A MISSION TO THE EAST, 1848.
In Winter Quarters.--Battle of Nauvoo Commemorated.--Organization of
Pottowatamie County.--Bids President Young and Saints Good-by.--Journey
from Winter Quarters to Nauvoo.--From Nauvoo to Maine.--A Letter to His
Wife.--Healing the Sick.--Discovery of Gold in California.
During the first three months of the year 1848, Apostle Woodruff
devoted himself to the usual routine of business incident to
frontier life. They were laying the foundations of a commonwealth
and strengthening the religious organizations which were to play an
important part in the social and religious life of the people. There
were frequent meetings of the Twelve and the Presidency, and the
future aspects of both the people and the country were under daily
consideration.
It was during the early part of this year that petitions were sent
to the Iowa Legislature, one asking for a county on the Pottawatomie
tract of land, and the other for a post-office. Elder Henry Miller
was the bearer of these petitions. About the same time the question
of a disposition of the Nauvoo Temple came up, owing to the recent
arrival from that city of Almon Babbit, Hyrum Kimball, and John Snyder.
President Young was firm in his view that the Temple there should not
be sold.
The battle of Nauvoo, which had been fought on September 12th, 1846,
was commemorated on this anniversary by those who had taken part in
the engagement. They wore a red badge on the left arm, as they had
done during the contest, to distinguish them from their enemies.
The disparity in numbers between the Latter-day Saints and their
enemies,--about 100 of the former and between eight and ten hundred of
the latter--was so great that the Saints felt that they had been the
recipients of Divine favor, especially in view of the fact that only
three of their number had been lost.
About the middle of the same month, Orson Hyde returned from the East.
News also came at the same time of the success which the missionary
work in Wales was achieving, principally {328} through the labors of
Captain Dan Jones. While the opposition there was intense, the struggle
redounded to the spread of the Gospel and the increase of Saints
through baptism.
March 1st was the 41st anniversary of Wilford Woodruff's life. A
few days later, on the night of March 15th, he records a remarkable
dream in which he passed in spirit through the air from state to
state, escaped from his enemies and passed on to heaven. "I saw,"
he says, "Joseph and Hyrum and many others of the Latter-day Saints
who had died. The innumerable company of souls which I saw seemed to
be preparing for some grand and important event which I could not
understand. Many were engaged in making crowns for the Saints. They
were all dressed in white robes, both male and female."
About this time Wilford Woodruff recorded in his journal the death
of John Quincy Adams, and made special mention of the death of John
Adams and Thomas Jefferson, men in whose life and attainments he had
taken great interest. His life was not confined to the limits of his
personal activity, as he took a deep interest in all that was going on
throughout the world.
On the 27th of March, the leaders of the Church met in council for
the purpose of establishing a political organization of Pottawattamie
County. The relations of the Church to political questions were
carefully considered, and from the outset it was determined to keep
separate the religious and political organizations of the new county
which they were bringing into existence. They were a religious body
of men in whose minds religious influences were dominant. It would
have been the most natural thing, perhaps, in the world, for them
to establish a politico-ecclesiastical government; however, they
recognized from the outset, the constitution of their country,
respected the forms of civil government, and so separated it from
their religious organizations that non-Mormons who should thereafter
settle in their midst, might enjoy with perfect freedom their political
rights. This, however, did not mean as some non-Mormons thought it
ought to mean, that they should be elected to office, and the failure
to recognize them became a source of disturbance.
As the time for holding the annual conference for April approached,
there appeared before the leaders several Pawnee chiefs asking in
behalf of their people who were starving for food, {329} for one
hundred bushels of corn. The request was granted, the corn loaded upon
the backs of the mules belonging to the Indians, who returned to their
people with feelings of joy and appreciation. The spirit begotten by
such an act of generosity opened the hearts of the Saints for the
enjoyment of their conference, and fitted them more perfectly for
the worship of God. President Young commented upon the organization
of the Presidency which he said might have been effected the first
conference after the Prophet's death, but it was not wisdom to do so.
