The three-masted wooden schooner was originally built as the J. & A. Stronach in 1854 by George Barber in Milwaukee. It was designed and built to carry lumber for the Stronarch Lumber Mill in Manistee, Michigan, much of which was used to construct homes in Milwaukee during the Civil War. In October of 1881, the schooner was sold to L.M. Merrill and renamed A.B.C.F.M. for the American Baptist Council Foreign Mission. As the A.B.C.F.M., it continued in the lumber industry and was briefly used as a traveling gospel ship. The ship was sold to John Saveland of Milwaukee in 1885.
The A.B.C.F.M. was abandoned in 1900 at the Greenfield Avenue Slip in the Kinnickinnic River, one of three major rivers that flows into the Milwaukee Harbor. In May of 1902, the schooner was towed out into Lake Michigan and scuttled off of Milwaukee.

The A.B.C.F.M. has not yet been found. It was scuttled off the coast of Milwaukee.