ELDER WOODRUFF'S RETURN FROM THE EAST.
Letter to Orson Pratt.--Baptism of His Father-in-law, Ezra
Carter.--Labors in New England.--Meets Dr. John M. Bernhisel.--Healing
the Sick.--Interview with Col. Kane.--Hears Indian Chief.--Release
from His Mission.--Return to the Valleys.--Conditions at the
Frontier.--Stampede on the Plains.--Brigham Young Appointed
Governor.--Salt Lake Temple Planned.--Salt Lake City Given a
Charter.--Visit to the Southern Settlements.--Fourth Celebrated
at Black Rock.--Celebrating of Twenty-fourth.--Death of His
Stepmother.--Judge Brocchus Speaks in Conference.--Beautiful Words of
Patriarch John Smith.--A Vote To Discontinue Use of Tea and Coffee.
The beginning of the year 1849 found Wilford Woodruff actively at work
in the spread of the gospel. It was a glorious message which he was
bearing to the people of the East, and he gave to it all the ardor of
his intensely religious nature. Nor was he less concerned about the
integrity and devotion of his wife to the faith they had espoused. His
family was carefully instructed in the duties and sacraments of the
Church. On the 15th of the month he wrote a lengthy letter to President
Young and Council in which he reported his travels and labors. He
prepared a historical sketch for the historian's office, and wrote to
Orson Pratt, who was presiding over the British mission, as follows:
"I am 42 years old today, March the 1st, 1849. How peculiar such
figures look to a man while counting up his years in this probation.
The very sight of them crowds on to his mind a flood of thoughts more
than tongue can utter or pen describe. The last sixteen years of my
life have been passed endeavoring to preach the gospel and build up
the Kingdom of God in association with my brethren. The past is gone,
I have no desire to recall it. I would not wish to live my life over
again if I could. I feel like looking forward and not backward.
"While the Jews were high-minded and in the height of their power, the
Son of God, in lamb-like meekness, bowed to the ordinance of baptism
and all other rites of the gospel and commandments of His Father. He
was looking forward to a time when He {337} should make His second
visit to His brethren after having overcome death and the grave. At
the present day, while emperors, princes, kings, lords, nobles, and
great men of the world have been making a wonderful effort to maintain
their dignity, and appear to good advantage before the world, many of
the noblest spirits that ever dwelt in the flesh, like Jesus and the
Apostles, have been meekly submitting to the ordinances of the gospel,
and like little children have submitted to the authority of the holy
priesthood."
During the month of March Elder Woodruff visited Cape Cod, preaching
to the Saints and strangers, the latter including sea-captains,
sailors, and fishermen. There he also organized a branch of the Church
with 21 members. Upon his return home to Cambridgeport, he found his
father-in-law, Ezra Carter Sr., awaiting him. On the 22nd of March
Father Carter was baptized, his wife having received the gospel before
this. Elder Woodruff records these events as the fulfillment of
prophecy by Father Jos. Smith, the patriarch, who, in blessing him and
his wife years before, promised that their household should receive the
gospel and stand with them in the Church. Elder Carter lived to be 96
years of age. His old home, in a beautiful rural district of southern
Maine, still stands. It is near the roadside as you go from Saco to
Portland.
On the 12th of April he started a company of Saints for Zion. There
were 71 all told, 50 of whom were from Philadelphia. From Philadelphia
he visited Saints in the neighboring towns. At Hornerstown he baptized
three members of the Woolf family. They had been believers for a number
of years, having been visited by the Prophet and a number of the
Twelve. Leaving Pennsylvania he traveled through New Jersey to New York
where he met T. D. Brown, just returning from England. From New York he
went on to Cambridgeport to his family.
After journalizing the calamities occurring in St. Louis, New Orleans,
California, and other parts of the world, Elder Woodruff started on a
visit to Fox Islands where he had introduced the gospel twelve years
before, having baptized nearly one hundred people. He passed many weeks
on the Islands but with much less success than upon the first mission
there. From here he went to New Brunswick, Canada, performing a large
part of the {338} journey on foot. One day he walked 35 miles, carrying
a heavy load part of the distance.
Arriving at the ferry of Beauburs Island, he crossed in a boat and
walked a mile through a pleasant grove to the home of Elder Joseph
Russell, who for eleven years had been the owner of the entire island,
which is a mile and a half in length, by a half a mile in width. Elder
Russell was a ship-builder and had constructed 23 ships with a tonnage
of 650 tons each. He was a man of considerable wealth, worth at that
time, at a low estimate, $30,000. He was liberal with his means and
faithful in the discharge of his duties to the Church. At that place
there was a small branch of the Church over which he presided.
