Anson made an early call upon Father Joseph Smith and Brigham Young

for counsel as to whether he should go on horseback to the Three-Forks

of Grand river to obtain some property he had left there to help make

his family more comfortable therewith. They advised him not to go, as

they feared the violence of the mob, into whose hands he would be very

likely to fall. After thinking the matter over, he still felt impelled

by the necessities of his family to make the attempt, notwithstanding

the adverse counsel he had received. He mounted his horse and started,

and after a perilous and tiresome journey arrived at his farm on New

Years day, and found it in possession of a Missourian named George

Washington O'Neil, one of the men from whom he had purchased the place,

and who had afterwards decided to take advantage of his misfortunes by

robbing him of it. He rode about two miles past his home to the house

of a neighbor named Day, whose friendship he presumed upon as he had

taken no part with the mob, and as Mrs. Day was a member of the church.

Mrs. Day told him of what O'Neil and Culp, the former owners of his

farm, had been doing, and warned him that they were likely to kill him

if they got a chance to do so. While he was talking to Mrs. Day the two

enemies referred to entered the house and immediately began to threaten

him, and declared that they would just as soon kill him as if he were

a dog, and if they were to do so no one would blame them for it. Anson

told them he intended to stand up for his rights as a white man and a

citizen, which phrase had a special significance then because of the

prevalence of negro slavery in Missouri, but they answered him with

jeers, being evidently of the opinion that he had neither friends nor

influence in the country. Many of the people in the neighborhood were

in debt to Anson for goods he had sold them on time, but he became

convinced from the talk of O'Neil and Culp that he would be powerless

to collect the accounts, and would only risk his life by trying to do

so. With the intention of quitting the region, which fairly reeked with

blood-thirsty anti-"Mormonism," he started towards his horse, which

was tied only about five rods distant. As he did so he was followed

by O'Neil and struck over the head with a heavy hoop pole, and almost

felled to the ground. His first impulse was to pick up something with

which to defend himself, but he could find nothing, and the blows were

repeated with such force that he would probably have been killed but

for the fact that he wore a thick cap, which doubtless eased the blows.

Mrs. Day's interference appeared to save him from further violence at

the time, as his assailants immediately left. She suggested that they

had probably gone to get their guns and advised that he mount his horse

and hurry along before they returned, which he proceeded to do. His

head and face soon began to swell, and he stopped at the first stream

he came to and bathed the affected parts, hoping if possible to hide

from others the knowledge of his injuries, as he felt compunction at

having gone to his old home contrary to counsel. He arrived in Far

West about 11 p. m. and immediately went to bed. He awoke early in

the morning and immediately arose, but fell to the floor as soon as

he tried to walk. His wife, alarmed at his appearance and weakness,

insisted upon knowing what was the matter with him, and he had to tell

her, but plead with her to keep it from others and promised to remain

in bed until he had recovered. She gave him the most devoted attention

and in a few days he was again about, looking and feeling not much the

worse for his severe treatment.

On the 15th of January, 1839, Lyman Cowdery, the father of Olive, went

to the home of Anson Call during his absence and told Mrs. Call that

he wished to see her husband at the home of W. W. Phelps the following

evening on some special business. When evening came Anson called there

according to appointment and met Mr. Cowdery, David Whitmer, Wm.

McClellin, Burr Riggs and other apostates. The Prophet Joseph Smith at

this time was incarcerated in Liberty jail, and, taking advantage of

his absence, these apostates and other enemies were exerting themselves

to find some pretext for accusing him of crime. Previous to this a

quantity of merchandise belonging to the Church while in transit from

Kirtland to Missouri had mysteriously disappeared, and with them some

parcels of similar goods that were being transported by the same party

for Anson Call. The missing goods were subsequently found by the

sheriff of Caldwell County in the home of Oliver Cowdery and David

Whitmer, when, armed with a search warrant, he went there to look

for them. To cast an aspersion against the character of the prophet

in connection with these goods, Anson was asked by Lyman Cowdery to

sign a confession that he had sworn falsely as to the identity of his

goods. As an inducement for him to do so, they claimed to be able to

prove that Anson had perjured himself and was liable to a heavy penalty

therefor. These plotters, however, offered to secure his immunity if he

would do as they wished. Lyman Cowdery's proposition was: "If you will

go with me to Richmond to-morrow and state that you did this because

Joe told you to, I will then settle the whole matter and let the blame

rest where it belongs; for Joe is now where he will not lead anybody

into difficulty again, for justice will soon overtake him."

Anson soon gave these traitorous conspirators to understand that they

could not use him for any such foul purpose as to blacken the character

of Joseph Smith or any other innocent man. He had made no statement but

what was true, and he was ready to prove the truth of it by Vincent

Knight who assisted him in selecting the goods at a store in Ohio.

