Ables, Elijah R.

Biography

Elijah R. Ables

Elijah R. Ables was the third member of the Able family to be ordained an elder in the Melchizedek Priesthood of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. In 1836, his grandfather and namesake Elijah Able was the first black man ordained to the lay priesthood in the church and almost one hundred years later, in 1935, Elijah R. Ables received the same priesthood as his grandfather. In 1871, Moroni Able was the second member of the family ordained an elder. The three Ables thus represent the sometimes-porous nature of Mormonism’s racial priesthood restriction and illustrate the inconsistencies and difficulties of enforcing that restriction over time.

Elijah R. Ables was the son of Enoch and Mary Jordi Able and grandson of Elijah and Mary Ann Adams Able. He was thus the descendent of at least two generations of interracial marriages. His grandfather Elijah and grandmother Mary Ann were both of mixed racial heritage and his father married Mary Jordi, a Swiss born French speaking immigrant. As an adult Elijah R. passed as white, a fact which likely accounts for his ordination to the Latter-day Saint lay priesthood in 1934 and 1935.

Elijah R. first appeared in a U.S. Census record in 1900 at age seven when the census taker listed his mother as white and his father, along with Elijah and the rest of the family, as black.[1] In 1910, the census taker recorded Elijah R.’s race, along with that of his siblings, as mulatto.[2] That was the last time any public record defined Elijah as anything other than white. Elijah’s father Enoch passed away in 1901 when Elijah was only eight years old, a death which left Elijah and his six siblings with their widowed mother. Over time community memory likely faded of Enoch as a “colored” man and the family passed as white.[3]

By 1916 Elijah had moved to the town of Daniels in Oneida County, Idaho, where people would not have known his father. It was there in 1917 that Elijah registered for the World War I draft. The draft registrar described Elijah as short with medium build, dark brown eyes, black hair, and physically “all right.” For race the registrar wrote “Caucasian.”[4] The 1920, 1930, and 1940 censuses listed Elijah as white as did his death certificate in 1961.[5] By his mid-twenties, then, Elijah was passing. Elijah moved to Idaho in order to farm and help provide for his widowed mother and siblings. On his draft registration he listed his mother and brother as dependent on him for support and claimed an exemption from the draft for that reason.[6]

It was also in Idaho that Elijah met Catherine Williams, the daughter of immigrant parents from Wales, and the two apparently fell in love.[7] They applied for a marriage license in Oneida County in October 1916 but the section of the license which recorded an actual marriage was left blank, an indication that the marriage did not happen.[8] In 1917 Elijah listed his marital status as single on his draft registration and both Catherine and Elijah lived with their respective families in 1920, Catherine in Idaho and Elijah back in Logan, Utah. The census that year described both Elijah and Catherine as “single.”[9]

Even though the couple did not marry in 1916, their relationship continued. On 21 July 1922, Catherine gave birth to the couple’s first daughter, ArLene, in Samaria, Idaho.[10] A year and a half later, on 12 December 1923, they again applied for a marriage license in Oneida County, Idaho, and were married at Malad that same day.[11] Catherine gave birth to Mary June, their second and final child, in 1926, this time in Logan, Utah where the family made their home.[12]

Even though three of Elijah’s siblings were baptized as children in the Logan 5th Ward, Elijah never was. He was blessed in that ward as an infant but he was not baptized until he moved to Idaho as an adult.[13] Fredrich Gilger Jr., baptized him on 30 June 1917 at age 24 in the Daniels, Idaho ward.[14] After he married Catherine they moved to the Logan 9th ward where ArLene was blessed and then in 1926 the family transferred to the Logan 10th ward where Elijah was ordained a priest in 1934 and an elder in 1935.[15] There is no record of any concern over Elijah’s racial heritage or any indication that anyone in the ward was even aware of his ancestry. His father had been dead for over thirty years by the time Elijah was ordained and by that point all surviving public records identified Elijah as white.

At some point the marriage between Elijah and Catherine ended. In 1956, Elijah married Melanie Urbin Behrsin, an immigrant widow from Riga, Latvia, at Deer Lodge, Montana. Melanie was 56 and Elijah was almost 64. It was a second marriage for both. Their Montana marriage certificate listed Melanie and Elijah as widowed, which for Elijah at least was a mistake.[16] It is impossible to know whether the error was intentional but Catherine, Elijah’s fist wife, was still alive. She did not pass away until 1988; by then she lived in Salt Lake City and had modified her name to “Cathryn Van Able.” Her obituary noted her marriage to Elijah, their two daughters together, and stated that Elijah had died in 1961, but did not mention a divorce.[17] In contrast, Elijah’s obituary did not mention Catherine or their children together but simply remarked that he was “survived by his wife Mrs. Melanie Ables.”[18] Melanie passed away in 1983 and is buried in Southington, Connecticut.[19]