On the 28th he went with Elder Russell and son to Bedque. While here
he received word that Charles C. Rich, Lorenzo Snow, and Franklin D.
Richards had been chosen members of the Twelve Apostles.
On the 5th of August, Elder Woodruff set out upon his return to
Cambridgeport, Elder Russell having first contributed $1,500 with which
to aid the Church in its newly chosen home. He remained but a short
time at home, when he started for Fall River and New Bedford to visit
the Saints in those places. On his return from his trip to the South,
he met at Cambridgeport, Dr. John M. Bernhisel, who, after giving an
account of affairs in the Valleys, informed Elder Woodruff that he had
come to Washington as our representative, bearing a petition for a
Territorial Government.
Under date of July 25th, 1849, the President of the Church wrote
Brother Woodruff a statement of conditions of the Church in the Valleys
and expressed their desire to be admitted into the Union as a sovereign
state. In that letter the President remarked: "The next time that you
encounter the hardships, privations, and toil over the plains and
mountains, you will meet with a very different reception from that
which you did on your first arrival here. Friends will greet you, the
products of the earth will be administered for your comfort. We shall
be very happy to see you again."
During the remainder of the year 1849, Elder Woodruff visited the
eastern branches, preaching the gospel and comforting all who would
listen. In Cape Cod an aged lady of 84 years was {339} instantly healed
by his administrations. She immediately arose from her bed of sickness
and went about her work.
He again went to Philadelphia where he had several visits with Colonel
Kane with whom he talked over the situation relative to a Territorial
Government. The following he quotes as the words of Col. Kane: "I
applied, according to the wish of President Young for a Territorial
Government, and had my last, sad, and painful interview with President
Polk. I found he was not disposed to favor your people, and had men of
his own stamp picked out to serve as governor and in other positions,
many of whom would oppress you in any way simply to fill their own
pockets. President Polk was unwilling to appoint men among yourselves,
and I saw it was absolutely necessary to have officers of your own
people to govern you, otherwise you would be better off without any
government at all. It was necessary for me to use my discretion and I
therefore withdrew the petition."
On December 3rd, he paid a visit to Gerard College of Philadelphia.
On the 15th of the month he attended a meeting there where a Mr.
Koh-Ge-Ga-Gah-Bow, chief of the Ozebwa nation, delivered a lengthy
and spirited address in behalf of the American Indians, in which he
appealed to the citizens to induce the government to give the Indians
a territory they could call their own, and to forbid the encroachment
thereon of the whites. He censured the white men in no uncertain terms
for their pretended Christianity and religious professions, while in
reality they were filled with deceit, hypocrisy, and wickedness.
The year 1850 witnessed a change in the character of Elder Woodruff's
labors. Missionary work was in harmony, not only with his spiritual
nature, but with the grand conceptions which he entertained for the
future of the Church with which he had associated himself. Upon his
return from Cambridgeport, he received a letter from the Presidency in
which he was required to return to the Valley, and to bring with him
all the Saints he could gather, and such means as could be collected
from their properties and from contributions in the East. The Saints
in the Valleys of the Mountains were so far removed from manufacturing
centers that they felt the necessity of home manufacture, especially
in the establishment of woolen and cotton factories in order that they
might be self-supporting. The New England states {340} where Elders
Woodruff's labors had been directed contained many factories, and it
was the operatives from these factories whose services would be needed
in the new enterprises at home.
On the 2nd of March, he went to Maine where arrangements were made to
gather with him to the Valleys of the Mountains his wife's people.
His wife's brother, Ilus F. Carter, had bought ten wagon loads of
merchandise which was sent with Elder Woodruff. Mr. Carter, however,
returned from the Missouri River to his home in Maine on account of
ill health. A number of the brethren had engaged in gold-mining in
California and sent money to their friends in the East to assist them
in their emigration. The manufactured products of the East were greatly
needed by the Saints in the Valleys, and the money sent from California
became very helpful in providing a stock of goods that would contribute
to the comfort of the earlier settlers whose supply of clothing by this
time was almost entirely depleted.