The efforts of these men, who had formerly been trusted members of the

Church, soon convinced Anson that the Prophet had many enemies who were

determined to destroy him, and among them none more bitterly vindictive

than some who had formerly been bound to him by the most sacred

fraternal ties, but were now ready to betray him to his death.

CHAPTER III.

REMOVAL TO ILLINOIS--A PERILOUS JOURNEY--OVERTAKEN BY THE PROPHET WHILE

ESCAPING FROM MISSOURI PRISON--ANSON AND WIFE VISIT IN OHIO--LOCATE

IN MACEDONIA--REMOVE TO NAUVOO--MISSION TO OHIO--PROPHET'S VISION AND

PREDICTION AS TO SAINTS LOCATING IN WEST--JUDGE THOMAS' ADVICE--SERVICE

AS A DELEGATE.

Not long after this a team animal which had been stolen from Anson was

found, and this enabled him to remove his family and such of their

effects as were left from the State, and they were soon on their way

to Illinois. The snow was about a foot deep and the weather extremely

cold, it being about the middle of February, 1839, and not at all

favorable for travel even if they had been well provided with clothing

and bedding, and in their destitute condition their suffering was

intense. The first night out their wagon tipped over in the creek and

the next day they traversed a bleak prairie in a raging blizzard,

during which they almost perished. The Missourians, though ordinarily

generous and hospitable, were so embittered against the Saints that

they furnished them no supplies or shelter unless paid well therefor,

and then they did so grudgingly, and evinced no pity because of their

suffering.

One day while traveling towards Warsaw they were overtaken by Joseph

and Hyrum Smith, who after more than six months imprisonment in

Missouri had made their escape and were on their way to Illinois. They

were in such a hurry in consequence of their enemies pursuing them that

they took only time for a few hasty words, but inquired where Anson

expected to locate, and promised to pay him a visit after they reached

their destination. This promise they faithfully kept, in company with

Sidney Rigdon and Vincent Knight. They took dinner with the Call family

and spent much of the afternoon in relating the circumstances of their

escape from Missouri. The prophet also told them that he had purchased

a tract of land in Illinois--the same upon which Nauvoo was afterwards

built--as a gathering place for the Saints.

In October, 1839, Anson with his wife and youngest child made a trip

into Ohio to visit her mother, leaving his two older children in

the care of Miss Hannah Flint, Mrs. Call's sister, who had for some

time shared the home of the Call family. They returned to Illinois

in the Spring of 1840, in company with Chester Loveland and Jeremiah

Willey, and soon afterwards Anson and Chester Loveland rented a farm

in Carthage, where they were fairly successful, and interspersed their

labors on the farm with preaching in the Carthage court house.

In the Spring of 1841 Anson and his family removed to Raymas,

afterwards called Macedonia, where he and others purchased an extensive

tract of land, upon which a stake of Zion was later organized, of which

Anson was one of the High Councilors.

On the 13th of May, 1841, Anson's birthday, his wife give birth to twin

boys and afterwards had a long spell of sickness. She was restored to

health on being administered to.

In the spring of 1842 Anson moved his family into Nauvoo, having been

counseled so to do by the leaders of the Church.

The following September he went upon a mission to the state of Ohio,

his companion being B. F. Cummings. While on the way to Ohio they

traveled and preached through the states of Illinois and Indiana, and

baptized forty persons. They returned to their homes in Nauvoo the

last day of March, 1842. The winter had been unusually severe, and

even at that time the Ohio, Illinois and Missouri rivers were still

frozen over, so that teams could cross on the ice. Anson found his

family well, but rather destitute. He spent that season raising a light

crop of corn, building a small brick house and quarrying stone for the

Temple.

On the 14th of July, 1843, Anson and quite a number of the brethren

crossed the Mississippi river to the town of Montrose to be present

at the installment of the masonic lodge of the "Rising Sun." They

assembled in a block school house in front of which there was ample

shade, and had a barrel of ice water to quench their thirst. Judge

George J. Adams was the highest masonic authority in the state, and

had been sent there to organize the lodge. He, Hyrum Smith and John

C. Bennett, being high masons, went into the house to perform certain

ceremonies which the others were not entitled to witness. The others,

Joseph Smith among them, remained under the bowery. The prophet, as

he was testing the cold water warned the brethren not to drink of it

too freely, and with the tumbler still in his hand prophesied that

the Saints would yet go to the Rocky Mountains and remarked that the

water he had just drank of tasted much like the crystal streams that

flowed down from the snowcapped mountains, where their future home

would be located. Anson, in subsequently describing this incident, said

"I had before seen him in vision, and now saw, while he was talking,

his countenance changed to white; not the deadly white of a bloodless

face, but a living, brilliant white. He seemed absorbed in gazing at

something at a great distance and said "I am gazing at the valleys

of the mountains." Then the prophet gave a vivid description of the

scenery of the mountains and valleys just as many of those who listened

to him afterwards learned to know them in reality. Pointing to Shadrach

Roundy and others he said "There are some men here who shall do a great

work in that land." Pointing to Brother Call, he said "There is Anson;

he shall go and shall assist in building cities from one end of the

country to the other, and you, (seeming to include in the scope of his

remarks many others) shall perform as great a work as has been done by

man, so that the nations of the earth shall be astonished, and many of

them will be gathered in that land and assist in building cities and

temples, and Israel shall be made to rejoice."

