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Stephen Joseph Abbott

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Stephen Joseph Abbott

Birth
Providence, Lackawanna County, Pennsylvania, USA
Death
19 Oct 1843 (aged 39)
Nauvoo, Hancock County, Illinois, USA
Burial
Willard, Box Elder County, Utah, USA GPS-Latitude: 41.4175672, Longitude: -112.0331603
Memorial ID
View Source
The marker in Willard Precinct Cemetery is a cenotaph, he was buried along the banks of the Mississippi River in Nauvoo, Illinois, now likely under water with the dam since built at Keokuk Rapids.

His Father is James Abbott. Mother is Phoebe Howe.
He married Abigail Smith, (the daughter of James Smith.) They are the Parents of Myron Abbott.

Stephen and his wife Abigail were both industrious and adventurous. Four months after their marriage they moved to Dansville, NY (18 miles from Stephen's hometown). Stephen went into the cabinet-making business with Mr. Samuel A. Smith. Two year later Stephen brought his brother James into the partnership after buying out Mr. Smith. At various times Stephen also owned and operated a cording and fulling machine and a yarn factory and a potash boiling business. In 1830 at the urging of his brothers, Austin and Eleazar, Stephen determined to move West. He engaged passage for his family on a boat down the Allegheny River and arrived in Pike County, Illinois after a 5 week trip. Here he purchased a quarter section farm and 40 acres of timberland near Perry, Pike County. Here Stephen built a little log house with a dirt roof. In this small cabin their son Myron was born 12/1/1837. Myron was the sixth child born to Stephen and Abigail. Stephen wrote of the event,"On the 1st day of December of that year our son Myron was born, a promising child. My daughters went out in the garden and found a beautiful rose, although the season for that flower was long past. I took it as a good omen of promise and rejoiced. Stephen eventually built a two-story frame house along with a furniture shop and woolen factory there in Perry.
Religion was never an immportant part of Stephen' life until his marriage to Abigail who had been taught the principles and concepts by her father who also taught her to pray in secret. At 17 she experienced a dream in which she saw a large company of people dressed in white, singing a song which sounded more glorious than any song she had ever heard before. This sight and sound filled her soul with rapture and gave her strength for years to come. After their marriage, they joined a religious sect called the Universalists. In 1839, Missionaries of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints contacted the Abbotts in Illinois. They joined fellowship with a branch of the Church in Brown County named the Union Branch. Shortly after the birth of daugher Abigail in 1842, they moved to Nauvoo, Hancock County, Illinois to be with the Saints there.
Myron wrote the following of his father:

My father operated a yarn factory and cabinet shop in Perry County, Illinois. When I was 2 years old a man named Joseph Wood came to the area preaching the gospel of Christ. My father Stephen Abbott went to hear him preach and embraced the gospel. My Father moved to Nauvoo in 1842 and in 1843 was called on a mission to the Southern States. In order to fulfill his mission he with several other brethren went to rafting lumber down the Mississippi River to obtain means to support their families in their absence. He took ill and died of pneumonia when I was 8 years old. He was a kind husband and indulgent father and a true latter-day saint, ever willing to respond to every call that was made upon him by the authority of the Church. He was much respected by all who knew him. He owned property in Nauvoo, stock in the Nauvoo House, and worked on the Nauvoo Temple. He and Lyman Wight
owned property at the Apperstone Steamboat Landing on the Mississippi Just north of the Nauvoo rapids.

According to Abigail, the Prophet Joseph Smith spoke at Stephen's funeral, saying that Stephen had been called on the other side to fill his mission. Stephen Joseph Abbott was buried in an unmarked grave in Nauvoo, which location is now unknown. When Abigail was forced to leave Nauvoo with her family, she recorded later, "I had no means to erect a monument, or even a slab to mark my beloved one's grave, but I planted some morning glory on the grave and left him there to sleep and rest." Even though no headstone was raised to mark his last resting place, Stephen had his monument in the love and the remembrance of his family. Then and in future times would be seen the fulfillment of the promise made in his patriarchal blessing that his name would be had in honorable remembrance by his posterity "unto the latest Generation."


