Elijah Abel

Elijah Abel
Third Quorum of the Seventy
1839 – December 25, 1884 (1884-12-25)
Called by	Joseph Smith
Elder
March 3, 1836 (1836-03-03) – December 25, 1884 (1884-12-25)
Called by	Joseph Smith
Personal details
Born	(1808-07-25)July 25, 1808 Frederick, Maryland
Died	Salt Lake City, Utah Territory
Resting place	Salt Lake City Cemetery

Elijah Abel (July 25, 1808 – December 25, 1884) was the first African-American elder and seventy in the Latter Day Saint movement, and one of the few black members in the early history of the Latter Day Saint movement to receive the priesthood.

Life

Abel was born in Maryland as a slave, and is believed to have escaped slavery on the Underground Railroad into Upper Canada. He was baptized into the Church of Christ in September 1832 by Ezekiel Roberts, and he married Mary Ann Adams, another African American.

Some sources state that Abel was ordained an elder by Joseph Smith, while other records indicate that he was ordained to the priesthood by Zebedee Coltrin. In 1839, Abel was made a member of the Nauvoo Seventies Quorum. While living in Nauvoo, Illinois, he worked as a mortician at the request of Joseph Smith.

In 1841, when Smith was arrested in Quincy, Illinois, Abel was among a group of seven elders who set out from Nauvoo to try to rescue him, although by the time they reached Quincy, Smith had been taken back to Nauvoo. In 1842 he was a carpenter in Cincinnati, working for John Price at the corner of 6th and Smith Streets, per the Cincinnati city directory. He remained in Cincinnati for a number of years.

In 1843, Abel served a mission in New York, but returned to Cincinnati, where he married Mary Ann Adams about 1847. Their first child, Moroni Abel was born there in 1849, and in 1850, per the 1850 Census of Cincinnati, they were boarding with Henry Nisonger and his family; Nisonger was an Apostle in the schismatic Williamite Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, which recognized William Smith, the only surviving brother of Joseph Smith, as its prophet.

In 1853, Abel and his family migrated in the Appleton Harmon pioneer company to Utah Territory, the new headquarters of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, where he managed a hotel.

In Utah, Abel remained a seventy, and in 1884 he served a final mission in Canada, during which he became ill. He died upon his return home to Utah Territory and was buried at Salt Lake City Cemetery.

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Legacy

At least two of Abel's descendants — his son Enoch and Enoch's son Elijah — were ordained to the priesthood: Enoch was ordained an elder on November 27, 1900; and Elijah was ordained an elder on September 29, 1935.

In 2002, a monument was erected in Salt Lake City over Abel's grave site to memorialize him, his wife and his descendants. The monument was dedicated by LDS Church Apostle M. Russell Ballard.

See also

• Black people and early Mormonism
• Black people and Mormonism
• Joseph Freeman (Mormon)
• Walker Lewis
• List of slaves
• William McCary

References

• "Elijah Abel and the Changing Status of Blacks Within Mormonism", 12(2) Dialogue: A Journal of Mormon Thought 22-36.
• "Deaths," Deseret News, 31 Dec. 1884:16.

Further reading

• Stevenson, Russel W. 2013. A Negro Preacher: The Worlds of Elijah Ables. Journal of Mormon History Vol. 39, No. 2, pp. 165-254.

External links

• Elijah Abel at BlackLDS web site
• Account of Abel's mission activities at BlackLDS web site
• Elijah Abel at Find a Grave