My First Mission.--Uncle Brigham's Counsel.--Parley P. Pratt, Teacher
and Orator.--My First View of the Ocean.--San Francisco.--Tracting the
City.--Scrap with a Hotel Keeper.--Labor as a Cook in the Home of Mr.
McClain.--The Man Who Murdered Parley P. Pratt.
In 1854, at the April Conference in Salt Lake City, I was appointed
a mission to the Sandwich Islands. I was then in my sixteenth year,
and with my overcoat on I weighed, on Father Neff's mill scales, just
ninety-six pounds. On the 4th of May I started on my mission; George
Speirs, Simpson M. Molen, Washington B. Rogers, and I having fitted
up a four-horse team with which we traveled across the desert to San
Bernardino. In our company were Joseph F. Smith, then in his fifteenth
year, John T. Caine, Edward Partridge, William W. Cluff, Ward E. Pack,
Silas, and Silas S. Smith, and some others.
Parley P. Pratt was president of the company.
We traveled as far as Cedar City in President Brigham Young's company,
among whom were my brother Joseph W., and my Uncle Joseph, and my
father. At Cedar City I was ordained a Seventy by my brother Joseph
W. Before the company started westward, Uncle Brigham, in bidding me
goodby said:
"Johnny, I will give you a little advice. Be humble. Live near the
Lord. Keep yourself pure from sin. Do not tell the people that you are
unlearned; it will only weaken their faith. Avoid public discussions.
I have noticed that they engender feelings of bitterness and seldom do
good. Never tell all that you know at once; keep back something to talk
about the next time. Be careful to say nothing but what you can prove."
President Kimball said, "Your name is no longer Johnny, but Rooter; for
you shall root up iniquity where-ever you find it." Uncle Joseph Young
said, "Be of good cheer. Great trees from little acorns grow, and you
will grow to be a man yet." My father and brother Joseph added their
blessing; and with a swelling heart, I turned to face the world, as a
Mormon missionary boy.
Cedar City was our southern frontier settlement. From there to San
Bernardino the country was almost an unknown desert. At Rio Virgin,
Muddy, Las Vegas Springs, and Mohave were small bands of hostile,
thieving Indians; but a watchful pacific policy carried us safely
through.
While walking on those deserts, I formed an attachment for Apostle
Parley P. Pratt that has never died. In conversation he was pure and
intelligent; and he excelled as a faith-promoting teacher, while as an
orator he had, to me, no superior in the Church.
Upon arrival at San Bernardino, we were warmly welcomed by Presidents
Amasa M. Lyman and Charles C. Rich, and also by the colony of Saints.
We rested there for three weeks. I made my home with Elder Addison
Pratt. Sister Pratt and her amiable daughters were very kind to me.
As soon as we had disposed of our outfits, we moved on; the Saints
kindly furnishing teams to haul us eighty miles to San Pedro, where I
first saw the blue ocean, and sensed for the first time the rotundity
of the earth by looking upon that vast expanse of oval water. Here we
took passage on a sailing vessel for San Francisco, entering the bay in
the night. I remember, when I came on deck in the morning, how amazed I
was at the sight of the great forest of masts, and city built along the
beach on piles, or stretching sparsely over the sand ridges.
In a few days President Pratt called a council, and the missionaries
gave all their money to help buy the ship Rosalind, with the
understanding that she would carry us free to our fields of labor.
The idea was, that she would be an "Order-of-Enoch" ship, devoted to
Zion's cause. I was young and thoughtless, hence I can say but little
about the matter. It was, however, an unfortunate investment, for the
hired captain ran away with the ship, and we lost our passage money.
After our hopes had thus winged their flight to lands unknown, we
missionaries went out among the farmers hunting work to earn money
to take us to the islands. As I was too small for a harvest hand,
President Pratt set me to tracting the city. I went from house to
house leaving tracts, and offering to sell Church books. At that time
there was a bitter feeling towards our people, and I met with much ill
treatment.
One day I met a man by the name of Crump, recently from Michigan. As
he passed through Salt Lake valley enroute to the gold mines, he had
rested a few days at father's; and now he was cook at a large hotel.
He asked me to come in and rest until he had served dinner. I sat at a
table in the kitchen by an open window, reading.
Presently the proprietor came in and looked at my basket. I arose
and invited him to buy a Book of Mormon. With an oath he grabbed the
basket and started to throw it into the furnace. I held on, and began
pleading with him, when he suddenly let go of the basket, and grappling
me, swore he would throw me out of the window. I clinched with him and
threw him on his back, and held him until the boarders came in and
pulled me off.
The rough, big-hearted men were so amused, that I had to go into the
dining hall and eat dinner with them. Then they bought all my books;
and for the first and only time I went back to the office with an
empty basket and a well-filled purse. Brother Pratt was so pleased
with my bit of experience, that he released me from tracting. My first
sacrifice had been accepted.
While making my home in San Francisco, I had been kindly cared for by
a Sister Evans, a widow lady. I also made the acquaintance of Sister
Eleanor McLain, an intelligent, energetic, but over-zealous woman, who
had recently been baptized by Elder William McBride.
The morning after my release from tracting, I took my carpet bag,
walked down to the ferry, and paid a dollar for a ticket to Oakland,
intending to hunt work among the farmers. As the boat was on the eve of
pushing off, I saw Elder McBride hurrying down the street waving his
hat. I stepped on shore, when he told me that I must come back at once,
as Parley had a mission for me. Upon reaching the office I was told by
Brother Pratt that McLain was making arrangements to send his wife to
the insane asylum because she had joined the Church, and my mission was
to prevent his doing so. He then placed his hands upon my head, and
blessing me, said that McLain should never harm a hair of my head. The
spirit and power of that blessing gave me more than natural strength
and courage; and I at once commenced my labor.
It occurred to me that if I could get to talk to McLain and his wife, I
could bring about a reconciliation. After repeated calls, I persuaded
him to hire me as cook in the family. Every day for a month, I dusted
his room, made up his bed, handled the revolver with which he was going
to kill the Mormon Elder who should dare to call at his home. During
evenings I would read aloud selections from the Bible, and pray with
the family; and as David played upon his harp to sooth Saul in his
angry moods, so God gave to me, child though I was, power to soothe
that wicked man, and drive the evil spirit from his abode.
At the end of a month, having been told by someone that I was a Mormon
Elder, he rushed into the house like a madman, and in a fearful voice
shouted: "Were you not a child, I would kill you."
I reminded him that he claimed to be a minister of the Gospel. (He
was acting temporarily in that capacity in the Unitarian Church). He
quieted down enough to get his Bible, and said he would prove to me
that there was not to be any more revelation, and that laying on of
hands for the gift of the Holy Ghost was blasphemy. But his hands
trembled, and he could not find the passages.
I read to him the words of Peter on the day of Pentecost, "For the
promise is unto you, and unto your children, and to all that are afar
off, even as many as the Lord, our God, shall call." He then sprang
from the table, went into an adjoining room, came back and, giving me
forty dollars in gold, my month's wages, dismissed me.
I had thus filled my second mission,--had turned the shaft of madness
from Sister McLain, had earned my passage money, and Parley's blessing
on my head had been realized.