Abraham Alonzo Kimball was born of Heber C. Kimball and his plural wife, Clarissa Cutler Kimball, in Nauvoo, Hancock County, Illinois on April 16, 1846. At this time the Mormons were being expelled from Nauvoo so young Abe was taken to Winter Quarters with the major portion of the Mormon refugees. Clarissa Cutler Kimball refused to come West with the Mormons. Instead, she took her young son to Iowa to join a break-off church founded by her father, Alpheus Cutler, called the True Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Abe's mother died about three years later and he was brought up in Iowa by his grandparents, Alpheus and Lois Cutler.