5^th Wife of Captain James Brown
Orson Pratt Brown's Maternal Grandmother:

Abigail Smith Abbott Brown Davis

Born: September 11, 1806 at Williamson, Wayne, New York
Died: July 23, 1889 at Willard, Box Elder County, Utah

Compiled by Her Great Great Granddaughter, Lucy Brown Archer

Abigail Smith, the daughter of James Smith, a soldier of the War of 1812, and Lydia Lucina Harding, was born at Williamson, near Palmyra, Ontario County, New York, September 11, 1806 and died at Willard, Box Elder County, Utah, July 23, 1889, age 83 years. I visited her grave there with my second cousin, Marie Zundell, in 1903. A fine headstone marks the grave and on one face it has the record of her birth and death and on the opposite side the record of her husband. She was the youngest of several children, all of whom died young. Her own mother died when she was six weeks old and she was nursed through infancy by her aunt, Mrs. Polly Harding, and later by her stepmother, Mehetable Adams. At the age of fifteen years she had a sick spell of many months duration in which her life was despaired of. Her father was a farmer and a teacher of music. Myron Alma Abbott records he had in his possession several letters written by James Smith in a beautiful hand, the grammar being excellent, the diction good, showing that he was a man of education and refinement. Of her mother little is known but her family was good. One member, the Honorable Stephen S. Harding, was appointed Governor of the Territory of Utah in 1863 by President Lincoln.

Lydia Lucina Harding Smith was born July 31, 1781 and died October, 1806 at Williamson, Ontario County, New York. Her husband, James Smith, was a native of Norwalk, Connecticut, born January 14, 1777, and died at Bedford, Michigan, August 26, 1857. At the age of sixteen, Abigail Smith went to Homellsville, New York, to visit relatives of her mother. Here she lived in the family of James Abbott for some time and a warm attachment between her and his son, Stephen Joseph Abbott, sprang up. Her father came to take her home but instead, by mutual consent of both families, the young couple were married December 11, 1825. Much of her life from then on has been related in connection with that of her husband. About 1836 her father moved to Michigan. Although she kept in touch with him by correspondence, she never again met any of her family.

Many of their letters have been preserved, most of which are kind and affectionate to her personally, but some are full of vindictive denunciations of her religious views and of the Mormon people. Some of her people were at one time attached to the Mormon faith, but the movement west left them behind. At her husband’s death she was left with a home, some land, cows and a few sheep. They had always been independent and the thought of dependence upon strangers was bitter indeed. She taught a private school in her home and obtained both food and clothing. She says, "I trusted in God and improved every opportunity to help myself, but the necessity of becoming servants to our fellow men was almost more than I could bear". Some of her older children did hire out to neighbors and, besides relieving her of their keep, earned a little recompense.

Stephen Joseph Abbott was born August 16, 1804, in Providence, Pennsylvania. On December 11, 1825, he married Abigail Smith in Dansville, Steuben County, New York. Stephen was full six feet in height, strongly built, with black hair, brown eyes. He was alert and honest, a good businessman, loved by his relatives and respected by all. He learned the trade of furniture making and painting. He was rather indifferent to religion until after his marriage, when he and his wife attached themselves to a sect called Universalists, who seemed to hold much broader views than the Methodists or Presbyterians, the dominant creeds of that section. Besides his cabinet making business, he and his nephew, a son of his half-brother, Elijah, owned and operated a cording and fulling machine at Arkport, New York.

About 1838 there was a great tide of emigration pouring into the Mississippi Valley. Stephen’s two brothers Edmond Austin Abbott and Eleazer Coray Abbott were already living in Michigan, so he concluded to go to the Mississippi Valley, and make a permanent home for himself, where he could settle his family. He went by boat down the Allegheny River and in five weeks arrived in Pike County, Illinois. He bought a quarter section of farmland and forty acres of timber land. He then went to Michigan to visit his brothers which was the last time they ever met. He went on to New York where he was warmly greeted by many friends all anxious to learn something of the new country in the Great Valley. He settled up his business affairs, and after visiting with this wife’s family at Palmyra, New York, he said farewell to his friends and relatives and took his wife and children, by boat, down the Allegheny River, leaving April 14, 1837. They landed at Naples on the Illinois River in Pike County, Illinois, in the latter part of May, 1837. They at once began to cultivate their land and build a home. His wife, Abigail Smith Abbott, writing of this period says, "On the first day of December of that year our son Myron Abbott (1837-1907) was born, a promising child. My daughters went out in the garden and found a beautiful rose, although the season for that flower was long past, I took it as an omen of promise and rejoiced. There is nothing unusual or strange in this for a mother, but after many years, when it was known that through him alone, descended his father’s name, the incident may be worthy of preservation."  In 1838 Stephen’s elder brother James Abbott (1799-1846) and family and their mother, Phoebe Howe Coray Abbott, came to Illinois and settled near them and again they were surrounded by friends. Their mother died here about 1840.

