Archives West Finding Aid

The Abraham Owen Smoot papers (1836-1866) contain a photocopy of a portion of Smoot's diary, an invitation, and a typescript of brief biographical sketches of Abraham O. Smoot, Catherine M. Stakers, Henry Brown Wilde, Ebeneezer Russel Young, Robert Young, Hannah Hodgson, Job Hensley, and Mary Shaw Hodgeson. Attached to the typescript is a handwritten document giving the same information. Smoot's diary is chiefly concerned with his experiences as a missionary for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church). Abraham Owen Smoot (1815-1895) was born to George W. Smoot and Ann Rowlett in Owen County, Kentucky. His family moved to Tennessee when he was thirteen and it was there Smoot was baptized into the LDS Church. Smoot served his mission with Wilford Woodruff who was later the fourth president of the LDS Church. Most of the accounts in the diary are of his teaching experiences and travels during his mission in Kentucky and Tennessee. However, Smoot also included accounts of mob violence against the LDS Church. One account is of Joseph Smith's death, recorded by Smoot in July 1844. In 1838 Smoot was imprisoned for his defense of the LDS Church in Missouri. During his imprisonment, Smoot married his first wife, Margaret T. McMeans. Smoot records missionary experiences with his first wife, as well as later marriages to other wives. In 1839 he and Margaret moved to Nauvoo and later led a company of 120 wagons of LDS pioneers to the Salt Lake Valley. In 1852 Smoot was sent on a mission to Liverpool, England, where he conducted the first organized emigration of LDS Church members from Europe to Utah. During the 1840s and 1850s, in addition to his missionary activities in England, Smoot served the Salt Lake community as LDS bishop, mayor, first justice of the peace, and member of the legislature. Smoot also helped organize the building of a sugar factory, supervised the erection of the first nail factory west of the Mississippi River, and helped bring the first wheat threshing machine and fan separator west of the Missouri River. In 1868 Smoot was elected mayor of Provo, serving fourteen years without pay while providing strong financial support for the Brigham Young Academy. He remained president of the board of trustees for the Academy until his death in 1895.