page_title: Stillman Pond
section_title: Abigail Thorn and a Prophet's mantle
hierarchical_section_title: Stillman Pond / Abigail Thorn and a Prophet's mantle
caption_attribution_description: English: Abigail Thorne Pond (1821-1904)
context_page_description: Stillman Pond – a farmer, harnessmaker, and land speculator by trade, and a native of Hubbardston, Worcester, Massachusetts – was a Mormon pioneer and church leader recognized for the great personal sacrifices he made in the Mormon exodus from Nauvoo, Illinois, to the Great Basin's Salt Lake Valley, in what would later become Utah Territory.
context_section_description: Stillman's third wife, Abigail Thorn, whom he married at the Endowment House at Salt Lake City in 1849 and by whom he would have 8 additional children, was the abandoned plural spouse of Major Samuel Russell who had, only a year earlier, deserted Abigail and their own newborn infant in preference for the gold fields of California. Stillman had been a member of the same (combined Smoot-Wallace-Russell) 'Camp of Israel' company as the Russells in the trek to Utah (arriving September 25, 1847), and he had since established himself in farming to the west of the city, where he'd witnessed the saving of his locust-infested crops in 1848 by the miraculous arrival of seagulls.
  For her part, Abigail – born into a respected family at Lair, Cayuga, New York, on April 2, 1821 – had experienced a powerful conversion to the Mormon faith as a young woman. The same glorious spirit which had so moved her then, had again urged her to join with the Saints at Nauvoo. There, at the age of 22, she received in the spring of 1843 her patriarchal blessing under the hands of Hyrum Smith, the Prophet's brother, just fifteen months before his martyrdom at Carthage. Hyrum blessed her with the gift of dreams and visions by the Holy Ghost (she would also enjoy in her life the gift of tongues and a keen discernment of spirits). Hers was the special privilege of witnessing at Nauvoo on August 8, 1844, as scores of accounts that were recorded at the time attest, the transfiguration of Brigham Young, when the mantle and unmistakable voice of the Prophet Joseph Smith fell upon him as a special sign to the Saints of his high calling and acceptance of the Lord to lead His people.
caption: Abigail Thorn Pond (1821–1904)
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