Elijah established a legacy of hard work in a variety of blue-collar jobs. Census records, Logan city directories, and his obituary listed his various occupations over time, including farmer, laborer at odd jobs, laborer at a sugar factory, doing road work for the Works Project Administration, a blacksmith and boilermaker in Oregon, and an attendant at the Montana State Hospital in Warm Springs.[20] He had been working at the hospital in Warms Springs for three years before he became sick in February 1961 and was unable to return to work. His illness lingered for several months before he was hospitalized in late July and he passed away on 1 August 1961. In announcing Elijah’s passing, the Montana Standard noted that he “was a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, the Boilermakers’ Union and Hospital Workers’ Local No. 205.”[21]

Bishop Otto Dal Guymon conducted Elijah’s funeral at the Anaconda Latter-day Saint chapel. Marjorie Wolverton and Linda Keele, two fellow congregants, sang “Nearer My God to Thee” and “Beyond the Sunset” at the service. Elijah’s pallbearers were fellow attendants from the state hospital at Warm Springs where he had worked over the past three years. He was laid to rest in the “perpetual care section” of Lower Hill Cemetery in Anaconda, Montana.[22]

It is improbable that anyone who participated in Elijah’s funeral in 1961 fully recognized the historical connection which the man whom they honored had to Mormonism’s fraught history with race. Elijah R. Ables represented three generations of priesthood holders of African ancestry within the same pioneering family. It would be another seventeen years after Elijah’s death before priesthood and temples were again made available to all peoples within the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints regardless of race or ethnicity as they had been when his grandfather was ordained in 1836. More than divine curses and the impossibility of determining blackness, Elijah R. Ables’ story demonstrates the power of whiteness. As Cathryn Van Able’s obituary proudly noted, she had helped send two of her great-grandsons on missions, meaning that the priesthood legacy in the Able family continued for at least three more generations.[23] That legacy was no doubt multiplied in countless other lines as various Able descendants passed as white.

By W. Paul Reeve

Primary Sources

“Ables, Elijah” Presiding Bishopric stake and mission census. CR 4 311, 1925, 1935. CR 4 313, 1940. Church History Library, Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, Salt Lake City, Utah.

“Cathryn Van Able.” Deseret News (Salt Lake City, Utah). 20-21 October 1988, B8.

Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Record of Members Collection. Daniels Ward. CR 375 8, box 1562, folder 1, image 45. Church History Library. Salt Lake City, Utah.

Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Record of Members Collection. Logan 5th Ward. CR 375 8, box 3748, folder 1, image 176-177. Church History Library. Salt Lake City, Utah.

Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Record of Members Collection. Logan 9th Ward. Form E, 1917-1948. Microfilm 26093. Family History Library. Salt Lake City, Utah.

Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Record of Members Collection. Logan 10th Ward. CR 375 8, box 3765, folder 1, image 233, 234. CR 375 8, box 3765, folder 2, image 579, 587, 588. Church History Library. Salt Lake City, Utah.

“Elijah R. Ables, Anaconda, Dies.” Montana Standard (Butte, Montana). 3 August 1961, 10.

“Elijah R. Ables is Laid to Rest.” Montana Standard (Butte, Montana). 5 August 1961, 12.

Idaho. County Marriages, 1864-1950. Oneida County. Microfilm 1,450,638. Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Family History Library. Salt Lake City, Utah.

“Local Points.” The Journal (Logan, Utah). 23 February 1901, 8.

Montana. Marriage Records, 1943-1986. Powell County. Elijah Ables and Melanie Behrsin. Marriage License No. 2963. Montana Department of Public Health and Human Services. Helena, Montana.

Montana. State Board of Health. Bureau of Vital Statistics. Certificate of Death. File No. 18805. Elijah R. Ables. Montana State Archives. Helena, Montana.

Polk, R. L. & Co. Logan City and Cache County Directory, 1909-1910; 1922.

United States. 1900 Census. Utah. Cache County. Logan 5th Ward.

United States. 1910 Census. Idaho. Oneida County. Samaria.

United States. 1910 Census. Utah. Cache County. Logan 5th Ward.

United States. 1920 Census. Idaho. Oneida County. Samaria.

United States. 1920 Census. Utah. Cache County. Logan 5th Ward.

United States. 1930 Census. Utah. Cache County. Logan 5th Ward.

United States. 1940 Census. Utah. Cache County. Logan 11th Ward.

