Abraham Owen Smoot (February 17, 1815 – March 6, 1895) was an American pioneer, businessman, religious leader, and politician.

Like other early members of the LDS Church, Smoot practiced plural marriage, eventually marrying six women and having 24 children.

After migrating west to Utah Territory, he was elected as the second mayor of Salt Lake City and maintained this position from 1857 to 1866.

[2] His mother's uncle, Colonel Abraham Owen, served William Henry Harrison at the Battle of Tippecanoe.

"[3]: 10  Soon after his baptism, Smoot was given the responsibility of leading a small group of church members in Benton County, Tennessee.

That fall, Smoot's group of missionaries headed north to Kirtland to join the main body of church members assembled there.

[3]: 12–15 Smoot received an assignment from Joseph Smith to gather a group of people from his home state of Tennessee to move to Far West, Missouri.

Once he returned to Far West, Missouri state forces invaded;[2] and Smoot, alongside Joseph and Hyrum Smith,[8] was taken prisoner on November 1 during the 1838 Mormon War.

During Joseph Smith's 1844 presidential campaign, Smoot was assigned to travel to Tennessee and oversee both political and missionary efforts in the area.

One night, a man attempted to assassinate Smoot, but narrowly missed; the "bullet passed near [his] head and lodged in the ceiling".

On another occasion, when "a mob of two hundred men" threatened Smoot while he was speaking, a few audience members protected him after he made the Masonic sign that signaled danger.

[8] His goal this time was to bring converts to the church back to the United States, sponsored by the Perpetual Emigration Fund.

[9] Smoot left England within the same month of his arrival and, once back in the U.S., accompanied the band of British immigrants on the trek west.

[11] Reed, in letters to his mother, wrote that his father exercised and toured the islands every day, despite being there for purpose of gaining some rest.

[5]: 151 In early 1838, while serving as a missionary in Missouri and Arkansas, Smoot began writing letters to a widow[3]: 19  named Margaret Thompson McMeans Adkinson.

She gave her "fullest and freest consent" for Smoot to enter into polygamy;[3]: 40  she saw it as "a pure, chaste principle revealed to the Saints through the Prophet Joseph Smith.

[13] On November 23, 1847, once the family had crossed the plains and settled in the Salt Lake Valley, Hill gave birth to Smoot's first biological child, Albert.

[15] In addition to having six wives, Smoot was sealed to some of the deceased ancestors of his wife, including Margaret Adkinson, who had died unmarried.

[5]: 133, 148  As a father, Smoot was strict in teaching his children Christian values; he wanted them to grow up to be stout believers.

However, as a Latter-day Saint missionary, he actively supported Joseph Smith's presidential platform, which called for the gradual elimination of slavery.

On a mission to Tennessee, Smoot tried to have 3,000 copies of Smith's presidential platform printed, but the printer refused, since it was illegal to distribute abolitionist literature in the state.

[25] While proselyting with Wilford Woodruff in July 1836, Smoot read the April issue of the Messenger and Advocate to refute accusations of their being abolitionists.

[27] Modern historians have called Smoot, along with Brigham Young, Charles C. Rich, and William H. Hooper, a "respectable minority" of Utah Territory citizens "in favor of slavery.

"[29] Smoot was later involved in the 1879 discussions among church leaders about the origins of the priesthood and temple restrictions for black Latter-day Saints.

Smoot remembered that when Patten, Parish, and Thomas B. Marsh were missionaries in the South in 1835 and 1836, they took the question of ordaining black men to Joseph Smith.

After more than three decades of church and civic service, including nine missions, Smoot was apparently looking forward to enjoying the comforts brought by his hard work and successful business ventures.

[2]: 101  Young had named him the Presiding Bishop of Provo; some members there had departed from the teachings of the church and needed a leader to unify them.

[1] Board members such as Harvey H. Cluff and Martha Jane Knowlton Coray served under the direction of Smoot for twenty years.

[5]: 217, 229  In both Salt Lake and Provo, Smoot continued his studies at the School of the Prophets, which he first began in Kirtland, Ohio as a young man.

Smoot's funeral was held on March 10, 1895, in the Provo Tabernacle[11] and was called "the most impressive ever witnessed in pioneer Utah territory.