I would have liked to have voted two ways: in business matters and personally extremely frugal, but when it came to his family, he wasn't quite the miser. Besides Lizzie's trip, she got a sealskin cape; they had running water when it became available; and yes, they had Bridget. That's really interesting when you point out there were three other women in the house.
SallyG - "Without the bun"?
Really, tho, I didn't know crab cakes were served on a bun.
One woman I knew well who was loaded, her roots were growing up poor on a farm. She counted every penny. If someone gave her a gift and she didn't use it, she'd re-wrap it and give it to someone else. She should have never told me that. On every gift occassion I'd think '
Whose was this?" She was also very ruthless in business. She'd kick people out who missed their rent, then hurried over to the house and took all the stuff they left behind. She just loved it. The first store she owned - and she
told me this - she had a partner. The partner went down to Florida. And the store really took off. She wrote her partner and told her they were almost bankrupt, gave her her half of the money back, and made a mint. I think she was tight plus evil.
My parents grew up in the Depression, and my father was a supermarket fanatic. He would go to three different stores a week to pick up the best sale items. And then he would stock up like we were squirreling away nuts for the winter. He always loved to offer food and say "Have as much as you want". I very much agree that that came from the really tough times he had growing up.
Andrew came from Quaker roots, and Quakers were very simple folk. A few years back a Quaker cemetery was vandalized, and the newspaper said that the Quakers buried there had nothing written on their gravestones; it was their belief not to, they were that modest/simple.
I would love to know why Andrew stopped going to church as a Quaker. There was a Quaker meetinghouse in FR. I don't know if it was there exactly during Andrew's time, but I have an old postcard of it. Or did he ever go to a Quaker meeting?
I read that Andrew enjoyed amassing money. To me that makes sense, since he didn't seem to do much with it except invest in more money-making things.
In his talks with John Morse about his will, Andrew said he wanted to give a hunk of land (I don't remember money, but that may have been included, too) to an Old Ladies' Home. Seems like there's another charity he mentioned too. But he did want to leave a part of his wealth to a needy cause or two.
He looked severe - in his beard and black outdated clothing, going about town. The morning of the murders, some man said good morning to him. Andrew's response was, "Good morning to you." Simple; direct. I think he gave an overall impression of being one not easily approached. The kind of guy that scares little kids.
He belonged to no fraternal organizations of the day, which was unusual then in FR. I don't think he had a bunch of drinking buddies he went out with Friday nights.
The way he treated Dr. Bowen (it's a shame we know so little about Andrew), was rude. He did not seem to care what others thought. And that was obvious, too, by the house he remained in and not caring being seen picking up a busted lock. (Tho his picking that up was discussed on here earlier, and it came up that he might have wanted that lock for a good reason, which was because it was the old lock from the door and they might need it if they couldn't re-order that same kind if needed, or something like that.) Selling eggs out of his house, tho, seemed really cheap. I would have been embarrassed even if my father was not wealthy, but especially so if he was.
But his treatment of Dr. Bowen was him using his business side of him. He didn't call for an official house call, and by God he wasn't going to pay for it.
Was he a hard man at times, with his act of killing the pigeons? I don't think it's necessarily so. People in those days butchered animals. Chickens, probably, in their own back yards. I worked in an office once where there was a pigeon problem. They were gathering in flocks, perching on the building, and let's just say you better have had a hard hat on if you had to go outside. This one boss of mine, a really great guy, went upstairs one day and was catching pigeons and wringing their necks. Some of their heads came off! I was appalled. I made sure I stayed well downstairs and didn't go out until I heard the birds had been picked up.
Andrew sharing that there was trouble at home shows something human in him. It bothered him if he brought it up, and he told Pierre LeDuc about it. He asked Emma where she could be contacted if something happened the last time he saw her. And when Lizzie came home from her Grand Tour, he was really happy to see her!
The food, tho, is mind-boggling. Did he like his food left over because of his teeth? And mutton - not lamb. Mutton is an old lamb. It was cheap. It wasn't the same as a young, tender lamb. Lamb and mutton are not the same word. Serving it to everyone else seems uncaring to their palates. With as simply as Andrew lived, I would think he would allow himself at least the pleasure of good food. Maybe he liked mutton.
Remember the FR businessmen tipping their hats to his funeral procession. He was a highly respected businessman. He was known for his fairness and honesty. No one said he gave anything away, but he made square deals with people. Probably to the penny.
We are working with some clews here, and not a wealth of them. I hope that as time goes by and we keep researching, we'll find more about the characters of him, Abby and our past Fall River friends.
And "Abby was a fat, old mean thing." 
As if they weren't bashed enough.
I thought I could almost understand Lizzie if she did it. Not agree with the act of murdering, but understand how impossible poor Lizzie must have had it in that house.
to find that Abby did have friends. She did go out. She was a good stepmother and close to Lizzie earlier, and Lizzie called her 'Mother' for years. The half-house Andrew gave her wasn't even for her - it was so her sister wouldn't be thrown out in the street. I'd certainly ask it of him if I were her. Those 'girls' were cruel to turn that good deed into something "unfair" and demanding something for themselves. 
- until it eventually rolled into such a big, solid ball that no one could see the original little snowball it started as.