Death of a Lady Apostle Woodruff Baptized in 1840, at
Midnight.--Baptize an Aged Backslider.--A Letter from Apostle Wilford
Woodruff.--Transferred to the London Conference.
On April 12, 1878, I walked seventeen miles to Cheltenham, and received
the following letter:
"Beloved Brother Young: I received your kind and welcome letter
yesterday, and was very glad to hear from you. I read your letter with
pleasure. I also read and read over again, your letter to Brother
Leigh, and I feel to say, amen, to it. I am willing with all my heart,
and am seeking earnestly for the privilege of gathering with God's
people.
"I am not afraid of hard work, and I am used to hard times. There is
one lesson in the Gospel that I love very much, and I have learned
it pretty well; that is humility. I love to read of the union and
love that prevails among the Saints; and I read the home letters that
you sent, with much pleasure. To see the good spirit and humility
manifested by your wife--oh, that all the wives of the Saints were so
humble, and would so sustain their husbands! It would make a heaven of
our homes, and the blessings of the Lord would be with us, always.
"We have secured a very nice meeting room, near Brother Daniels. We
opened it the Sunday before last, three strangers present. Last Sunday
there were twenty-three strangers with us. Next Sunday, if all is well,
and the weather permits, we are going out in the open air to preach.
From your brother in the Gospel, D. R. Gill."
Sunday, April 14th, in the morning, with Miss Alice Bishop, I visited
the Cheltenham cemetery. Trees, flowers, green sward, and monuments
erected to the memory of loved ones, all make it a pleasant place. We
held meetings and administered the sacrament. This week I visited the
Malvern hills, and preached in places, where thirty-seven years ago.
President Brigham Young, and Wilford Woodruff bore their testimonies
and reaped a rich harvest of souls as recompense for their faithful,
loving labors.
A lady of wealth, baptized by Elder Woodruff in 1840, died recently in
this place. On her death-bed, she sent a message to me, requesting to
be sealed to Brother Woodruff.
It is strange how principles of truth spread. A daughter of that woman
is now seeking information in regard to the Gospel, the effect of her
mother's dying words. The daughter's husband is a wealthy, worldly man,
and will not let his wife attend our meetings. I earnestly seek for
wisdom to guide me in all my movements; for while I sympathize with the
oppressed, or those barred of Gospel privileges, yet I have no desire
to give the wicked an occasion or opportunity to destroy my life and
usefulness.
The farmers are beginning to weed and hoe the fields. Many women engage
in this labor; and yesterday I stopped to witness the working of a
threshing machine. It was driven by steam. The foreman, feeder, and two
other hands were men; the pitching, band-cutting, and sacking were done
by women. It was a sight that I had never seen in Utah; yet, out in the
world I hear much about the slavery of Mormon women.
Tuesday, April 16th, at midnight, I baptized an old man by the name
of Waradell. He was among the first to embrace the gospel on these
islands. He went to Nauvoo, worked as a carpenter on the temple,
crossed the Mississippi river to go west with the Saints in 1846, with
Charles Shumway. At Sugar Creek his heart failed. He apostatized, and
returned to England, and now, old and penniless, he comes back into the
Church to die.
During the clay I baptized three of Brother Bishop's children. I am
proud of this; to me they are a lovable family.
"Oft have I wandered, weary and alone,
To gather flowers, by mortal hand unsown,
In shady nook or dell; and sometimes find,
Hidden from view, blossoms of rarest kind.
And thus in life, the good, and pure, and true
Are often hid, by circumstance, from view.
Happy the man who brings the treasures forth,
And gains, for recompense, a gem of priceless worth."
April 18th, I walked twelve miles in rain and mud, and stayed over
night with Heber White, at Ryeford. I suffered all day with sick
headache. The next day, though still feeling poorly, I started to walk
to Nailsworth. The weather was damp, and the roads bad. After going
about three miles, I fainted. When I came to myself, I knelt down and
prayed. In a short time, a gentleman came by in a buggy, and invited
me to ride. In Utah this would not seem strange, but here it is like
a miracle. When he learned who I was, he took pains to carry me to
George White's, the presiding elder at Nailsworth. I truly thanked the
gentleman and praised my Heavenly Father for the blessing given me.
April 20, 1878. One year from home; a damp, wet day, and I was confined
to the house, for this damp weather affects my lungs. I wrote the
following letter:
"Dear Brother Lorenzo: On the 30th of this month, if spared till then,
I shall be forty-one years of age. As a birthday present, I send you my
photo, and a Bible card to each one of your family.
"I feel grateful for the blessings and mercies bestowed so graciously
by the Father upon me. True there are times, when in sorrow, I may
feel for a few moments, that my lot is hard, and my labors poorly
recompensed. You know how much I have been a wanderer for the Gospel's
sake, but you do not know how many weary steps I take, and how sadly
I am tempted. Out of all, so far, I have been delivered, my weak body
strengthened, and my heart comforted. In this I have great joy; and I
trust this, my joy, will continue until the end of my pilgrimage in
this life, which I now consider more than half completed.