On the 23rd of March, Elder Orson Pratt arrived from England on
business, intending to return before going to the Valleys. He found
Elder Woodruff busily occupied in the purchase of such merchandise as
would be most helpful to those who had gathered. About the same time,
Elder John Taylor and Curtis E. Bolton were on their way to France;
Lorenzo Snow and Joseph Toronto to Italy; Erastus Snow and Peter Hanson
to Denmark; Franklin D. Richards and several others to England. Elder
Erastus Snow sailed from Boston to his field of labor on April 3rd.
By the 9th of the month, Wilford Woodruff with his family and
relatives, and with about 100 other Saints left for New York where
they were joined by another 100, making all told 209 people. Their
baggage amounted to 42,000 lbs. On their way to Pittsburg, they passed
through Philadelphia. At the former place they secured passage to St.
Louis where they arrived on the 1st day of May. From St. Louis to
Council Bluffs they took passage on the steamer, _Sacramento._ They
left St. Joseph on the 12th of May and Ft. Kearney on the 15th, and the
following day Elder Woodruff went to Kanesville to visit Elder Orson
Hyde. On this journey they were accompanied by Elder Orson Pratt.
This frontier town was a busy place in those days. The Saints were
constantly coming and going, and the people were generally in a state
of excitement, and the very nature of the circumstances {341} gave
rise to some discontent. The well-to-do hurried on to the Valleys,
and the poor were left to make such arrangements as they could for
present support and their future emigration to the Zion of their God.
Provision, of course, for the emigration of the poor was made wherever
possible, but yet their numbers were so great as to bring distress
to the people of Kanesville. President Woodruff explained that he
had received counsel from the Presidency to stretch out his arms and
gather all he possibly could to Zion. He had baptized, while on this
mission, about 200 people. Every effort was made to pacify those who
were discontented in this frontier town. The fact, however, that the
authorities had instructed him to gather all he could was the guiding
motive in bringing with him to Kanesville the poor, as well as those
who were in fairly good circumstances.
Elder Woodruff, when counsel came to him, never quibbled, never
doubted, never stopped to ask his file-leaders the whys and the
wherefores. He was like Adam when the angel said to him: "Adam, why
dost thou offer sacrifice?" And he answered, "I know not save that
God has commanded me." He was also like Nephi of old who uttered the
memorable saying: "For I know that the Lord giveth no command unto
the children of men save that He shall prepare the way for them to
accomplish the thing which He commandeth them."
On the 21st of May the company starting to Zion was organized into
hundreds, fifties, and tens with a captain over each. Robert Petty,
Leonard W. Hardy, Edson Whipple, Joseph Hall, James Currier, Miner
Atwood, and two others whose names are not given, were appointed
captains. Some of the teamsters of this company did not belong to
the Church, and in time became unruly. The ring-leader, however,
was discharged, and later the others also. On the 9th of July,
Lucy Johnson, Matilda Hardy, a Sister Snow, and Emily Huntington
died. Deaths this year, 1850, on the plains were frequent and Elder
Woodruff's company suffered with others. On the day following, Elder
Woodruff baptized fourteen in the Platte River, among them his wife's
niece, Sarah E. Foss. On the 15th, a few days later, a severe thunder
storm arose and Brother Ridge, from Staffordshire, England, and his
oxen were killed by lightning.
The 30th of the month witnessed one of those scenes not {342} uncommon
to the plains in the early days of emigration by ox teams. Those
who have not witnessed a stampede can hardly imagine the scenes of
confusion and dangers to which it gives rise. There were often thirty
or forty teams close together. These teams consisted of from two
to five yoke of oxen. The wagons they drew were loaded with women,
children, and merchandise. The stampede generally took place without a
moment's warning and the cattle ran in all directions.
Writing of this scene Elder Woodruff says: "Our stampede commenced in
the following manner. While my son Wilford was mounting his horse,
William Murphy struck the horse with a whip which started him to run.