The authority and keys had been committed to the Twelve, and the Saints
in following Brigham Young and the Quorum of which he was president,
fully demonstrated their spirit to discern where the presiding
authority of the Church was to be found. The interval between the death
of the Prophet and the organization of the new Presidency gave the
Saints ample opportunity by experience to confirm their belief in the
leadership of President Young and his council. Before the conference
closed, officers of the high priests and elder's quorum where chosen,
also a high council for the Church in Pottawatamie County.
Special attention was also given at that time to the condition of the
poor, particularly to the families of the soldiers who had enlisted in
the Mormon Battalion. A special committee was appointed to locate the
poor and provide for their wants. A call was made for teams and wagons,
and a hearty response was given. After the conference, Philo Dibble
exhibited his paintings of the martyrdom of Joseph and Hyrum Smith,
and of Joseph's last address to the Nauvoo Legion. There are many of
the present generation who will remember Elder Dibble's efforts to
preserve and disseminate the early history of the Church by exhibitions
of his art, which he gave for the benefit of the Saints for many years
throughout the stakes of Zion.
Soon after the close of conference three of the Battalion boys
arrived from Salt Lake Valley, popularly know as "The Valley," and
gave encouraging reports from the Saints there. They brought with
them letters to the families that remained in Winter Quarters. At
about this time an effort was made to move the bodies of the dead to
a new cemetery which had been selected. The graves of many were so
marked that they might be identified in years to come. There, two of
Wilford Woodruff's sons, {330} Joseph and Ezra, were buried in a grave
designated No. 34, and marked "J. E. W."
While the spirit of gathering to their new found home in the tops of
the mountains was uppermost in the minds of those at Winter Quarters,
the leaders kept constantly before them their mission of carrying the
message of the new revelation to the nations of the earth. Apostle
Woodruff was preparing for a mission to the East, and Orson Pratt,
to England. These men were specially fitted by nature and experience
for missionary work, and their talents were fully recognized and made
use of. At the same time President Young was making preparations for
another journey across the plains to Salt Lake Valley.
These were busy days at Winter Quarters. All were full of hope and
grand expectations. On Sunday, April 14th, President Young in an
address prophesied that the Saints would never be driven from the Rocky
Mountains, unless they were guilty of insurrection among themselves,
and he had no fear of that. In the midst of preparations, a steam-boat
arrived on the Missouri River at Winter Quarters loaded with groceries
and general provisions needed by the people. The same steam-boat
afforded Orson Pratt an opportunity to embark on his mission to
England. A few days later another steamer came with 150 Saints from
England. These were accompanied by Elders Franklin D. and Samuel W.
Richards on their return from the British mission.
On Friday the 26th day of May, 1848, President Young began his second
journey to the Rocky Mountains. Elder Woodruff writes: "In company
with Orson Hyde, E. T. Benson, and others, on the 22nd of June, I rode
out to the Horn to meet Presidents Young and Kimball and the Camp of
Israel. We found on our arrival that all had crossed, and that Lorenzo
Snow and Zera Pulsipher, captains of hundreds, had gone on, each with
his hundred. There were about 600 wagons in all and they made a grand
encampment--a beautiful sight, indeed. I spent a little time with
President Young; went through the camp, and on the following day bade
good-bye to the Saints and returned to Winter Quarters."
The efforts to provide the necessary equipments for this second
exodus across the plains brought its hardship to those who remained.
The latter were without sufficient means to meet {331} their wants.
President Richards was at this time sick and in straightened
circumstances, so that he was unable to accompany the Saints on their
westward journey.
Those who remained were naturally weakened in their ability to defend
themselves by the departure of the strongest--those best able to endure
the journey. They naturally feared their weakened condition and the
danger from Indians, to which they were subjected. On the 14th there
was a bugle sound "To arms!" The report came that the Indians were
coming upon the people. The alarm, however, was not justified, although
the people were greatly disturbed in their feelings by such excitement.
It was distinctly the Indian's country in those days, and the Saints
had no one but themselves to look to for protection. The forces of the
United States government were then engaged in Mexico. It is interesting
at this point to observe that where the city of Omaha now stands the
Saints were once busily engaged cultivating the soil and providing
means for their expected journey westward, although Winter Quarters was
a few miles north from the present site of Omaha.
