Abraham O. Smoot was born 17 February 1815 in Owenton, Franklin County (later Owen County), Kentucky. He was baptized into the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in 1835, when he was twenty years old, and led a group of Saints from the South to Far West, Missouri, in 1837. He later served as captain of the second company to enter the Salt Lake Valley, arriving in September of 1847. He served approximately nine different missions for the Church, acted as president of the Perpetual Emigrating Fund in 1852, and was appointed mayor of Salt Lake City in 1857. He was later asked by Brigham Young to move to Provo, Utah, to serve as Utah Stake President and Provo's bishop. Several days after arriving he was also elected as Provo's mayor and acted in that capacity from 1868 to 1880. Smoot dedicated much of his energy and financial means to helping sustain the Brigham Young Academy and some have called him its financial savior. Smoot had six wives, including Margaret Thompson McMeans Adkinson (1809-1884), and died in Provo on 6 March 1895.