Elijah Abel

Elijah Abel, or Able or Ables (July 25, 1808– December 25, 1884) 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, 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. 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." 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". Abel taught Kinney and others he baptized that "the time was drawing near for [Christ's] coming", 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.

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 Adams of Tennessee, who was residing in Ohio. 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 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.

Abel and his wife managed the Farnham House hotel, which was advertised as a "first class" boarding house that boasted "good stabling and corrals". By 1862, Abel and his family had relocated to the Tenth Ward in Salt Lake City.

Disputes over priesthood

Meeting in Cincinnati, 1843

On June 25, 1843, a regional conference occurred in Cincinnati presided over by LDS Church apostles John E. Page, Orson Pratt, Heber C. Kimball, and future-apostle Lorenzo Snow. During the conference, questions regarding Abel and his membership were addressed, including the acknowledgement of recent complaints about Abel's public preaching activity. Page stated that while "he respected a coloured Brother, wisdom forbid that we should introduce [him] before the public." Pratt and Kimball supported Page's statements, and the leaders resolved to restrict Abel's activities as a member of the church.

While previously in Canada, Abel's activity to encourage flight from Canada and its civil uprisings to the American "Zion" was viewed with disdain, and was seen by the Canadians as "pro-American sympathizing". The former missionary associates who accused him cited Abel's claims "that there would be stakes of Zion in all the world". no disciplinary action was taken against Abel. At the conclusion of the conference, Abel was called to serve a second mission locally, but he was instructed to visit and teach "only the coloured population". The leaders of the conference in Cincinnati made no statement that the resolution of the meeting had been based on divine revelation or that it constituted any sort of doctrinal mandate, but rather they deemed it prudent to address the dynamic racial and politically turbulent climate of the times.

The 1849 priesthood ban

In 1849, Brigham Young issued a church-wide ban on black men from being ordained to the priesthood. The policy's initial reveal by Young to the Twelve may have occurred up to two years earlier at Winter Quarters, Nebraska. Young's pronouncements in 1849 constitute the earliest known statements which officially exclude those of African descent from a temple endowment or the wielding of priesthood power. This decision may have been brought about in part by the actions of William McCary, an African-American convert to the church living in Cincinnati, who believed he was a prophet and claimed on various occasions to be Jesus and Adam, father of the human race. In 1847, as the Saints resided at Winter Quarters, McCary was excommunicated, following the discovery of various unauthorized polygamous sealings performed in his home. As members of the LDS Church continued to migrate to the West, Mormons were exposed to a larger population of blacks, and anti-black political attitudes continued to increase among church members. Other black members of the church such as Q. Walker Lewis also found themselves and their church membership under scrutiny during this period.

By 1847, Abel's priesthood authority had begun to be challenged, despite his well-respected status within the church community. Even after the 1849 official prohibition for all Latter-day Saint "brethren of color," Abel remained involved in the church. As one who already held the priesthood, he continued to serve as a seventy in Cincinnati from 1842 to 1853, and in the autumn of 1883 served another mission to Cincinnati shortly before his death.

Denial of temple ordinances

After moving to Utah Territory, Abel asked Brigham Young for permission to be sealed to his wife and children, which was denied. Abel again requested a sealing five years later to his deceased wife, son, and daughter—this time from President John Taylor, who then passed it on for the body of the Twelve to consider. Abel's request was again refused, and he was not allowed to enter the temple to be endowed.

1879 meeting regarding Joseph Smith's statements

On May 31, 1879, a meeting was held at the residence of Provo mayor Abraham O. Smoot to discuss the conflicting versions of Joseph Smith's views on black men and the priesthood, in response to Abel's petition to be sealed to his recently deceased wife. At these meetings, Abel himself defended his priesthood before church authorities, outlining its timeline and reaffirming that Joseph Smith himself had told him he was "entitled to the priesthood". Abel expressed to President Taylor his lifelong hope that his endowment of priesthood might prove one day "the welding link" to bond all of God's people together regardless of race. At the end of these meetings, John Taylor concluded that Joseph Smith had made "an exception" and had given Abel the priesthood despite his race—perhaps because he was of primarily European descent, and perhaps because he had further proved his worthiness by helping to advance and to build the early church. Taylor moved to honor Smith's decision and ruled that Abel's priesthood would be "allowed to remain".

Posthumous commentary on Abel's priesthood

After Abel's death, LDS Church president Joseph F. Smith on multiple occasions

Legacy

Following Abel's death in 1884, his life and ordination to the priesthood remained a topic of conversation and debate for decades. The circumstance and story of Elijah Abel often were referenced with the rise of questions concerning black men receiving the priesthood or temple blessings. All eligible men within The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints were admitted to the priesthood beginning in 1978, when all former restrictions based on race were lifted with the revelation received by then-prophet and church president Spencer W. Kimball. Long before this, however, Abel's son and grandson, Enoch and Elijah, had both been ordained already to the Melchizedek priesthood; Enoch was ordained an elder on November 27, 1900, and Elijah to the same office on September 29, 1935.

In 2002, a monument was erected in Salt Lake City over Abel's gravesite by the Missouri Mormon Frontier Foundation and the Genesis Group, to memorialize Abel, his wife, and his descendants.

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Notes

Sources

External links

Elijah Abel Black LDS site
Mormon Central Catalogued LDS Church documentation and correspondence regarding blacks and the priesthood