On June 21st, 1848, Elder Woodruff with his family, and several others,
eleven in all, started upon his Eastern mission. They first went to Mt.
Pisgah where they found a number of the Saints to whom they preached.
There would naturally be some misgiving as to the faith and continuity
of those who remained some distance in the rear of the Saints, those
who were unwilling to follow the lead of President Young and the Twelve
would naturally discourage the more timid ones.
It was during this journey, and on the 5th of July, that Elder Woodruff
records a miraculous escape by one of those spiritual impressions that
frequently came across his life. He had tied his mules to an oak-wood
tree beside which he was camping. His children were sleeping in the
wagon, and he felt impressed to move from his camping-ground, so he
moved his children into a house. Only a short time elapsed when a
thunder-storm swept over the place in great fury. Of the circumstance
he writes: "We had just retired when the storm reached us in great
fury, and in a moment the large oak came thundering down to the ground
with a terrific crash. Had I not moved my mules, it would probably have
killed them. Had I not moved my carriage, it would have {332} been
crushed to atoms, and we would have been killed, as the tree fell where
my carriage stood. It just missed Brother Kingsley's wagon. I consider
my impression an interposition of Providence to save our lives."
On the 9th, they arrived at Nauvoo and went through the Temple from
basement to steeple, and again gazed on the once beautiful, but now
desolate city of Nauvoo. While at the city, in the home of Almon
Babbit, Elder Woodruff met a man who had come from Michigan to hear the
gospel, and to whom he preached for one hour and then led him down into
the waters of the Mississippi. During the same day, in a house built by
George A. Smith, and occupied by Elder John Snyder, he confirmed the
man whom he had just baptized and ordained him an elder and sent him on
his way rejoicing.
Before leaving Nauvoo on his eastward journey, he sold his mules,
carriage and harness and took steamer down the river to St. Louis. From
this point Elder Woodruff boarded a steamer for La Salle, Illinois, and
thence to Louisville, where he visited his brother-in-law and sister,
Luther and Rhoda Scammon. Here death, for the fourth time, entered his
family circle and called to the spirit world an infant of nine months.
Here Elder Woodruff's industrious nature asserted itself, and he went
into the wheat field pitching bundles of grain. After leaving his
kinsmen he continued his journey by wagon, rivers, lakes, and railways
via Chicago and arrived in Boston on August 12th, 1848. The journey, by
the route which he had taken from Council Bluffs, covered a distance of
2,595 miles. He remained some time preaching the gospel at Boston and
then continued his journey to Portland, Maine. From there he went to
Scarboro where he met other relations. It was a happy reunion after a
separation of eight years.
The return of Apostle Woodruff to the East would naturally awaken
within him the keenest satisfaction over the opportunity it afforded
to meet, after years of strenuous life and marvelous adventure, old
friends and kinsmen. To them, his affections first turned, and he
told all the wonderful things which God had wrought in the gathering
of the Saints to the Valleys of the Mountains. From Maine he returned
to Boston, went on to New York, and a little later took up his labors
in Philadelphia. {333} It was here he called on Colonel Kane, a tried
and true friend to the Mormon people in the hour of their sorrow. By
Colonel Kane he was most cordially welcomed.
To his wife who remained with her people in Maine, he wrote on October
18th, 1848, this very significant letter: "I have been much blessed by
the spirit of God since I saw you. I have felt more of the presence and
power of God in me than I expected to enjoy on this Eastern mission. I
have felt that someone has prayed for me much of late. I wonder if it
was Phoebe! I know how often you pray for me, and I feel its power and
prize it much. I have never felt such a desire to prove worthy of your
confidence and trust, and shun every appearance of evil, keep out of
the path of all temptation, and do right in all things. I have had much
of the spirit of secret prayer, have poured out my soul in supplication
to God with tears of joy, and at the same time the visions of my mind
have been opened so that I saw clearly my duty to my God, to my wife,
to my children, to the Saints, and to the world at large. I have also
seen the awful and certain judgments of God, which like a gathering
storm are ready to burst upon the whole Gentile world, especially
this nation which has heard the sound of the gospel but rejected it,
together with the testimony of the servants of God; has stoned and
killed the prophets; has become drunk with the blood of martyrs and
Saints; and finally has driven the entire Church with the priesthood
and keys of eternal life out of its midst into the wilderness and
mountains of Israel."
