Myron Abbott: A Pioneer Family Saved from Starvation by 'Two Merciful Circumstances' (c. 1839–1848)

Myron Abbott was born in 1837, just as his parents, Joseph Stephen and Abigail Smith Abbott, were introduced to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. He was only six when his father died, leaving his young mother with eight children. In the grueling years that followed, the family was saved from starvation by 'two merciful circumstances': Myron's sister Emily had married Edward Bunker, who took responsibility to help, and Captain James Brown honored an agreement he had made with Stephen that if either should die, the remaining man would marry the widow. With the valiant help of these good men the family moved step by step across the great plains and arrived in Salt Lake Valley in the fall of 1848. Myron's eldest son later wrote of him: 'He was a good man, active, vigorous, industrious and honest. His children regard his life as successful, though the means he accumulated were pitifully small.'