Low. "All the foreign houses at Canton engaged in the opium trade. The Chinese officials winked at the traffic and squeezed a large revenue from it. Whether it was reprehensible or not, no merchant at Canton could afford to refrain from handling the drug," which came mainly from India. (New England Fortunes Made In China Through the House of Russell & Co. The Boston Globe, Jun. 28, 1908.) "Some time before attaining his majority he left school and became a clerk for Joseph Howard & Co. of Salem, a mercantile house engaged in the South American trade."

taking over the family business . . . the drug trafficking business

The Drug Hustling Business Gets Passed Down By These Pirates from one Generation to the Next

When his father, Seth Low, came to Brooklyn in 1829, Abiel accompanied him, and assisted him in his business as a drug merchant. "An uncle, William Henry Low, was a partner in the firm of Russell & Co., then the largest American house in China. He offered his nephew a position there. Young Low accepted eagerly, and in 1833 he sailed for Canton. He was promoted rapidly, and four years later became a member of the firm."

In 1840, he returned to New York City and established the firm of A.A. Low & Brothers. In 1846, his brother Josiah O. Low became a partner; and his brother-in-law, Edward H.R. Lyman, in 1882. He was a member of the New York City Chamber of Commerce since 1846. His first wife, Ellen Almira, was the daughter of Josiah Dow, who died in 1850. In 1850, he married his brother William Henry Low's widow, Anna Davison Bedell, and adopted their son, William Gilman Low. Abiel Abbott Low's son, Seth Low, was the President of Columbia College. (Abiel Abbot Low Is Dead. New York Times, Jan. 8, 1893.)

In 1852, A.A. Low was a director of the Atlantic Mutual Insurance Co., along with George Peabody's old partner, Elisha Riggs; while Josiah O. Low was a director of the Astor Mutual Insurance Co. (Insurance. New York Daily Times, Feb. 13, 1852.) He was a director of the Continental Insurance Company in 1861, along with fellow NYGIC directors Samuel D. Babcock and John Caswell, also Hiram Barney of the Butler law firm and George W. Lane of the Central Trust, and Robert H. McCurdy, the father of Richard A. McCurdy of the Guaranty Trust. (Ad 7. The Independent, Jan. 31, 1861;130(635):7.)

Low was a member of the New York Chamber of Commerce since 1846, its vice president from 1856 to 1863, and president from 1863 to 1866. John Austin Stevens, Samuel D. Babcock, and J. Pierpont Morgan were the committee for his memorial. (In Memory of A.A. Low. New York Times, Jan. 10, 1893.) Low and David Dows were trustees of the Union Trust Company. (Financial. New York Times, Aug. 1, 1866.)

His stepson, William Gilman Low, was an attorney for A.A. Low & Brothers. He prided himself on being the oldest depositor in the Guaranty Trust Company, as well as on never smoking, drinking, or driving a car. He was a director of the Fidelity and Casualty Company of New York, the Continental Insurance Company, the Franklin Trust Company of Brooklyn, the Old Dominion Land Company of Virginia, and the Home Life Insurance Company of New York. He was a senior trustee of the Brooklyn Hospital, and a founder of the Hospital Saturday and Sunday Association. (W.G. Low, 92, Dies; Brooklyn Lawyer. New York Times, Jun. 29, 1936.) He contributed $10,000 to the International Institute of China, founded by Rev. Gilbert Reid. (The International Institute of China. By Rev. Gilbert Reid. New York Observer and Chronicle, Oct. 13, 1910;89(15):461.)

His son, William Gilman Low Jr., graduated from Yale in 1897 and then Columbia Law School. He was in the firm of Parsons, Shepard & Ogden, then Dwight & Low. He was a vice president of the Trust Company of America and of William Morris Imbrie & Co., and a member of the executive committee and a director of the Home Life Insurance Company, a director of the Stonega Coal and Coke Company, the Bank of America and the Taylor Wharton Iron and Steel Company, and president, member of the executive committee, and a director of the Pan American Debenture Corporation. In World War I, he was a member of the executive committee of the War Work Council of the Y.M.C.A. "During the conflict he was liaison official between the Army General Staff Military Intelligence Division and the War Work Council and was associated with the council's relationship with Naval Intelligence." He was a captain in the Army Reserve. (William G. Low, 70, A Retired Lawyer. New York Times, Oct. 10, 1945; Obituary Record of Yale University Deceased During the Year 1945-1946, p. 44.)
Obituary Record of Graduates of Yale, 1945-1946 / Yale University Library (pdf, 268 pp)

the low family are a perfect example of the old money wealth, power, and connections that are the result of drug hustling

William G. Low's other son, Benjamin Robbins Curtis Low, Elihu 1902, attended Harvard Law School and was admitted to the bar in 1904. He was a partner of his classmates EthelbertIde Low and Charles D. Miller from 1923 to 1928, and general counsel of the Home Life Insurance Company from 1928 to 1941. Their mother was Lois Robbins Curtis, daughter of Justice Benjamin Robbins Curtis. (Obituary Record of Graduates of Yale University Deceased during the Year 1940-1941, p. 103.) One of his mother's sisters married his cousin Seth Low 2d, and another was the wife of Dr. Frederick Prime.

