In a letter Abigail wrote to her in-laws in Connecticut shortly after her husband's untimely death in 1845, she said, "He [Minor Deming, Sr.] had his miniature taken [as a] Dauguertype [sic.]. But it is not very good. When he was sick he expressed his regret that he had not had it done again, on account of the children." In the same letter she also wrote: "[Four] years ago he wrote the [two] oldest boys each of them a letter, that in case of his death they might have some expression of his feelings in regard to them. They were to be given to them."