Elijah Abel (July 25, 1810 - December 25, 1884) was the first black Elder and Seventy in the Latter Day Saint movement, and one of the few black members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints to receive the Priesthood before the church began a policy of racial discrimination, a policy that was renounced in 1978.
Abel was born in Maryland as a slave, and is believed to have escaped slavery on the Underground Railroad into Canada. He was baptized in September 1832 by Ezekiel Roberts, and he married Mary Ann Adams, another African American.
He was ordained an Elder in March 1836 in Kirtland, Ohio, probably by Joseph Smith, Jr. In December 1836, he was ordained a Seventy by Zebedee Coltrin and became a "duly licensed minister of the Gospel" for missionary work in Ohio. He also served missions in New York and Canada. In 1839, he was made a member of the Nauvoo Seventies Quorum. In Nauvoo, he worked as a mortician, at the request of Joseph Smith. He was a carpenter by profession, and assisted in the construction of temples in Kirtland, Nauvoo, and Salt Lake City.
In 1841, when Joseph Smith was arrested in Quincy, Illinois, Elijah Abel was among a group of seven elders including Hosea Stout who set out from Nauvoo to try and rescue him, although by they reached Quincy, Smith had been taken back to Nauvoo. (History of the Church, 4:365).
In 1843, he served a mission in New York.
In 1847, he accompanied Brigham Young to Utah, where he managed a hotel. As a carpenter, he assisted in constructing the Salt Lake Temple; however, in 1853 he was barred by Brigham Young from entering the temple to receive his own Endowment.
In Utah, Abel remained a Seventy, and in 1884 he served a final mission in Canada, during which he became ill. He died upon his return home to Utah.
At least two of Abel's descendents were ordained to the priesthood, his grandson being ordained an Elder on September 29, 1935.
In 2002, a monument was erected in Salt Lake City, Utah over his grave site to memorialize Abel and his wife. The monument was dedicated by LDS Apostle Elder M. Russell Ballard.
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External reference
12(2) Dialogue 22-36.