"The spheres of our calling seem not to be alike; yet one may be as
useful and honorable as the other. I hope you will be faithful in all
the duties assigned to you. No matter how humble the post, make it
honorable by your faithful application of the principles of the Gospel.
This principle should be the guide in all our labors.
"No doubt you meet with trials at Orderville; and where, indeed, do we
not find them? There is only one way that I know of, to be free from
them; and that is to live so God will wall us around, as He did Job and
Enoch, and his people. But we are hardly prepared for that, although we
have started right. Now, if we can keep our integrity and purity to the
end of this life, then we shall enter into the rest of our Lord. Kind
love to you and Sarah."
Sunday, April 21st, I attended two Saints' meetings and spoke in both
of them; went home with a Mr. Tanner, not a member of the Church, and
talked with him until midnight on the principles of the Gospel.
My wife Tamar wrote:
"I don't want you to feel that I have hard times. I know if I were
surrounded with riches, it would not make my health any better. I know
that I am greatly blessed; and like you, I am proud of my children, and
I desire to bring them up in righteousness.
"I know that you are a man of God--and I want to uphold you. You see
and comprehend many things that I do not, until you point them out, and
explain them to me, and I know that you have never given me other than
good counsel."
On Thursday, April 30, 1878, my forty-first birthday, I remained in the
office, nursing Brother Jacobs.
On May 1st, my wife Tamar's twenty-sixth birthday, I walked fourteen
miles, then took train sixteen miles to Trowbridge. Unable to find
lodgings, I walked three miles to Heywood Lodge, where Joseph Trumble,
game keeper, received me. I ate a cold supper, and starting upstairs to
bed, was taken with a chill, and suffered all night. The next day I was
still in pain, and kept my bed. On the 3rd, I received a letter from
President Jacobs, informing me that I was released from the Bristol
conference, and appointed to labor in the London conference. By his
request I returned to Bristol, very feeble in body; but on Sunday,
May 5th, a fair day, I attended a good testimony meeting, and partook
of the sacrament. A letter from Apostle Wilford Woodruff, dated.
Historian's Office, Salt Lake City, April 18, 1878, awaited my arrival:
"Elder John R. Young. Dear Brother: I received your interesting kind
letter of March 11, 1878, and am much pleased to hear from you--also
pleased to learn that you keep a journal. I wish all Elders in the
vineyard would do it.
"I returned from St. George in March to attend the April conference,
and have been very busy here in Church business. Among other things,
Erastus Snow and I have charge of building the Manti temple, which will
occupy considerable of our time. We have had a great deal of hard labor
to perform about the temple ground, before laying the first corner
stone. We have had the mountain to move; forty feet high, about two
hundred feet square, to make a place for the foundation.
"This foundation is about seventy feet above the level of the street
below it. Then we have built four walls, one thousand feet long,
seventeen feet high, and three feet thick on an average; and built
terraces between, which will be covered with fruit trees, shrubbery,
and flowers thus making one of the most picturesque landscapes in
America.
"In the Logan temple, the builders had nothing to do, but dig a trench
three feet deep and lay the foundation, which they did last fall; while
at Manti we had to move five thousand yards of rock and earth before we
could lay the first stone of the building. We have the terrace walls
nearly finished; and I am in hopes to lay the corner stone of the
temple by the middle of May.
"We have had very early spring throughout Utah. Trees in Salt Lake were
in bloom the first of April; but we have now been having a cold rain
and snow storm for seven days, and consequently fear for the loss of
our fruit.
"We have done a good deal of work for the dead in the temple during
the past year; and the work is still on the increase. On the 12th
of February we baptized for one thousand five hundred eighty-four
names; we have given two hundred forty-four endowments in a day; my
day averages two hundred. The following is a list of some of our work
during the last year for the dead: Baptized 41,231; gave endowments
to 19,340; gave ordinations for the dead, 17,559; and attended to all
other ordinances accordingly.
"I shall be glad when our other temples are finished, so that all the
people can enter therein and attend to the ordinances for their dead.
I will put the name of on -- my list, according to your request and
attend to it as soon as I have had an opportunity. I have had baptisms
for some three thousand of my dead friends, and endowments for one
thousand sixty-four before I left St. George; all of which are recorded
on my family record.
"The friends are generally well in St. George. I shall be pleased
to hear from you at any time. Remember me kindly to any of my
acquaintances you may see. Your brother in the Gospel of Christ. W.
Woodruff."
From my journal: On Tuesday, May 7th, 1878 I bade goodbye to President
Jacobs. I have labored very pleasantly with him for the last six
months. May the blessings of the Father still be with him. I took train
for Newnham, for the purpose of visiting Sister Burris and family. Was
sorry that Mr. Burris did not come into the fold.