Abram E. Kipp was born around 1840 in Pennsylvania to John Kipp and Eliza Keeley. His father probably died during his childhood, and his mother subsequently married Charles Bawn. They lived in Allegheny, Pennsylvania, and his stepfather worked as a farmer. By 1860, the family owned $1,600 of real estate and $548 of personal property.
Kipp enlisted in the Union army on September 10, 1861, and he mustered in as a private in Company F of the 78th Pennsylvania Infantry on October 12. The regiment took part in the Battle of Stones River, the Tullahoma campaign, the Battle of Chickamauga, the Battle of Missionary Ridge, and the Atlanta campaign. He expressed devotion to the Union, writing that "we volenteered to come out here to save the country." In July 1863, he declared that "the men in this army seems determined to fight the rebles til they give up," and he added that "ove [of] all things the men in the army hates is the coper heads." We condemned northern men who refused to enlist, and he declared that "if they ant a nough loyal men in the north to put down this war i think it nothing more than right to arm the nigroes." He supported Republican governor Andrew Curtin in the election of 1863, and he supported President Abraham Lincoln's reelection in 1864. He mustered out on November 4, 1864.
He returned to Pennsylvania after the war, and he earned a living as an oil well driller. He married a woman named Rebecca, and their daughter Minnie was born around 1869. He died in 1878.