Wilford was thrown over the horse's head to the ground. The saddle
turned under the horse and as a result he ran away. As he approached
one of the wagons, a Mr. Cannon's team became frantic and started off
at a great speed. In a moment twenty or thirty teams followed the
first that stampeded and the whole company was rushing apparently
onward into the jaws of death. On my carriage was a fine black steed,
and in it were Rhoda Foss and Susan Woodruff. We were at the head of
the company, and when the stampede commenced, I was by the side of my
carriage. I saw Mrs. Woodruff rush into the midst of the scene with
many other women and children. Their lives were in constant danger. I
told Rhoda to let my horse run into the bluffs, and do the best she
could. I gave him a cut to start him on to a run and left them to the
care of Providence. I then rushed into the midst of the stampede in
order to save the lives of my wife and as many others as possible, but
I had hard work to save even my own life. Mrs. Woodruff soon found an
opening and fled out of the midst of the scene. Brother Petty's wagons
were turned over. My family wagon with four yoke of oxen ran over one
of his wagons, and a wagon ran over one of his children. Prescott Hardy
was knocked down by his own team and badly injured in the thigh and
arm. Wherever I saw women and children in danger, I did what I could to
rescue them. However, only little can be done at such times, and each
one must dodge the best he can to save his life if possible.
"When I found I could do no more, I ran forward to see what condition
my family carriage and wagon were in. I found {343} my noble horse
still running, but on three legs. One of the ox-teams had run on to
the horse and carriage, bent one of the axles and smashed one of the
horse's legs. Rhoda was thrown out of the carriage and Susan was lying
upon her back with her feet hanging out between the wheels. She held
on, however, till I came and rescued my daughter. Later I had to shoot
my horse to put him out of his misery. It was very painful to have to
do so. It was a miracle that no one was killed, and there was really
but little damage done to oxen and wagons."
Barring some break-downs and delays, the company arrived in Salt Lake
City, October 14, 1850. Soon after their arrival, Elder Woodruff
moved from the old Fort into his house near Temple Block. He was also
occupied in disposing of ten loads of merchandise sent out to the
Valley by his brother-in-law, Ilus F. Carter. In the Council he read to
the brethren the speech of Mr. Copway (Koh-Ge-Ga-Gah-Bow), the Indian
chief, and the views of Col. Kane on the government of Deseret.
Wilford Woodruff's work at this time as a missionary had given him
distinction and he was frequently regarded by his brethren as the
"Herald of the Gospel." The following winter two vacancies occurred
in the legislature by the death of Newell K. Whitney and Cornelius P.
Lott. Governor Young appointed Elders Woodruff and Charles C. Rich to
fill these vacancies, and thus began the experiences of Elder Woodruff
as a legislator.
The new year, 1851, witnessed the dedication of a new school house
in the Fourteenth Ward of Salt Lake City--the ward in which Elder
Woodruff first located and where he built his home on what was
subsequently known as the old Valley House corner. The people were
poor in those days, but they nevertheless did all that a community
could under similar circumstances to promote education. They needed
both schoolhouses and meeting-houses, but their condition generally
compelled them to make one building answer a double purpose.
The country to which the Saints had come was a wilderness, and the
surroundings of the people were such that it was not always easy to
keep men and women under proper restraint, especially young men who
in a wild country naturally were prone to be uncouth and sometimes
profane in their language. The Puritan spirit of the early pioneers
was so intense that an effort was made {344} to check evils in their
incipiency and to wage a crusade against them as fast as they made
their appearance. Profanity was one of the evils that could not be
endured. The Authorities on the 12th of January, in a congregation
of the Saints, called attention to the use of such language, and the
whole congregation voted to "put down swearing" throughout the City
and the Territory. Into the reform movement, Elder Woodruff threw all
his energies and preached with all the ardor of his soul against the
improper use of words that profaned the name of Deity.
The time had come to erect another temple for the holy ordinances that
are peculiar and confined to that sacred structure. The work should
be begun as far as possible with the absence of every semblance of
evil; and on January 19, President Young announced to the congregation
assembled that the time had arrived for the erection of a temple.
Truman O. Angel was appointed architect, and during the day plans
for the new Temple were submitted for inspection in the Seventies'
Hall. That building now stands on State street in a good state of
preservation.
On the 28th, news of the appointment of President Young to be the first
governor of Utah reached the people. This appointment gave universal
satisfaction. When the news came, President Young was about fifteen
miles north of the city. The leaders and a band went out to meet him;
and upon his arrival in the city, he was welcomed by a salute of ten
guns.
About this time, on February 2nd, a pretender arose who styled himself
Elijah, and a Mr. Bateman spoke for about 9 minutes in his behalf. The
new Elijah, however, received no encouragement.
It was about the same time also that there began those regular weekly
meetings of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles which have continued to
the present time. The object was to keep the Twelve in harmony with
one another, that each might know what the other was doing, that there
might be uniformity, and that they might be actuated by a spirit of
unity.
