Elijah Abel, or Able or Ables (July 25, 1808– December 25, 1884)Grave Marker of Elijah Abel. (Inscribed front). :File:ElijahAbelGraveFront.jpg was one of the earliest African-American members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church), and was the church's first African-American elder and Seventy. Abel was predominantly of Scottish and English descent and appears to have been the first, and one of the few, black members in the early history of the church to have received Priesthood ordination, later becoming the faith's first black missionary. Abel did not have his ordination revoked when the LDS Church officially announced its now-obsolete restrictions on Priesthood ordination, but was denied a chance to receive his temple endowment by third church president John Taylor. As a skilled carpenter, Abel often committed his services to the building of LDS temples and chapels. He died in 1884 after serving a mission to Cincinnati, Ohio, his last of three total missions for the church.
Early life Elijah Abel was born in Frederick-Town, Maryland, on July 25, 1808, to Delilah Williams and Andrew Abel. There is some confusion surrounding Abel's birth year, given that some sources put the year at 1808 and others at 1810. However, the 1850 Census record marks 1808 as the year of Abel's birth, and both Abel's patriarchal blessing and grave marker record 1808 as his birth year.Patriarchal Blessing of Elijah Abel, c. 1836, recorded by W. A. Cowdery with penned preamble, "[Patriarchal] Blessing of Elijah Able [sic] who was born in Frederick County, Maryland, July 25th 1808." "Joseph Smith’s Patriarchal Blessing Record" (1833–1843), 88. LDS Church Archives. His mother was of Scottish descent and his father of English descent; one of his grandmothers was "half white", or mulatto, and thus Abel was considered to be "octoroon," or one-eighth African.
Abel's mother died when he was 8 years old. Some believed that she was a slave from South Carolina, but evidence for this has never been produced. Others have also speculated, based on the unproven assumption that Abel was the son of a slave, that he at some point migrated to Canada by way of the Underground Railroad. Apart from circumstantial evidence, this claim remains entirely unsubstantiated, apart from a few sources stating that Abel spent some time in Canada in his early adulthood.
Conversion to the LDS faith Abel later moved to Ohio, and in Cincinnati he was baptized and confirmed a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints in September 1832. He was baptized by local Mormon elder and blacksmith Ezekiel Roberts. Shortly after his baptism, Abel moved to the area of Kirtland, Ohio, to join in fellowship with the main body of church members congregating there.
Priesthood ordination and church participation Abel was ordained an elder of the LDS Church on January 25, 1836, following Joseph Smith's declaration in 1836 that Abel was "entitled to the Priesthood and all the blessings." He had been an active participant in the construction of the Kirtland Temple over the preceding months. Abel participated in the "Pentecostal season" that accompanied the completion and dedication of the Kirtland Temple in 1836. In December of that year, 11 months after his priesthood ordination, Abel was ordained a seventy and inducted into the Third Quorum of the priesthood. In 1841, Abel was reconfirmed in Nauvoo by Joseph Young and Albert P. Rockwood. Abel was among the first church members to receive the ordinance of the initiatory in the Kirtland Temple following its dedication in 1836.
Patriarchal blessing Abel received his patriarchal blessing from Presiding Patriarch Joseph Smith Sr., which was recorded by LDS Church scribe and newspaper editor Warren A. Cowdery. At the time, the common practice when giving patriarchal blessings was to declare an individual to be a descendant of a specific tribe of Israel. Abel, however, was declared an "orphan" from a father who "hath never done his duty toward [him]", but it was stated in the blessing that Abel would "be made equal to [his] brethren, and [his] soul be white in eternity and [his] robes glittering." Since the recorded blessing does not specifically declare his tribal lineage, Abel was perhaps "adopted" into the House of Israel. The blessing also included what seemed to be a foreshadowing of the civil war that would soon strike at the heart of the country:
Thou shalt see [the destroyer's] power in laying waste the nations, & the wicked slaying the wicked, while blood shall run down the streets like water, and thy heart shall weep over their calamities. Angels shall visit thee and thou shalt receive comfort. They shall call thee blessed and deliver thee from thine enemies. They shall break thy bands and keep thee from afflictions.
Mission to Upper Canada During the late 1830s, Abel labored as a missionary in New York and Upper Canada, and preached among the African-American population in those areas. In 1838, Abel baptized 25-year-old Eunice Ross Kinney while serving in St. Lawrence County, New York, who after Abel's death remembered him as a "powerful" minister, and one who had been "ordained by Joseph the martyr".Kinney, Eunice. (July 5, 1885). Letter to Wingfield Watson. L. Tom Perry Special Collections, Harold B. Lee Library, Brigham Young University. Provo, Utah. See also Eunice Kinney, "My Testimony of the Latter Day Work". (c. 1885). Microfilm typescript, MS 4226. LDS Church Archives. Abel taught Kinney and others he baptized that "the time was drawing near for [Christ's] coming", but that He would not come "till God had a people prepared to receive Him, with all the gifts and blessings that adorned His church anciently." In his ministry, Abel often quoted the Apostle Peter: "Think it not strange, brethren, concerning the fiery trials which are to try you...".