The same year, they moved to Nauvoo and bought a home and some land. In company with George Miller, Lyman Wight, and James Brown, Stephen was called on a temporal mission to gather funds to build the Nauvoo temple. He was afterwards called on a mission to Wisconsin. When he left Pike County he placed a quantity of wheat in the mill. This he depended on to feed his family in his absence. Through false pretense, one Brier Griffin, a distant relative, obtained four barrels of flour and a Mr. Jacques also obtained a considerable quantity.  This loss was a great disappointment to him, so to make provision for his family, he in company with E. Thompson, a cousin who was to accompany him on this mission, began to get some cordwood down the Mississippi from an island. This entailed much wet and exposure. On October 16, he was taken ill, and on the nineteenth of October 1843, he died, age 38 years, yet a young man, just coming into the prime of manhood,. just beginning a life that held much promise of honor and usefulness, he was much loved and sincerely mourned by his family, a young wife and eight children, six girls and two boys. His struggle was over, theirs was not [about] to commence, and will be related in as much detail as the ravages of time has permitted to be preserved.

 The work Stephen commenced was destined to be continued by his wife, the faith that he exposed, and practically gave his life for, is professed by all his children unto this day, and almost without exception by their children also. He sleeps in an unmarked grave on the hillside overlooking the Great Father of Waters.  His wife was stunned, heartbroken, and almost overwhelmed by the terrible and unexpected blow. Winter was almost upon them, she had eight children, the oldest sixteen years. Provisions were hard to obtain, the country being new. The people with whom she had cast her lot nearly all were poor, mostly refugees, having been robbed, scourged, and mobbed out of Missouri. Her husband, who was public spirited, had put a large portion of his property into the building of the Nauvoo Temple and other public buildings. Public opinion was inflamed against the whole community. In just a few months they saw their leaders, Joseph and Hyrum Smith, murdered. Emily, the eldest daughter, speaking of this sad time, says she was wrapped up in her father, loved him dearly and grieved bitterly when he died, but she says her sorrow was nothing compared with their grief when Joseph, the Prophet of God was murdered. She felt their home was spoiled when their father was taken, whereas, at the death of the prophet, she felt the whole world was spoiled. Such was the gloom among the people of Nauvoo. Abigail Smith Abbott was a heroic woman, pure, chaste and noble in purpose, and the aims and objects of her life were as successful as could be expected in human life.  

Abigail Smith Abbott was alone with few relatives, nobody to rely upon except God and her own efforts. It is probable that her father may have given her some help. He lived in Michigan at the time and had partially accepted the doctrines of the Mormons, but, according to his own statement, at that time he was wavering. She did not complain to him or ever tell him of her destitution nor did she ever waver in her faith. It became her guiding star. She never lost sight of it day or night, in sorrow and adversity, in sickness or in health, it was ever pointing to the West and thither she followed across the great rivers, across the undulating prairies, across the giant mountains into the Valley of the Great Salt Lake, there to find solace and rest, not entirely free from toil, for her hands were ever busy; not entirely free from care, for her sympathies were broad and the welfare of her family was ever uppermost in her mind, but free from the terrible strain she was under for several years after her husband’s death. She has said, "I had no means to erect a monument or even a slab to mark my loved one’s grave, but I planted some morning glories on the grave and left him there to sleep and rest." 

In the spring of 1844 she fenced a small tract of land near the Mississippi River. As she was teaching school, much of the work was done of evenings in the moonlight. She planted one and one-half acres to garden truck and cultivated it. As the ground was low and swampy, she and the children were stricken with fever and ague. Lyman Wight, then an apostle, lived in an upper room of her house and was also ill. The week after the martyrdom of Joseph and Hyrum, Lyman Wight was visited by Brigham Young, Heber C. Kimball, Willard Richards, Amasa Lyman and Wilford Woodruff and several ladies. When they went to leave she asked them to administer to each of her sick children, which they did. Heber C. Kimball manifested his charity by giving her a half-dollar. When Brigham Young got to the door he turned and, in the name of the Lord, promised them that all should recover. At times after doing all they could to help themselves, they were compelled to ask charity. This was a great grief to Abigail Smith Abbott for never before in her life has she needed to ask for anything she could not pay for. Many friends showed them favors and assisted in what ways they could. Some other husband’s relatives from Pike County, Mrs. James Abbott, Lyman Wight, John Higbee, and Capt. James Brown and others, are held in grateful remembrance for their kindness.  

