Cynthia Abbott was born on December 28, 1839 at Perry, Pike, Illinois, the seventh child of Stephen Joseph Abbott and Abigail Smith Abbott. Cynthia is eight years younger than her sister Phebe Abigail Abbott Brown Fife.
She was sealed to her parents on 17 Apr 1963 in the St. George temple. Cynthia was baptized in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints on March 30, 1964 in the Salt Lake temple. She was endowed April 13, 1861 in the Endowment House.
Cynthia Abbott became a plural wife of her sister Phoebe's husband, Colonel William Nicol Fife on November 2, 1867 in Salt Lake City, Utah. They had five children, only Mary Lucina Fife and David Nicol Fife lived to adulthood:
Mary Lucina Fife, b. on Sep 20, 1868 in Ogden, Weber, Utah; d. 14 July 1950 at Bell, Los Angeles, CA.
Child Fife, b.23 Sep 1869 in Ogden, Weber, Utah.
David Nicol Fife, b. 17 Feb 1871 in Ogden, Weber, Utah, d. 29 Jan. 1924 at 53 years of age.
Joseph Stephen Fife, b. 4 Sep 1873 in Ogden, Weber, Utah, d. 26 Sep 1878 (five years old)
James Abbott Fife, b. 9 Apr 1877 in Willard, Box Elder, Utah, d. 28 Jan 1878 (eight months old).
Mary Lucina Fife married Joseph Arthur Hutchins (b. May 13, 1867 in Ogden) on Dec 7, 1898 in Salt Lake City. [I have found the name spelled as Hutchins and Hutchens interchangeably.].
Mary Lucina Fife Hutchins and Joseph Hutchins had three children:
1-Ardis Cynthia Hutchins b.20 Oct 1899, d. 13 Feb 1977 in Palm Springs, Riverside,CA
(a) md.Omer Waddoups (b. 31 May 1896 in Bountiful, Davis, Ut) 4 Feb 1920 SLC
(b) md. Heber Thomas Ruffell (b. 30 Dec 1890 in Takahue, Bay of Islands, New Zealand (parents were from England, d. 13 Feb 1977 Palm Springs) 11 April 1928 SLC
2-Arthur Burch Hutchins b. 28 Oct 1901, Ogden, Weber, Utah, md. Marie Vesta Pulver (b. 11 June 1907 in Payson, Utah, Utah) 31 May 1928 in Salt Lake City, Utah, daughter of Eugene Harrison Pulver and Annie May Frisby Pulver. Arthur and Marie had one child.
3- now Living Hutchins
[Written in the Journal of Fife's stepson Orson Pratt Brown:
"Then in the month of October of 1880, my stepfather William Nicol Fife, his two sons Walter Thompson Fife and John Daniel Fife and my mother Phoebe, her sister Cynthia [Abbott Fife] and myself started on a trip to Arizona."
Cynthia Abbott Fife returned to Utah and divorced William Nicol Fife sometime before 1885. Cynthia's sister Phebe remained married to Fife until he left Arizona in 1887 to return to Ogden. Phebe Abbott Brown Fife remained with her daughter Cynthia Fife Layton in Thatcher, Arizona until her death on January 14, 1914.
Cynthia is mentioned in her sister Phebe Abbott Brown Fife's biography. Phebe Fife named her daughter b. 22 July 1867, Cynthia Abigail Fife (md. Layton), after her sister and her mother.
Cynthia Abbott Fife died on November 14, 1910 in Ogden, Weber, Utah and was buried on 16 November 1910 in the Ogden City Cemetery.
Sources:
PAF - Archer files = Captain James Brown married widow Abigail Smith Abbott + Stephen Joseph Abbott > sisters Cynthia Abbott and Phebe Abigail Abbott. Captain James Brown + Phebe Abigail Abbott > Orson Pratt Brown.
The above photo of Cynthia Abbott Fife was found by Erold Wiscombe in Jas. F. Jakeman's book "Daughters of Utah Pioneers " Page 184.
In 2002 I found this same photo in Jakeman's "Daughters of Pioneers " 1915 edition with the identification of Diana Davis Fife. I question this because Diana Davis Fife was killed in 1884 at the age of 47. The woman in the photo looks older than 47, therefore the photo has a better chance of being Cynthia Abbott Fife. The Jakeman book edition that Erold found may be a corrected, revised edition of the Jakeman book I found.