Obituary Record of Graduates of Yale, 1940-1941 / Yale University Library (pdf, 290 pp)

Abiel Abbott Low's son, Abbott Augustus Low (~1843-1912) was with A.A. Low Brothers. Four children survived him: J.C. Low of Albany, A.A. Low Jr. of Manhattan, Seth Low 2d of Brooklyn, and Mrs. William Raymond. (Abbott Augustus Low Dies. New York Times, Sep. 26, 1912.) His wife, Marian W. Low, was the daughter of George Cabot Ward, a founder of S.G. and G.C. Ward, and Ward, Campbell & Co., the U.S. agents for Baring Brothers & Co., also a charter member of the Union League Club, and a longtime Governor of the New York Hospital. Mrs. Low's brother, Samuel Gray Ward Jr., was with Kidder, Peabody & Co., which became Baring's agent. (An Old Firm Retiring. New York Times, Dec. 1, 1885; Death of George Cabot Ward. New York Times, May 5, 1887.) Her uncle, Samuel Gray Ward Sr., was the auditor of Porto Rico.
Thomas Wren Ward Papers - Massachusetts Historical Society / Yahoo Cache

isn't it disgusting when drug pushers and their families become "high society"?  especially when our society chooses to accept this without questioning it.

The marriage of their daughter Marian Ward Low to William Raymond was heralded as "the most important wedding of the Brooklyn social season." William Raymond was a younger brother of Mrs. Daniel Chauncey [Caroline Raymond] and a brother-in-law of Mrs. Samuel Sloan Chauncey, "for the past few years, one of the most striking figures in the American colony in London." (A Fashionable Wedding in an Unfashionable Church. Town & Country Life, Nov. 17, 1906.) Mr. and Mrs. Grant Watson of the British Embassy traveled from Washington to attend. (Social and Personal. Washington Post, Nov. 27, 1906.) But the event was announced in only six lines. (Married. New York Times, Nov. 28, 1906.) William Raymond was a broker, the son of James and Henrietta K. Raymond. (Obituary Notes. New York Times, Nov. 12, 1909.) William Raymond Jr. was a partner of the stock brokerage firm of Chauncey & Company, 120 Broadway. He graduated from Princeton in 1930. (William Raymond Jr. New York Times, Aug. 5, 1976.)

The Daniel Chaunceys' daughter Grace married Samuel D. Babcock's grandson, Woodward Babcock. (Married. New York Times, Apr. 22, 1903.) Henry D. Babcock was the best man at William Raymond Jr.'s wedding. (Miss Molly Shonk Becomes Bride. New York Times, Sep. 8, 1933.)

Abbott Augustus Low Jr. married Elizabeth Stewart Claflin. Her father, John Claflin, was head of the United Dry Goods Company. He was a member of Wolf's Head, 1911. (Miss Claflin to Wed A.A. Low, Jr. New York Times, Nov. 8, 1911; Miss E.S. Claflin's Wedding A Surprise. New York Times, Aug. 23, 1912.) They were divorced ten years later. (Mrs. A.A. Low Gets Divorce. New York Times, Feb. 12, 1922.)

George Cabot Ward Low married Dorothea Douglas, the daughter of ex-Sen. Curtis N. Douglas. Spencer Turner, S&B 1906, was an usher. (George C.W. Low Weds Miss Douglas. New York Times, Nov. 12, 1911.) They were divorced in 1926. Her sister married P.A.B. Widener. (Mrs. G.C.W. Low Divorced. New York Times, Nov. 16, 1926.)

Seth Low married Anna Curtis of Boston, a daughter of U.S. Supreme Court Judge Benjamin Robbins Curtis, who dissented in the Dred Scott case. (Wife of Mayor-Elect Seth Low. Boston Daily Globe, Nov. 13, 1901.) One of his wife's sisters married his cousin William Gilman Low, and another was the wife of Dr. Frederick Prime.

Abiel Abbott Low's brother, Edward Allen Low (1817-1898) was born in Salem, Mass. and came to Brooklyn with his parents in 1829. He went to Mississippi when he was 18, and in the early 1840s he was in China with Russell & Co. Since about 1880, he was Secretary and Treasurer of the Low-Moore Iron Company of Virginia. He organized the Unitarian Church of the Saviors, and was its treasurer for 40 years. (Death List of a Day. New York Times, Nov. 21, 1898.)

http://www.smokershistory.com/indemnit.htm#A.A._Low