Abigail Mead (1770-1854)

On 25 June 1833 in Villanova, New York, at least three Mormon missionaries—William Cahoon, John F. Boynton, and Evan Melbourne Greene—oversaw the beginnings of a branch of the Church of Jesus Christ. Greene recorded: “We had a meeting to organize the church and the Lord blessed us and two went forward in the ordinance of baptism whose names were as follows: Abbigail & Roxannah McBride” (EMGJ, 23).

When Abigail was seventeen years old she married Reverend Daniel McBride. Since he was an itinerant Campbellite minister, the family, which would eventually include nine children, moved from place to place in order for Daniel to aid the individual churches over which he had stewardship. On more than one occasion he mentioned to his immediate family, “There is something lacking. I feel that I have not the authority as the Prophets of old. If only I could say to the people, ‘Thus sayeth the Lord’” (VK). Lamentably, Daniel died in 1823, ten years before Abigail was baptized into the Church of Jesus Christ.

The day Abigail first listened to Mormon elders is hard to pin down. Missionary Evan Greene noted that it was a “glorious time” as they met with eager listeners in the “McBride schoolhouse” in Villanova, New York, on Sunday, 26 May. Greene “spoke to the [congregation] and testified to them in the gift of tongues and the spirit of God rested down upon us” (EMGJ, 18).

On Tuesday, 9 June Amasa Lyman stayed in the David Crandall home, David being married to Abigail’s oldest daughter, while Greene resided with Reuben McBride’s family, with whom Abigail presumably lived. It was as this point that the families “began to see the need of obeying the commandments” (EMGJ, 21).

The Crandall and McBride households began to be baptized on Thursday, 13 June. The following day at 5 P.M. the missionaries once again held a meeting in the McBride schoolhouse, and part of the McBride family members attended. Several of the listeners “testified to the gospel and rejoiced in the blessing of the Lord in sending his servants into that place.” Still, “others desired us to pray for them that they might be enlightened and come to the knowledge of these things” (EMGJ, 21). Whichever meetings Abigail attended, she was, as mentioned above, baptized on 25 June.

Two years later (1835) many of the McBrides, Crandalls, and Knights—Abigail’s youngest daughter, Martha, married Vinson Knight—traveled to Kirtland, Ohio to gather with the Saints (VK). The following year, on 8 June 1836, at the age of 66, Abigail received her patriarchal blessing under the hands of Joseph Smith Sr. Promised blessings included seeing “angels, and receiv[ing] the communications of the Holy Ghost . . . [and that if she would] “give up thyself to God … thou shalt see thy Redeemer whom thou desireth to know.” While these prophecies were sacred in nature, a more temporal blessing, easily discerned as fulfilled by any individual, was that she would “go to Zion, and be in good health. Thy mind shall be strong and rejoice in thy God” (PB).

Abigail was in good health in body and mind and she traveled to the Great Basin Zion. After Abigail and her family left Kirtland, they homesteaded in Nauvoo, Illinois, and then went to the Great Salt Lake in the Edward Hunter-Jacob Foutz Company from June to October 1847. Abigail, at 77 and the oldest member of her company, traveled with two of her sons, John and Samuel McBride, Samuel's wife Lemira, and her grandchildren, Samuel and Lemira's children, Lydia and Samuel (JH, 21 June 1847, p. 25). During the trip (8 September 1847) the Hunter-Foutz Company and others welcomed Brigham Young and his company as they traveled back to Winter Quarters, Nebraska to oversee trail and sure up Church organization. An impromptu feast was prepared which included “broiled beef, pies, cakes, and biscuits.” Women unpacked good dishes, Edward Hunter provide a “nice fat steer,” and “a dance in the evening completed the festivities.” Eliza R. Snow, who was in attendance, remembered: “I know not as I have set at a table better supplied with the luxuries of life in all my travels for many years than was at this table set at the foot of the South Pass of the Rocky Mountains” (WFTP, 274).

Abigail settled down with family in what is now known as Ogden, Utah and died at the age of 84 on 12 March 1854; she was buried in the Ogden City Cemetery. One of her great-grandsons, Gilbert Belnap, remembered her as a “short, rather stout, fine old lady, with a square face and a fair complexion” (SE). Certainly an outward appearance of “stout” would describe her fortitude and righteousness throughout her life.

Sources:

EMGJ, Evan Melbourne Greene, “Evan M. Greene journal, 1833 January–1835 April,” MS 14339, paginated typescript, available through http://churchhistorycatalog.lds.org/.

JH, Journal history of the Church 1896-2001, CR 100 137, available through http://churchhistorycatalog.lds.org/.

PB, “Patriarchal Blessing of Abigail McBride by Jos. Smith Sr.” www.FamilySearch.org>Abigail Mead [KWV9-4Y1​​]>Memories>Documents.

SE, “Stories of Utah Pioneers: Abigail Mead McBride Was Born In New York in 1770 and Died in Ogden in 1854, After Varied Experiences,” Ogden Standard Examiner [newspaper], 12 February 1933, available at http://www.belnapfamily.org/Ogden_Standard_Examiner_1933-02-12_Stories_of_Utah_Pioneers_(top).jpg.

VK, Lola Almira Belknap Coolbear, “Vinson Knight biographical sketch,” available at www.FamilySearch.org>Vinson Knight [LCRS-2QF​​]>Memories>Stories, “Sketch of the Life of Vinson Knight by Lola Belnap Coolbear.”

WFTP, Richard E. Bennett, We’ll Find the Place: The Mormon Exodus, 1846–1848 (Salt Lake City: Deseret Book, 1997).