Abigail was able to collect some debts owed to her husband Stephen, and their wants were relieved. She continued to correspond with her father and her sisters, but she never complained to them. A letter which came down to her grandchildren from her father received while she was in the wilderness of Iowa says, "We received your letter in which you have no complaints to make, etc." One from her sister, Anna Crane, after berating her for her religious views and affiliations tells her if she is getting along so well, a present would be acceptable.

 In May, 1846, she was offered $10.00 for her house and lot and twenty acres of land, all fenced. To her remonstrance's at the price, he explained, "The Mormons have got to go. That amount will ferry you across the river and it is better than nothing." She accepted it. He also demanded that the furniture be left in the house for he truly explained, "You cannot carry it with you."

On February 9, 1846, the eldest daughter, Emily married Edward Bunker, who was a young man of sterling worth, intelligent, pure, and ambitious. He was ever a friend of the family. History relates their cruel expulsion from Nauvoo and when they were forced to flee, Edward Bunker assisted the family across the river and from the west bank of the Mississippi River they witnessed the Battle of Nauvoo. Abigail felt fortunate indeed to get away with her children before this awful occurrence. Here she remained until November, 1846. Edward Bunker and wife, with three of the eldest daughters of Abigail Smith Abbott went on to Garden Grove where he built a cabin and the family, thus scattered, were not reunited for fifteen months. When Mrs. Abbott arrived at Garden Grove she found Edward Bunker had enlisted in the Mormon Battalion, called out to assist in the war with Mexico and had already gone, leaving his young wife in a delicate condition. They fixed the cabin up the best they could and lived there eleven  months, planted a crop and harvested it. During the winter of 1846-1847 Abigail taught school and thus helped to support her family.

On February 1, 1847, her eldest daughter, Mrs. Edward Bunker Sr., gave birth  to a fine son. They called him Edward Bunker, Jr. This date also came near being a fatal one for Abigail’s little son Myron, then nine years of age. He was sent out early in the morning to hunt for wood and encountered a large, hungry wolf. Thinking it to be a dog he threw chips at it. It stood growling and ready to attack the lad when the attention of a neighbor was attracted and the wolf was frightened away. This winter proved to be a hard one for Abigail. Beside the regular care of her household, she taught school and one of her elder daughters was ill for eleven weeks with fever and Mrs. Bunker was ill nine weeks at the time of her confinement. Water for the home had to be carried a quarter of a mile, firewood had to be gathered and cut, enough to keep a fire all the time, for the cabin had no floor and was very cold and it took a warm fire to make it comfortable with illness in the family for such a long time. During the winter Abigail received $22.50 from Captain James Brown, sent to her from Santa Fe, New Mexico, and Edward Bunker sent his wife some money. Both were serving in the Mormon Battalion. In October, 1847, they moved on to Mosquito Creek, a point farther west near Council Bluff, Iowa. On the morning of December 18, 1847, they heard a group of Battalion men had arrived in town the evening before, so Emily prepared to go and inquire if they knew anything of Edward. Just before she was to leave the house a knock was heard at the door. It proved to be Edward himself. He thought they were still in Garden Grove where he left them, but someone told him they had moved since he left. He was almost frozen and starved. It was necessary for him to remain in bed for several weeks and he was fed gruel every few hours, just a few spoonsful at a time at first. He had endured terrible privation on the return journey and had  completed one of the most difficult marches on record. Abigail’s son, Abiel, came to her from Council Bluffs, where he had gone fifteen months before. Once more she had her family all together again. She says, "I thanked God and praised Him and took new courage, for my burdens seemed much lighter."