Due to civil unrest and rebellion in Upper Canada, Abel's missionary travels were frequently punctuated with dangerous situations and persecutions. Such circumstances were certainly not unfamiliar to many Mormon missionaries of the time, nor to their leaders. At one point during his mission, Abel was falsely accused of the murder of a family of six, and aggressively pursued by a mob bearing hot tar and feathers.
Time in Nauvoo, temple building and civil marriage Abel moved from Kirtland to Commerce (later renamed Nauvoo), Illinois, in 1839 upon returning from his mission to Canada. He came to own a piece of property located northwest of the city on the banks of the Mississippi River. While living in Nauvoo, Abel continued to further immerse himself in church work and activity, and is known to have performed at least two baptisms for the dead by proxy: one for a friend by the name of "John F. Lancaster", and one for his mother, Delilah. One of Abel's duties included acting as an undertaker at the request of Joseph Smith—responsible for the fashioning of coffins and the digging of graves—in response to the malaria epidemic of 1839–40. Abel continued to work as a carpenter; he was a member of the group called the House Carpenters of the Town of Nauvoo.
During Abel's time in Nauvoo he became personally acquainted with Joseph Smith. As part of Abel's priesthood license, Joseph wrote that he recommended Abel as his "worthy brother in the Lord", one who is "duly authorized" to spread the gospel in a manner "equal to the authority of that Office".Priesthood License of Elijah Abel. (March 31, 1836). Recorded by Joseph Smith, Jr. and Frederick G. Williams. Michael Marquardt Papers, box 6, folder 1. Special Collections, J. Willard Marriott Library, University of Utah. See also a scanned image of the certificate at the online document repository of The Joseph Smith Papers Project. In June 1841, Abel and six other men quickly mobilized themselves as an expeditionary militia force to attempt the rescue of Smith after his unlawful arrest by state officers at Quincy, Illinois. By the time they reached Quincy, however, Smith had obtained a writ of habeas corpus and had been returned safely to Nauvoo.History of the Church, 4:365.
In 1842, Abel left the deed to his Nauvoo property to William Marks and returned to Cincinnati on assignment by Joseph Smith. There, he continued his carpentry and boarded for a time with a local painter named John Price on Eighth Street. Abel continued to act as a leader of the church in Cincinnati, and was recognized as such by Joseph Smith, who pronounced to Orson Hyde and others: "Go to Cincinnati... and find an educated negro, who rides in his carriage, and you will see a man who has risen by the power of his own mind to his exalted state of respectability."
Marriage On February 16, 1847, the 39-year-old Abel married 17-year-old Mary Ann AdamsMary Adams' Parents. The Ohio county of residence of Mary Ann's parents (John and Anna Weston Adams) at the time of their deaths — Hamilton, located just 15 miles north of Cincinnati – is, curiously, the home county of Ezekiel Roberts, the Mormon elder who baptized Elijah Abel in 1832. Stevenson (2014) suggests, therefore, that Hamilton County may have been where Elijah was baptized. But also, as Mary's family were erstwhile residents of Hamilton (perhaps moving there, to Mount Healthy township, after Mary's birth in Nashville), it may also have been where Elijah was first introduced to Mary. Hamilton County lies 60 miles south of Miami County, where lived, according to Jackson (2013), a possible sister of Elijah, Nancy Abel Rousten. of Tennessee, who was residing in Ohio.1850 Census. The census record registers Mary Ann Adams Abel as being 19 years old, and her husband Elijah Abel as being 42 years old, which effectively pushes back his birthdate to 1808. Adams was also one-eighth African-American. Little is known about Adams, other than the date of her marriage to Abel and her residency status in both Tennessee and Ohio. The couple had eight known children: three were born in Cincinnati—Moroni, Enoch, and Anna Rebecca—and five more in Utah Territory—Delilah, Mary, Elijah Jr., Maggie, and Flora. They also took into their home a young woman (about the age of their oldest son) named Rola from Ohio, whom they later adopted.
Migration and later years in Utah In May 1853, Abel and his family departed from Keokuk, Iowa, and migrated as part of the Appleton M. Harmon pioneer company to Utah Territory, where the new headquarters of the LDS Church were located. After the company's arrival in the Salt Lake Valley on October 17, Abel's family moved to Millcreek, a few miles south of Salt Lake City. Abel continued to work as a carpenter as part of the LDS public works program and assisted in the construction of the Salt Lake Temple. By 1860, the Abel family had moved to Salt Lake City's Thirteenth Ward and lived only a short distance from the Temple Block.
Abel remained a member of the Seventy and continued to be active in the church in Utah. Along with his wife and oldest son, Abel was rebaptized on March 15, 1857, as part of the Mormon Reformation. During the mass southern migration of LDS Church members in 1858 to avoid conflict with Johnston's invading army during the Utah War, Abel stayed behind with other watchmen who had been tasked with setting fire to the emptied city should the invaders make any false move; the U.S. troops marched through Salt Lake City without incident and the city remained intact.