United States. Idaho. Oneida County. Daniels Precinct. World War I Draft Registration Cards, 1917-1918. Elijah Ables. National Archives and Records Administration. Washington, D.C.

Secondary Sources

Ables, Elijah R. FindAGrave.com.

Ables, Melanie Urbin. FindAGrave.com.

Reeve, W. Paul. Religion of a Different Color: Race and the Mormon Struggle for Whiteness. New York: Oxford University Press, 2015.

Stevenson, Russell W. “‘A Negro Preacher’: The Worlds of Elijah Ables.” Journal of Mormon History 39 (Spring 2013).

Stevenson, Russell W. Black Mormon: The Story of Elijah Ables. Afton, Wyoming: PrintStar, 2013.

Stevenson, Russell W. For the Cause of Righteousness: A Global History of Blacks and Mormonism, 1830-2013. Salt Lake City: Greg Kofford Books, 2014.


[1] United States, 1900 Census, Utah, Cache County, Logan 5th Ward.

[2] United States, 1910 Census, Utah, Cache County, Logan 5th Ward.

[3] For an example of Enoch being described as “colored” see the notice of his death in “Local Points,” The Journal (Logan, Utah), 23 February 1901, 8.

[4] United States, Idaho, Oneida County, Daniels Precinct, World War I Draft Registration Cards, 1917-1918, Elijah Ables, National Archives and Records Administration, Washington, DC.

[5] United States, 1920 Census, Utah, Cache County, Logan 5th Ward; United States, 1930 Census, Utah, Cache County, Logan 5th Ward; United States, 1940 Census, Utah, Cache County, Logan 11th Ward; Montana, State Board of Health, Bureau of Vital Statistics, Certificates of Death, File No. 18805, Elijah R. Ables, Montana state Archives, Helena, Montana.

[6] United States, Idaho, Oneida County, Daniels Precinct, World War I Draft Registration Cards, 1917-1918, Elijah Ables, National Archives and Records Administration, Washington, DC.

[7] United States, 1910 Census, Idaho, Oneida County, Samaria; United States, 1920 Census, Idaho, Oneida County, Samaria.

[8] Idaho, County Marriages, 1864-1950, Oneida County, Elijah Ables and Catherine Williams, 24 October 1916.

[9] World War I Draft Registration Cards, 1917-1918, Elijah Ables; United States, 1920 Census, Utah, Cache County, Logan 5th Ward; United States, 1920 Census, Idaho, Oneida County, Samaria.

[10] For ArLene’s birth and blessing record see, Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, Record of Members Collection, Logan 9th Ward, Form E, 1917-1948, Microfilm 26093, Family History Library, Salt Lake City, Utah.

[11] Idaho, County Marriages, 1864-1950, Oneida County, Elyah [sic] Ables and Cassie [sic] Williams, 12 December 1923, Microfilm 1,450,638, Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, Family History Library, Salt Lake City, Utah.

[12] Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, Record of Members Collection, Logan 10th Ward, CR 375 8, box 3765, folder 1, image 234, Church History Library, Salt Lake City, Utah.

[13] Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, Record of Members Collection, Logan 5th Ward, CR 375 8, box 3748, folder 1, image 176-177, Church History Library, Salt Lake City, Utah.

[14] Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, Record of Members Collection, Daniels Ward, CR 375 8, box 1562, folder 1, image 45, Church History Library, Salt Lake City, Utah.

[15] Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, Record of Members Collection, Logan 10th Ward, CR 375 8, box 3765, folder 1, image 233, CR 375 8, box 3765, folder 2, image 579, 587, 588, Church History Library, Salt Lake City, Utah.

[16] Montana, Marriage Records, 1943-1986, Powell County, Elijah Ables and Melanie Behrsin, Marriage License No. 2963, Montana Department of Public Health and Human Services, Helena, Montana.

[17] “Cathryn Van Able,” Deseret News (Salt Lake City, Utah), 20-21 October 1988, B8.

[18] “Elijah R. Ables, Anaconda, Dies,” Montana Standard (Butte, Montana), 3 August 1961, 10.

[19] Melanie Urbin Ables, FindAGrave.com.

[20] In addition to the census records cited above, see also R. L. Polk & Co’s Logan City and Cache County Directory, 1909-1910, 4; 1922, 16.

[21] “Elijah R. Ables, Anaconda, Dies,” Montana Standard, 3 August 1961, 10.

[22] “Elijah R. Ables is Laid to Rest,” Montana Standard, 5 August 1961, 12; Elijah R. Ables, FindAGrave.com.

[23] “Cathryn Van Able,” Deseret News, 20-21 October 1988, B8.

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