Before leaving Nauvoo, Abigail Smith Abbott had married for time as a plural wife to Captain James Brown. Captain Brown had been a friend of her husband in Nauvoo. He was a man of broad views, great energy and a natural leader of men, but he had a great train of relatives dependent upon him. The relation gave him more the right of protector than husband and that was practically the relation sustained between them. Myron Alma Abbott in writing of her life, says he has several letters that passed between them in 1849-1850 in which she reminds him of his covenants with her in relation to the dead (meaning her husband) and telling him that whatever he wished her to do she would do excepting she would do nothing  unrighteous. However, her religion taught her polygamy. She accepted and believed in this principle and probably did at one time sustain the relation of wife to him, but she insisted that it be the relation of wife and not concubine. After they were living in Ogden, James married her daughter, Phebe, over her protest. Thereupon she repudiated the relationship and ever afterward lived apart from him.

When James Brown went into the Mexican War in July 1846. He sent Abigail money from Santa Fe. He had helped her as much as possible in Nauvoo. He followed the pioneers into Salt Lake Valley on July 29, 1847, just four days after Brigham Young’s party. He must have regarded Abigail as a woman of ability to act and accomplish the care and transport of her family from Iowa to the Salt Lake Valley.  James wrote Abigail a letter soon after his arrival to the Salt Lake Valley. Possibly this is one of the first letters written and sent from Utah.

The following is a copy of a letter which Captain Brown sent to his wife Abigail. He followed the Brigham Young Company into Salt Lake Valley by four days and this is one of the first letters written and sent from Utah." --Treasures of Pioneer History, Vol. 2, DUP 1953, pages125-128. The full quote and letter are recorded higher up on this page, the text can be found in Vol. 2.

There the letter ends. The last page has been lost.

The wagons and teams were duly received and in 1848 Abigail fitted them up and sent all of Mr. Brown’s family that remained on to the valley. She remained until the next year, raised a crop, but before it was harvested, sold it, and came on to the valley. She left Mosquito Creek August 6, 1849, and was just sixteen weeks on the way. She brought all her children except Mrs. Bunker, who came two years later, and she never lost one dollar’s worth of property on the trip, which speaks volumes for her care and management. Soon after arriving in Salt Lake City, she went to Ogden.

The city then contained six families. Captain Brown had purchased nine square miles of territory (the center of which is now Ogden City) from Miles Goodyear, who owned the land through a grant from the Mexican government and offered it for sale to Captain Brown when he went through there on the way to San Francisco in charge of a squad of cavalry men from Company C Mormon Battalion. The price paid for this tract of land was $3000.00 from money he and his sons, Alex and Jesse, received for wages from the U.S. Government for services in the army and some gold they brought from California where they were when gold was discovered there in 1849. A city was laid out and settlers welcomed. The first winter was spent in a fort.

Abigail Abbott received a tract of land in the southern part of Ogden, facing what is now Washington Avenue. Here a home was built and she dwelled with her family for several years until the children were grown and married and gone to homes of their own. Abigail's daughter, Charilla Abbott, was the first schoolteacher in Ogden City. Preferring not to live alone,  Abigail sold her home and lived with her children, visiting them all as a ministering angel, greatly beloved and respected by them and their children.

After Abigail divorced Captain James Brown, around 1850. She renewed her Nauvoo friendship with Charles Augustus Davis (born 12 August 1810 in Princeton, Worcester, Massachusetts) and according to www.earlylds.com sources quoted by Susan Easton Black, she became Charles A. Davis's fourth wife. Charles was the postmaster in Spanish Fork for twenty-five years. He died August 29, 1898 at Spanish Fork, Utah, Utah.

At the birth of Ira J. Earl, the first son, father called on grandmother to report the new arrival. He said: "A new blacksmith came to town last evening, Sister Abbott." She quickly inquired: "Do you think it will hurt your business any?" "No," said father, "I think it will help it--you see the new blacksmith is my first son." --Lois E. Jones.

She was active and had good health, traveled much, was happy, pleasant, cheerful and benevolent and was like a ray of sunshine wherever she went. During one of her visits to her children, Myron Abbott and Emily Bunker, living in Bunkerville, Nevada, I still remember seeing her as I saw her sitting in an easy chair near the east window in my grandmother’s living room, crocheting. She wore a lace cap on her head and a white apron and was a short, fleshy woman.

Abigail loved music. Agnes Viola Earl relates that at Christmas time Grandmother Abbott, then near eighty years of age, gathered a group of young people to her home of evening and taught them Christmas carols and on Christmas evening procured a wagon and accompanied the young carolers as they sang their carols at the homes of the community, an act which brought much joy to the young people and endeared her to them.  