Early in February of that year, the legislature granted a charter to
the community that was to be known as a municipal organization under
the name of Salt Lake City. Concerning the charter President Woodruff
writes that President Young said: "We do not want the Church to pass
laws to punish crime, but {345} to try members only on questions of
Church fellowship. If the members transgress the laws of the land, turn
them over to the authorities of the land. We want to protect the Church
also in its rites of worship and protect every other sect that comes
here. When the kingdoms of this world become the Kingdoms of our Lord
and Savior Jesus Christ, will their people all be members of the Church
of Jesus Christ by obeying the Gospel? No, not one-eighth part of them.
No more than a telestial kingdom is a celestial one, and they stand in
about the same relation to each other."
Elder Woodruff, on the 23rd of April, in company with a party of
about forty men with twenty wagons entered Utah Valley. This was his
first visit to the settlements there. He met the Indian chief Walker.
He thought him rather an ugly looking specimen for an Indian chief.
Later on the company reached Sanpete valley. Here there were about one
hundred families located. These families were engaged in farming. They
had erected a schoolhouse and had commenced a council house.
Passing on from Sanpete, the company went through Sevier Valley to
Marysvale and on to Cedar City. "We passed over the worst road the last
few days that I ever knew. We had to draw our wagons up and let them
down with ropes in places where the roads were so bad, and at places
the slant was so great that we had to hold our wagons up to keep them
from turning over." In the valley near Cedar City the company was
met by President George A. Smith who at that time had charge of the
southern settlements. The settlers had been there only three months.
They had enclosed a fort of 19 acres, plowed and sown 1,000 acres with
wheat, had fenced 600 acres, built a sawmill, and erected the first
story of their council house. The little community welcomed President
Young and party by the firing of a cannon and by waving the stars and
stripes. This small settlement of pioneers had about one hundred men.
The discovery of coal and iron ore in the vicinity of Cedar City
awakened in the Latter-day Saints a special desire to establish iron
foundries. Men had been called to this work as a mission. Among the
one hundred, there were perhaps thirty who were discontented. Part of
them desired to return to Salt Lake City to get their families, and
others to abandon the mission at Cedar {346} entirely. Apostle Woodruff
records the following words of President Young to these men: "If you
were now on a mission to France or England or to any other part of
the earth, you would not sit down and counsel together about going to
get your families, or about going home till your mission was ended.
This is of quite as much importance as preaching the Gospel. The time
is now come when it is required of us to make the wilderness blossom
as the rose. Our mission is now to build up stakes of Zion and fill
these mountains with cities, and when your mission is ended you are at
liberty to go. Only do what is right. When I go on a mission, I leave
my affairs in the hand of God. If my house, flocks, or fields are lost
in my absence; if my wife or children die, I say, Amen, to it. If they
live, I say, Amen, to that and thank the Lord." The words of President
Young removed much of the discontent and most of them remained to fill
their mission in honor.
In speaking at this time of the Indians in that section the President
said: "These Indians are the descendants of the Gadianton robbers
who infested these mountains for more than a thousand years." At the
conclusion of this visit, the party returned to Salt Lake City which
they reached on the 24th of May, 1851.
Elder Woodruff's journal contains many of the discourses preached by
President Young in those days on subjects of practical religion, home
industry, prayer, financial integrity, farming, tithing, and kindred
subjects. His talks contained just such subject matter as one would
expect to hear from a leader whose mission it was to make the desert
blossom as the rose. Elder Woodruff, here and there, used stenographic
characters in making notes in his journal. He was not a stenographer,
however, but he was so accustomed to writing the sermons in long hand
that his memory was trained for the work, and a large measure of
accuracy was given to these journalistic efforts.
To this work he had been called by President Young soon after the
martyrdom of Joseph and Hyrum. The day would come when the details of
that early history would be in great demand among those who would love
to know the beginning of the work of God in this dispensation. "Some
day," said President {347} Young, "I shall look to you for my journal."
This work was so carefully done, and the devotion of Elder Woodruff was
so great towards his brethren that one is impressed by the splendid
fidelity with which he honored the call.
On the Fourth of July of 1851 the Saints joined in a celebration
at Black Rock on Salt Lake. "The procession was led by the general
authorities with the Nauvoo Legion as an escort. It consisted of
140 wagons which reached Black Rock at 2 o'clock in the afternoon.
Patriotic speeches were made, and after the meeting, social pastimes
were indulged in, and many enjoyed a bath in the lake. It was as
pleasant a Fourth of July as I ever spent, and my family was with me.
