Abigail Smith was born 11 September 1806 in Williamson, Ontario County, New York, United States to James Smith (1777-1858) and Lydia Harding (1781-1806) and died 23 July 1889 Willard, Box Elder County, Utah, United States of unspecified causes. She married Stephen Joseph Abbott (1804-1843) 11 December 1825 in New York, United States. She married James Brown (1801-1863) 8 February 1845 in Nauvoo, Hancock County, Illinois, United States. She married Charles Augustus Davis (1810-1898) 1850 in Utah, United States.
Biography
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.
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.
In 1839, Stephen Joseph Abbott and his wife, Abigail, came in contact with the Mormon people who, on being driven out of Missouri, were settling in Nauvoo, Illinois. They investigated the new religion long and carefully and they and their children became members of the church. Stephen was baptized in March 1839, by Joseph Wood and confirmed by him and William Brenton. At the April conference of the Church held in Nauvoo in 1840, he was ordained an elder. In 1842 he was ordained a seventy.
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. He served with the Mormon Battalion in the Mexican-American War.
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.
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.
Children of Abigail and Stephen Abbott
- Emily Abbott (1827-1913) - md Edward Bunker (son of family namesake for famous Bunker Hill Battle in Mass.)
- Charilla Abbott (1829-1914) - md Joseph Welch - LDS Pioneers settled in Ogden Utah.
- Phoebe Abigail Abbott (1831-1914) - md Captain James Brown
- Lydia Lucina Abbott (1833-1919) - md Edwin Squires - ranched ub Wah Wah Springs of Beaver County, Utah
- Abiel Abbott (1835-1913) - md Jane Brown
- Myron Abbott (1837-1907) - md Emma Knight
- Cynthia Abbott (1839-1910) - md William Fife
- Abigail Abbott (1842-1934) - md Abraham Zundel
Children
| Name | Birth | Death | Joined with |
| Emily Abbott (1827-1913) | |||
| Charilla Lucinda Abbott (1829-1914) | |||
| Phoebe Abigail Abbott (1831-1914) | |||
| Lydia Lucina Abbott (1833-1919) | |||
| Abiel Abbott (1835-1913) | |||
| Myron Abbott (1837-1907) | |||
| Cynthia Abbott (1839-1910) | |||
| Abigail Abbott (1842-1934) | |||
Siblings
| Name | Birth | Death | Joined with |
| Abigail Smith (1806-1889) | 11 September 1806 Williamson, Ontario County, New York, United States | 23 July 1889 Willard, Box Elder County, Utah, United States | Stephen Joseph Abbott (1804-1843) James Brown (1801-1863) Charles Augustus Davis (1810-1898) |
| Name | Birth | Death | Joined with |
| Anna Smith (1808-1902) | |||
| Lydia Smith (1809-1867) | |||
| Sarah Smith (1811-) | |||
| Adah Smith (1813-) | |||
| Mary Mariah Smith (1815-) | |||
Royal Lineage
- Abigail Smith (1806-1889) - md Stephen Joseph Abbott
- Lydia Harding (1781-1806) - md James Smith
- Stephen Harding (1748-1816) - md Prudence Gustin
- Amy Gardner (1725-1795) - md Stephen Harding
- Frances Congdon (1703-?) - md Stephen Gardner
- Frances Stafford (1680-1774) - md Benjamin Congdon
- Sarah Holden (1658-1731) - md Joseph Stafford
- Frances Dungan (1630-1697) - md Randall Holden - Immigrants from Ireland to America / signer of Portsmouth Compact
- William Dungan (1607-1636) - md Frances Latham
- Thomas Dungan (1584-1626) - md Elizabeth
- Margaret Forster (1555-1597) - md Sir John Dungan
- Margaret Whyte (1523-1597) - (or Margaret Netterville?) - md Walter Forster. Margaret was the daughter of Patrick Whyte (by his wife, Alison St Lawrence) and the widow of John Netterville
- Alison Saint Lawrence (1490-?) - md Patrick Whyte
- Nicholas St Lawrence (1460-1526), 4th Baron Howth (Irish Baron / Lord Chancellor of Ireland) - md Genet Plunkett
- Robert St Lawrence (-1485), 3rd Baron Howth (Irish Baron / Lord Chancellor of Ireland) - md Alice White first, and then Joan Beaufort (2) in 1478, well after the birth of Nicholas.
- Christopher St Lawrence (-1465), 2nd Baron Howth (Irish Baron) -
- Christopher St Lawrence (-1430), 1st Baron Howth (Irish Baron) -
References
- Biography of Abigail Abbott - Orson Pratt Brown Genealogy Website
- Autobiography of Abigail Smith
Footnotes (including sources)