At New Haven, on the 21st, a remarkable case of healing occurred, of
which Elder Woodruff writes as follows: "A sister Turtle was very low
with yellow fever. Some of Job's comforters had called upon her and
reproached her for being a Latter-day Saint, and had asked her why
she did not get her elders to heal her. While under this strain and
reproach she cried out, 'O, that the Lord would send Brother Woodruff
here!' It was only a few moments before she received a note from me
saying that I was coming to see her. When I came, we laid hands upon
her and she was healed, and I returned home praising God. The following
day, Sunday, Mr. Smith Turtle and his wife, who had been healed the day
before, were present in our meeting.
"On the 23rd of October, 1848, I ordained Jairus Sanford {334} a high
priest. He was nearly 86 years of age. He had been liberal with his
means and faithful in his duties. I left the aged patriarch rejoicing
in God and went on my way to North Haven."
On the 25th of October, Elder Woodruff arrived in Boston by rail and
found himself in the midst of a grand demonstration. The people were
celebrating the inauguration of a new water system by which the water
of the Long Pond was conveyed into the city of Boston. The procession
covered a distance of seven miles, requiring two and a half hours to
pass any given point. Of that occasion Elder Woodruff writes: "At the
close of the speeches the mayor arose and said: 'Fellow citizens, it
is proposed that the water of Lake Cochitreate be admitted into the
city of Boston. All those who favor it say, 'aye.' The response was
in a voice of thunder. At a given signal a column of water 8 feet in
diameter shot up 80 feet in the air and fell into a great reservoir."
In the evening there were fire-works and other illuminations. This was
considered at this time the grandest celebration ever witnessed in any
American city.
On the following day, October 26th, Elder Woodruff went to New Bedford
with Brother Nathaniel Coray. It was there he read with feelings of
deep sorrow the burning of the Nauvoo Temple by a mob. He then went
to Maine where he had parted from his wife earlier in the year, and
returned with her to Cambridgeport on the 17th of November. Here he
took a house for his family, and finished the labors of the year in
Boston and its vicinity. Here he compiled a brief account of the
current events among the nations of the earth. He read history in the
light of God's recent revelations, and out of it he extracted the signs
of the times.
The year had been a trying one to the Saints in Utah who were greatly
distressed because of the cricket plague, from which, however, they
were measurably relieved by the miraculous destruction of these insects
by the sea-gulls.
Gold had been discovered in California by members of the Mormon
Battalion, and by others, a circumstance which created a feverish
excitement throughout the Eastern States. The rush to California again
brought the Saints in Utah into conspicuous relations with the outside
world. That meant financial relief to the people in Salt Lake City.
{335} In his journal he records the fact that Captain Dan Jones by his
labors in Wales was adding to the Church many persons each month. Elder
Orson Spencer gave very encouraging accounts of the work throughout the
British Isles.
It was at this time that Almon Babbit called upon Elder Woodruff
and sought to induce him to go to Washington for the purpose of
accomplishing certain things which he said would be favorable to the
Latter-day Saints. "After hearing him, I concluded that he was working
on his own account and without the counsel of the President of the
Church. I therefore concluded that my health, calling, and the spirit
within me would not permit me to leave the mission upon which I was
sent, to go to Washington." Subsequent events proved the correctness of
his impressions.
Concerning the events of the year he remarks: "At home new towns were
laid out, both to the north and south of Salt Lake City. Elders were
arriving from the Sandwich Islands. Walker, the Indian chief, visited
the Saints in the Valley and expressed friendship for them and his
antipathy toward the Spanish. Brothers Brown, Browett, Allen, and Cox
were killed by the Indians in the California mountains, while they were
exploring the country. These brethren I baptized in Herefordshire soon
after I commenced preaching at John Benbow's. Brother Browett had been
an especially earnest, true Latter-day Saint, and I know nothing to
the contrary of the others. They went into the army as soldiers in the
Mormon Battalion and died in the cause of their country."
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