Leaves Kentucky.--Travels on foot five hundred miles.--Reaches his
friends in Ohio.--Through fatigue and exposure, is very sick.--Receives
kind attention.--Traveled and preached.--Taught school.--Great effort,
and great success.--A thrilling narrative.--Arrives in Nauvoo.--The
Father and Family in LaHarpe.
On the last of February, 1839, I left the State of Kentucky with one
dollar and twenty-five cents in my pocket, to visit my former home in
Ohio, and to settle up some unfinished business, having received, by
letter from my sister Eliza, the news of the expulsion of our people
from Missouri. The distance of the journey before me was about five
hundred miles, and in the worst season of the year for traveling,
and at a time when very little interest was felt by the people for
Gospel truths, and few opportunities afforded for public preaching.
The trip was a tedious one--on foot and in the midst of snow and rain
storms--sometimes hard, frozen ground--sometimes mud and water soaking
through my boots until my socks were wringing wet at night, and of
course, hard and stiff in the morning when I was fortunate enough to
get them dry. It was a hard pull, but I accomplished the feat, and worn
out by fatigue and exposure, I arrived among my friends in Ohio.
The first place I reached was a Brother Smith's, where one year before
I had performed missionary labors--preached and baptized, and, at his
house, made my home. Fatigue and its consequences had so changed my
appearance, that at first Brother Smith and family did not recognize
me. As soon as recognized, and my condition known, every attention
was extended that kindness could suggest, and everything done for my
comfort that warm hearts and willing hands could bestow. Then came a
reaction of the overstraining of my physical powers, and with a burning
fever, I was confined to my bed, and for days remained in a prostrate
condition, when, through the kind ministrations of my friends and the
blessing of God in the manifestations of His power, I soon recovered,
and resumed my missionary labors.
The summer and fall I spent principally traveling and preaching in the
northern part of Ohio. In the winter of 1839 and 1840, I was employed
in teaching a district school in the township of Shalersville, Portage
County, Ohio. The school was large, and its patrons all Gentiles with
the exception of one family. Previous to this time, the directors had
been very unfortunate in the selection of teachers; consequently the
scholars were, in their studies, far behind adjacent schools. Here
an opportunity presented for me to make a mark, and I determined to
do it, and set myself to the arduous task of arousing and instilling
intellectual life into the mentally dormant brain. I labored day
and night to accomplish my purpose, _i. e_., to elevate my students
to a higher standard of intellectual improvement. I succeeded, and
before its close, my school had attained to such celebrity, that it
was everywhere spoken of for its wonderful progress, and as having
outstripped all of the neighboring schools.
But my extra exertions told seriously on my physical system, as the
following little incident will illustrate: One evening I was in company
with a gentleman who was with Napoleon Bonaparte's army in its retreat
from Moscow. He possessed peculiar descriptive powers, and portrayed so
lifelike the terrible scenes of suffering and death he had witnessed
in that memorable defeat, that my mind was entirely absorbed, and my
feelings and sympathies so aroused and carried along with him in his
thrilling narrative, that my bodily strength was completely overcome,
and I suddenly fainted and fell from my chair. This circumstance
admonished me of the necessity of rest, of which I availed myself, and
soon regained my usual health.
After having arranged my secular affairs, I took leave of my friends
and kindred in Ohio, and started for Nauvoo, where I arrived about the
first of May, 1840. I found my parents, brothers and sisters, whom I
had left about eighteen months before, in Adam-ondi-Ahman, living in
LaHarpe, about thirty miles from Nauvoo. O, what changes, privation,
hardship and suffering, the cruel hand of persecution had produced in
those eventful months! But God was with His people, and they knew in
whom they trusted, and in the midst of severe trials, rejoiced that
they were counted worthy to suffer for the truth's sake.