The marker in Willard Precinct Cemetery is a cenotaph, he was buried along the banks of the Mississippi River in Nauvoo, Illinois, now likely under water with the dam since built at Keokuk Rapids.

His Father is James Abbott. Mother is Phoebe Howe.
He married Abigail Smith, (the daughter of James Smith.) They are the Parents of Myron Abbott.

Stephen and his wife Abigail were both industrious and adventurous. Four months after their marriage they moved to Dansville, NY (18 miles from Stephen's hometown). Stephen went into the cabinet-making business with Mr. Samuel A. Smith. Two year later Stephen brought his brother James into the partnership after buying out Mr. Smith. At various times Stephen also owned and operated a cording and fulling machine and a yarn factory and a potash boiling business. In 1830 at the urging of his brothers, Austin and Eleazar, Stephen determined to move West. He engaged passage for his family on a boat down the Allegheny River and arrived in Pike County, Illinois after a 5 week trip. Here he purchased a quarter section farm and 40 acres of timberland near Perry, Pike County. Here Stephen built a little log house with a dirt roof. In this small cabin their son Myron was born 12/1/1837. Myron was the sixth child born to Stephen and Abigail. Stephen wrote of the event,"On the 1st day of December of that year our son Myron was born, a promising child. My daughters went out in the garden and found a beautiful rose, although the season for that flower was long past. I took it as a good omen of promise and rejoiced. Stephen eventually built a two-story frame house along with a furniture shop and woolen factory there in Perry.
Religion was never an immportant part of Stephen' life until his marriage to Abigail who had been taught the principles and concepts by her father who also taught her to pray in secret. At 17 she experienced a dream in which she saw a large company of people dressed in white, singing a song which sounded more glorious than any song she had ever heard before. This sight and sound filled her soul with rapture and gave her strength for years to come. After their marriage, they joined a religious sect called the Universalists. In 1839, Missionaries of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints contacted the Abbotts in Illinois. They joined fellowship with a branch of the Church in Brown County named the Union Branch. Shortly after the birth of daugher Abigail in 1842, they moved to Nauvoo, Hancock County, Illinois to be with the Saints there.
Myron wrote the following of his father:

My father operated a yarn factory and cabinet shop in Perry County, Illinois. When I was 2 years old a man named Joseph Wood came to the area preaching the gospel of Christ. My father Stephen Abbott went to hear him preach and embraced the gospel. My Father moved to Nauvoo in 1842 and in 1843 was called on a mission to the Southern States. In order to fulfill his mission he with several other brethren went to rafting lumber down the Mississippi River to obtain means to support their families in their absence. He took ill and died of pneumonia when I was 8 years old. He was a kind husband and indulgent father and a true latter-day saint, ever willing to respond to every call that was made upon him by the authority of the Church. He was much respected by all who knew him. He owned property in Nauvoo, stock in the Nauvoo House, and worked on the Nauvoo Temple. He and Lyman Wight
owned property at the Apperstone Steamboat Landing on the Mississippi Just north of the Nauvoo rapids.

According to Abigail, the Prophet Joseph Smith spoke at Stephen's funeral, saying that Stephen had been called on the other side to fill his mission. Stephen Joseph Abbott was buried in an unmarked grave in Nauvoo, which location is now unknown. When Abigail was forced to leave Nauvoo with her family, she recorded later, "I had no means to erect a monument, or even a slab to mark my beloved one's grave, but I planted some morning glory on the grave and left him there to sleep and rest." Even though no headstone was raised to mark his last resting place, Stephen had his monument in the love and the remembrance of his family. Then and in future times would be seen the fulfillment of the promise made in his patriarchal blessing that his name would be had in honorable remembrance by his posterity "unto the latest Generation."




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