The final summons came while she was visiting with her youngest daughter, Mrs. Abigail Zundell at Willard City, Box Elder County, Utah, July 23, 1889. At her death, she was possessed of a little property which by consent of the heirs was devoted to the erection of a modest monument to her and her first husband, Stephen Joseph Abbott, who she left buried in Nauvoo.

Abigail Smith Abbott was a heroic woman, pure, chaste and noble in purpose, and the aims and objects of her life were as successful as could be expected in human life. Honor be to her memory. 

Sources:

PAF - Archer Files = Captain James Brown married Abigail Smith Abbott, widow of Stephen Joseph Abbott > Phebe Abigail Abbott also married Captain James Brown > Orson Pratt Brown.

The Story of My Life - William E. Abbott by Erwin and Colleen Waite, pages 1-10.

Pioneer Woman of Faith and Fortitude. Vol. II, International Society Daughters of Utah Pioneers, Publishers Press, 1998. Page 1786 ( under Lewis)  ISBN: 0-9658406-1-1

George Abbott and His Discendants  Lois E. Jones, available at the Historical Records Survey at Ogden, Utah, copied on October 16, 1936 by Virginia Lee,  http://www.broward.org/library/bienes/lii10226.htm.

Five Hundred Wagons Stood Still — Mormon Battalion Wives, Shirley Mayne, U.S.A 1999: pages 66-70.

http://cottam_family.tripod.com/carolineb/pafg05.htm#2890

Thank you to my cousin Jim Wilde Brown for sharing this story source.

The top photo of Abigail Smith Abbott has also been found in Pioneer Women of Faith and Fortitude Page 1748, we think misidentified as Laura Melvina Thompson Leavitt. Photo replaced with the one now showing, found on page 11 of the William Elias Abbott 1869-1949,

PROPERTY OWNED BY ABIGAIL SMITH ABBOTT:

Nauvoo: Block 23 (log house near the upper stone house in Old Commerce--The Nauvoo Journal
Nauvoo: Block 50, Lot 3

NAUVOO RECORDS as given at www.earlylds.com:

Nauvoo Temple Endowment Register p 92
Members, LDS, 1830-1848, by Susan Easton Black, Vol 39, pp 644 - 645
Record of Baptisms for the Dead, Nauvoo, vol 1, pp 1-3

HISTORY:

Nauvoo School Records for 1842", The Nauvoo Journal, Vol 1, Jan 1989
Treasures of Pioneer History, Vol 2, pp 125-128
Our Pioneer Heritage, Vol 6, pp 198-200
Pioneer Women of Faith and Fortitude, Vol 1, pp 376-377
Heart Throbs of the West, Vol 5, p 402-403; Vol 8, p 353=354, Vol 10, p 441

OTHER SOURCES:

Business in Nauvoo, p 29
The Nauvoo Journal, p 18

1- [S3] Book - Annotated Record of Baptisms for the Dead, Nauvoo, 7 vols., Black, Susan Easton, (Brigham Young University, Provo, Utah 84602), , Nauvoo, vol 1, pp 1-3

2- [S4] Book - Heart Throbs of the West, 12 vols., Carter, Kate B., compiler, (Daughters of the Utah Pioneers, Salt Lake City, Utah, 1939-1951), , Vol 5, p 402-403; Vol 8, p 353=354, Vol 10, p 441

3- [S5] LDS - Membership of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints:1830-1848, 50 vols., Black, Susan Easton, Compiler, (LDS Church, Salt Lake City, 1990), 1830-1848, by Susan Easton Black, Vol 39, pp 644 - 645

4- [S6] LDS - Nauvoo Temple Endowment Register, Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, (1845-1846), p 92

5- [S7] Book - Our Pioneer Heritage, 20 vols., Daughters of the Utah Pioneers, (Salt Lake City: 1958-1977), , Vol 6, pp 198-200

6- [S8] Book - Pioneer Women of Faith and Fortitude, 4 vols, International Society of Daughters of the Utah Pioneers, (Salt Lake City, Utah, 1998), , Vol 1, pp 376-377

7- [S9] Periodical - The Nauvoo Journal, (Salt Lake City, Utah, 1989-1999), , Vol 1, Jan 1989

8 [S10] Book - Treasures of Pioneer History, 6 vols., Carter, Kate B., Compiler, (Daughers of the Utah Pioneers, Salt Lake City, Utah, 1952-1957), , Vol 2, pp 125-128

9- [S1] This record downloaded from http://earlylds.com, version 2006-06-07, snowdr@gmail.com
# [S2] Database - International Genealogical Index, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints