Abigail Mead 1770-1836

Gideon Mead_____________Martha Fisk
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Abigail Mead McBride
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Margaret Anne McBride 1794-1918
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Spicer Wells Crandall 1822-1879
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Myron Newton Crandall 1865-1903
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Grant LaSalle Crandall 1800-1970
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John David Crandall

Abigail Mead was born January 29, 1770, in Nine Partners, Montgomery, New York. Her parents were Gideon Mead and Martha Fisk. She was the first child from a family of six, her siblings being: Nancy, Fanny, Lydia, Hanna, and Gideon.

Abigail married Daniel McBride in 1787, in Stillwater, Albany, New York. Her first four children: John, January 5, 1788; Samuel, August 25, 1789; Daniel, March 19, 1791; and James, July 19, 1893, were born in Stillwater. Her last five children: Margaret, June of 1795; Hyrum, November 5, 1798; Cyrus Gideon, August 17, 1800; Reuben, June 16, 1803; and Martha, March 17, 1805, were born in Chester, Washington, New York.

Agibail's husband, Daniel, died September 1, 1823, in LeRoy, Genesee, New York. He had been a Campbellite minister and she continued to raise her children with the fear of God.

About 1829, Abigail heard of the mysterious visions of the Prophet Joseph Smith, and wholly believed in them. She was baptized a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints on June 25, 1833. The entire family also joined the church.

In the spring of 1835, they sold their farms at great sacrifices and traveled to Kirtland, Ohio to be with the rest of the Saints. The trip was made by stagecoach and canal boat, which took about six days.

They donated liberally to the building of the city of Kirtland and to the temple. With six of her children, Abigail enjoyed the heavenly manifestations given at the dedication of the Kirtland Temple on March 27, 1836. Her son, Reuben, became the custodian of the Kirtland Temple.

She received her patriarchal blessing from Joseph Smith, Sr. on June 8, 1836. The following is the body of the blessing:

"My aged sister, in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, the Redeemer of the world, and by the power and authority of the Priesthood, I lay my hands on thy head; and on the heads of thy posterity, confer a blessing. Thou hast had sorrow and affliction out of which the Lord is delivering thee. He has established thy faith. Thou has obeyed the Gospel of the Savior. Thy name is been written in the Lamb's Book of Life. Thou art of the lineage of Abraham. If thou holdest on thy way, the time will come when thou, like Job, shall see God, in the flesh, standing upon the earth. Thou shalt see angels and receive the communication of the Holy Ghost. Thy children shall stand in the covenant, by the power of God, thou shalt go to Zion, and be in good health. Thy mind shall be strong and rejoice in thy God. Thou shalt not want for the things of this life. Give up thyself to God and thou shalt see they redeemer, who thou desirest to know. Thou shalt be a member of the Celestial World. I seal these blessings upon thy head. I seal these things up to eternal life. Amen and amen."

Abigail endured the persecutions attending the twelve thousand members of the church in their migration to Nauvoo, Illinois.

In 1839, two of her sons died: James, in August, in Illinois, and Hyrum, in November, in New York.

Abigail assembled with the huge crowd when Joseph led his famous Nauvoo Legion, in their elegant uniforms with their plumed hats, through the streets of Nauvoo for the last time. She heard his famous farewell address, with unsheathed sword, pointing heavenward in defense of his followers, from the top of an unfinished building.

Shortly after the Prophet was martyred, with deepest sorrow, she was able to view his remains, along with thousands of tear-stained companions.

Abigail was present on August 8, 1844, when the mantle of Joseph Smith fell upon Brigham Young. She heard Brigham Young's declaration that he was the rightful leader of the Saints and would lead them safely to the tops of the Rocky Mountains, as predicted by the martyred Prophet.

Her daughter, Margaret Ann, died in August of 1845, in Illinois.

Abigail was endowed on January 28, 1846, in the Nauvoo Temple. Shew as among the Saints expelled from Nauvoo, who made their homes in tents, covered wagons, and hurriedly erected log cabins across the Mississippi River.

She joined the first emigrant company to follow Brigham Young, leaving Elk Horn on June 17, 1847. She endured the inconveniences of the long trek in this huge company of fifteen hundred men, women, and children, who were in five hundred sixty wagons, with five thousand head of stock. They traveled between four to eleven miles a day, taking turns by the hundreds in leading the caravan.

On September 4, 1847, they rejoiced in meeting Brigham Young and his party, who had come to lead them into the Salt Lake Valley. Three days later, a great feast was arranged, concluding with a dance; an Indian attack followed. It was the latter part of September when they arrived in the Salt Lake Valley.

Abigail was described as a short, rather stout, fine old lady with a square face and a fair complexion.

Abigail Mead McBride died March 12, 1854, in Ogden, Weber, Utah. She is buried in the Ogden City Cemetery.

This record was compiled from the Daughters of the Pioneers Archives in June 2001 by Louise Crandall Huefner and Rebecca Huefner Chapman.


Here is another history of Abigail that was found on Ancestry.com, with no author's name given.

Reverend Daniel McBride (1766-1823), itinerant minister who was born in Stillwater, Albany (later Saratoga), New York, and his wife, Abigail Mead (1770-1854), of Dutchess County, New York.

Daniel McBride was an itinerant minister who was born in Stillwater, Albany (now Saratoga) County, New York in 1766 and died in LeRoy, Genesee County, New York in 1823.

Daniel McBride was the son of Samuel McBride, who was born in County Antrim, Ireland and emigrated to Upstate New York in the mid 1700s along with at least two of Samuel's brothers, John and James McBride. Samuel McBride married Margaret Brown, whose sister Sarah married William Cooper. Members of the McBride family were directly affected, if not involved, in the Revolutionary War Battle of Saratoga. Information on these other McBride and Brown family members is also included here.

Daniel McBride married Abigail Mead, who was born in 1770 in Dutchess County, New York. She descended from the Quaker Mead and Fiske families of Fairfield County, Connecticut. Abigail joined The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in 1833, almost 10 years after Daniel's death, as did most of their 9 children, and, after living in Kirtland, Ohio and Nauvoo, Illinois, emigrated to Utah in 1847, one of the oldest persons to cross the plains to Utah in that first settlement year. She died and was buried in Ogden, Weber, Utah in 1854.

Descendants of the Daniel McBride and Abigail Mead family include:

• The first person to have been baptized in the Nauvoo Temple baptismal font (son Reuben McBride);
• One of the polygamous wives of LDS Church founder and prophet, Joseph Smith, Jr., and of Heber Chase Kimball (daughter Martha McBride, widow of presiding bishop Vinson Knight);
• A member of the Mormon Battalion that marched from Kanesville, Iowa to San Diego, California during the Mexican-American War (grandson Harlum McBride);
• An LDS missionary who was killed by Indians at Fort Lemhi in Oregon Territory (now Idaho) (grandson George McBride);
• Two granddaughters, first cousins, who were both married polygamously to Gilbert Belnap (Adaline Knight and Henrietta McBride);
• Two grandchildren, first cousins, who married Lot Smith and Abiah Ann Smith, brother and sister (Lydia Minerva McBride and George McBride);
• A granddaughter who apostatized from the LDS Church after being asked by Hyrum Smith, brother of Joseph Smith, to be his plural wife; she later married Sylvester B. Stoddard, owner of the restored tinsmith shop now standing in historic Nauvoo, Illinois (Almira Knight).