Clabe Merchant, known as the father of Abilene, reportedly chose the name for the town. Appropriately enough for a town that enjoys its religious reputation, Abilene is mentioned in the Bible. In the third chapter of Luke, a mid-Eastern tetrarchy is named Abilene, which means "grassy plain." However, when the town was named, it was named after Abilene, Kansas, in hopes that it, too, would become a great cattle-shipping point.