Son of Solomon Abbott & Lucy Frye

Married Ruth Markham, 1834, Rochester, Monroe, New York

"JOSHUA CHANDLER ABBOTT was born 14 August 1804 in Massachusetts. Before the fall of 1834 Joshua moved to Rochester, Monroe, New York, where he was married to Ruth Markham by a Methodist minister. Ruth was the daughter of James Markham and Lois Leach. After their marriage they resided in Brockport, Monroe County, until 1835. In that year they removed to Hiram, Portage County, Ohio. It is likely they moved to Hiram because Ruth's sister, Betsey Elizabeth Gardner, and her husband, Elias Gardner, lived there.

"On 14 April 1837 they had a daughter Ellen Elizabeth. They had another daughter Mary in 1839 while at Portage County, Ohio. It is assumed that they united with The Church of Jesus Christ of Latterday Saints in Hiram. After their baptism they migrated with the Saints to Hancock County, Illinois. They had James Steele in 1843 in Illinois, and in Hancock, their two children died: Mary, age 6, and James, age 1.

"After burying their children, Joshua and Ruth fled from religious persecution into Iowa Territory. In Council Bluffs, Joshua enlisted in the Mormon Battalion. Ruth volunteered to accompany him on the Battalion trek as a laundress in Company D. Together they marched from Council Bluffs to Santa Fe., where they were detached with the sick to Fort Pueblo. At the fort, Joshua was wounded in his hand by a bullet in October 1846 (Pension File).

"After wintering at Pueblo, he and Ruth migrated to the Salt Lake Valley, arriving on 27 July 1847. By 1 August 1846, the Mormon Battalion, at that time numbered 549 men, were camped at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas traveling westward by another route, thus greatly weakening the camp of the saints.

"The men had been given the privilege of having their wives with them and there were a few children named. Ruth Abbott's name was among the list of women of the Battalion but her child, Ellen Elizabeth Abbott, was not listed there. (PH vol 5) It appears that Joshua and Ruth had left their nine year old daughter with their sister, Betsy Markham, at Winter Quarters. Tradition is that Ellen came across the plains with the Gardner's. (More complete details pertaining to the Abbott's daughter are recorded in "Joshua and Ruth Abbott Manuscript.")

"When Joshua and Ruth settled in Salt Lake Valley, they owned a little stream of water. But as Salt Lake grew, the city had to have his stream of water for the city water. Joshua Abbott thought for the city to take his water that he ran his grist mill with wasn't right, and it made him angry. Joshua left the Salt Lake Valley after a confrontation with Brigham Young in the spring of 1849. He tried to persuade his wife, Ruth, to go with him, but she was tired out from their trip across the plains. She told him to go ahead and get a home forher, and she would follow him. But I guess he (about that time) thought the world was turning against him, and he left.

"He migrated to Atchison Country, Missouri, where in July 1849, he applied for his bounty land of 160 acres in Illinois. He sold his claim to that land on 8 February 1850 to John S. Hayward. Two witnesses to the bill of sale were Allen Compton and James Brown, Joshua's companions in the Battalion. After the sale Joshua migrated to California where he married a second time Jane Brockway (Life Sketch, Joshua Abbot).

"To this couple was born Jessie G. Abbott. Between 1870 and 1880 heremoved to Douglas County, Oregon, and worked as a farmer (Oregon Federal Census, 1880). In Gardiner, Douglas

County, he was married for the third time to a 46-year-old widow Mrs. Nancy J.

Bay (b. 6 July 1826, Springfield, Sangamon County, Illinois and married to William F. Bay, about 1842) 1 February 1882 by E. H. Burchard, justice of the peace (Pension File) in Gardiner,

Douglas County, Oregon.

"Ruth Markham Abbott never heard from him. Ruth Abbott was sealed toElias Gardner, her son-in-law and made her home with Elias Gardner and Ruth's daughter Ellen Elizabeth Abbott Gardner, fifth wife of Elias Gardner. Ruth Markham died 13 September 1888 in Annabella, Sevier County, Utah.

"Years after Ruth Abbott died, her daughter, Ellen Elizabeth, received a letter from her father, Joshua Abbott, wanting her to come to him, but she died shortly after she received his letter, so her daughter, Martha Jan Kearns, found out that Joshua Abbott married again and had

one son, a doctor, but what his name is I do not know.

"By 1888 Joshua's health was declining. In 1894 he suffered fromrheumatism and natural disabilities related to old age. He was unable to perform manual labor on his 160 acres

of land: 120 acres were mountainous, and 40 acres were swampland. This acreage, value at $250, did not provide him with any income (Pension File). He died from hematemesis. On 9

April 1896 (age 91) at his home site on the Smith River in Gardiner, Douglas Country, Oregon.

"T. B. Gabriel helped wash, dress, and bury the body. After this burial, a conflict arose over legal rights to the widow's pension. Joshua had never divorced his first wife even though he married two other women. According to the government pension examiner, his marriage to his third wife was considered a common-law union and not valid in the state of Oregon

(Pension File)."

* Mormon Battalion members