Next day we returned to Salt Lake City."
Those were happy days. The simplicity of their faith, the candor of
their words, and the friendship of their lives produced a remarkable
unity which in itself was both inspiring and joyful.
The Twenty-fourth of July was honored by a celebration. There was music
by the Nauvoo brass band. The citizens came out in great numbers. There
was a procession at the head of which the aged fathers and mothers were
placed--men and women whose frames were shaped by the hardships and
struggles of those early days. The procession ended at the bowery where
there were speeches, instrumental music and singing. "The songs of
Zion were sung not in a strange land, nor were our harps hung upon the
willows. The shades of evening came over the city and there had been
no accident to mar the proceedings of that hallowed day. There were no
curses, no drinking, no rabble, no strife to mar the occasion." There
was, perhaps, a little Church mixed up with the State in those days.
Men had conceived the idea that God should be honored as much in the
administration of civil as of religious affairs.
The harvest season followed the Twenty-fourth and Elder Woodruff was as
enthusiastic and energetic on the farm as he was in a celebration or as
he was in preaching the Gospel abroad. He was a model of industry. His
little twenty-acre farm just south of the city was under a high state
of cultivation. With a cradle in his hands, he went to the work of the
harvest with singular pleasure. His restless nature often carried him
beyond {348} his strength, but he loved to work. He always worked, and
with him one kind of work was as honorable as another; for God honored
honest toil.
At his home on the farm, there lived with him his aged father. The
stepmother had remained with her daughter in Iowa. About this time,
he received word that she had died on the 20th of March and that his
brother Azmon's wife had also died on the 3rd of January of that year.
His brother also wrote him relating the sorrow and trouble he had
encountered ever since he had left the Church. His letter bore evidence
of humiliation and repentance, much to the joy of his faithful brother
Wilford.
On the 7th of September, there was a general conference of the Church.
After addressing the Saints upon practical affairs and the daily duties
of life, President Young said: "No better man than Joseph Smith ever
lived on this earth. Hear it, O, ye heavens, O, ye earth, and all
men! It is my testimony that he was as good a man as ever lived, save
Jesus." In harmony with these words, Willard Richards related his
testimony to the mob in Carthage at the time of the Prophet's death to
the effect that they were Prophets of God, and two of the best men that
ever lived on earth.
During this conference, Judge Brocchus of the United States court in
Utah, requested the privilege of speaking. The request was granted and
he proceeded to cast unsavory reflections upon the character of the
Saints. This President Young resented in strong terms. In the course
of his remarks, the Prophet said to those who were going on missions:
"Don't go and tell the people of different denominations that because
their sins are not forgiven that they are always going to dwell in
hell; for if they are honest, they will have a glory greater than many
who carry the gospel to them. There are good people among all sects,
Gentiles, Jews, and heathens. They act according to the best light they
have. What is the condition of the people of this country? Light has
come into the world, and many men love darkness rather than light. They
reject that light, fight the prophets, and shed their blood. For this
they will be damned."
At this conference N. H. Felt and John Banks were appointed traveling
bishops. E. T. Benson, J. M. Grant, and Orson Hyde were called on
a mission to Kanesville to gather out all the Saints {349} in that
region. Elder Woodruff here records the remarks made by Patriarch
John Smith, uncle of the Prophet, and father to President George A.
Smith. He had been a member of the Church since 1832. "I was ordained
an elder under the hands of Joseph Wakefield. The Smith family was
called to bring forth this work. My team hauled the first load of stone
for the erection of the Kirtland Temple. My son George A., drove that
team. There were four brothers of us on the stand at Kirtland. I am
now left alone. I was in jail with my nephews, Joseph and Hyrum, the
night before they were killed. Next day three guns were snapped at me.
I could not weep for a long time; when I could, I wept much. I have
labored much from that day till this. Now pay your tithing, make your
measures good when you sell anything, and fulfill all your covenants if
they are properly made. Then we shall prosper in this Valley. I am an
old man and cannot say much."
When the pioneers returned to Winter Quarters from Salt Lake Valley,
father John Smith was left in charge of the Church here. He was a man
of the utmost honor and of sterling integrity both to God and man.
Three generations of this man have been apostles in the Church.
It was at this conference that all the brethren and sisters voted to
discontinue the use of tea, coffee, and tobacco. It was then adjourned
until October 6th.
{350}