Anson, in speaking in the later years of his life of this occasion,

said:

"It is impossible to represent in words this scene, which is still

vivid in my mind; of the grandeur of Joseph's appearance, his beautiful

descriptions of this land and his wonderful prophetic utterances as

they emanated from the glorious inspirations that overshadowed him.

There was a force and power in his exclamations, of which the following

is but a faint echo. "Oh! the beauty of those snow-capped mountains!

The cool refreshing streams that are running down through those

mountain gorges!" Then gazing in another direction as if there was a

change of locality, "Oh! the scenes that this people will pass through!

The dead that will lie between here and there!" Then turning in another

direction as if the scene had again changed: "Oh! the apostasy that

will take place before my brethren reach that land!" But he continued,

"The priesthood shall prevail over all its enemies, triumph over the

devil and be established upon the earth never more to be thrown down."

He then charged us with great force and power to be faithful in those

things that had been and should be committed to our charge, with

the promise of all the blessings that the priesthood could bestow.

"Remember these things and treasure them up, Amen."

During the summer of 1843 the building of the Nauvoo Temple progressed

rapidly and the Saints increased. The non-"Mormon" residents of Nauvoo

and the surrounding region grew restless and uneasy, and it was evident

to the close observer that they were growing jealous and suspicious of

the increasing numbers and influence of the "Mormons." The intolerance

with which the Missourians had regarded the "Mormons" had seemed to

subside for awhile after they located in Nauvoo, but it had only been

smoldering and was ready to burst out into a flame again upon the

slightest provocation.

On Sunday, June 14, 1844, when the Saints were assembled at their usual

place of meeting, in a grove east of the Temple, Judge Thomas, the

Circuit Judge of the district, drove up to the stand and asked for an

opportunity of speaking with Joseph Smith. The Prophet went out and

talked with him about fifteen minutes, during which time the judge

explained to him and advise him what to do. Joseph returned to the

stand and began to speak. Just then a shower occurred, and he asked

the assembly whether they would remain and hear his discourse. The

response seemed to be universal: "We will tarry." This was the last

discourse delivered by the prophet on the Sabbath. During the meeting

the prophet, acting upon the suggestion of Judge Thomas, appointed

delegates to visit various precincts of the country to try to effect

a settlement with the mob that was threatening to break out in open

hostility against the Saints. Anson Call and David Evans were appointed

a committee to visit the precinct where Colonel Williams lived, who

was an influential leader of the mob. After meeting they started upon

this mission and that night lodged with Father Call, five miles from

Warsaw. They called at Colonel Williams; house the following morning

and learned that he had gone to Adams County to raise the recruits

to proceed against the "Mormons." They learned from Elder Knox, a

Campbelite preacher, than an anti-"Mormon" committee had been organized

in every precinct, that the members of the committee in that precinct

were Colonel Williams, himself and a Mr. Henderson. In response to a

desire expressed by the visitors to meet that committee, and in the

absence of Colonel Williams, Elder Knox proffered to go and bring Mr.

Henderson to them. While waiting for his return they were confronted

with a mob of about fifty men who came swarming into the house. Among

them was a lawyer from Warsaw named Stevenson. Addressing Messrs.

Evans and Call, he said, "Gentlemen, you are delegates from Nauvoo,

I suppose." Being told that they were, he said the people of Warsaw

were also expecting delegates, and had decided to throw them into the

Mississippi and make fish bait of them when they appeared. They added

by way of advice to the local residents "You can dispose of yours as

you think proper." Being informed of the instruction of Judge Thomas

to Joseph Smith, he discredited it by saying he had talked with the

judge before he went to Nauvoo, and intimated that he did not believe

he had so advised; but if he had he thought the judge ought also to be

consigned to the Mississippi river. The mob became threatening, but the

Campbelite preacher insisted that they must not disturb the "Mormons"

while they were doing business with them. For further protection a

guard was stationed around the house. After an hour's discussion the

assembly refused to act upon the proposition of the delegates in the

absence of Colonel Williams. His fellow committeemen guaranteed the

safety of the delegates until they could mount their horses, but no

longer. They were soon in their saddles and spurring their horses,

and reached a safe distance while the mob were preparing to pursue

them. Brother Call and Evans arrived in Nauvoo late in the evening of

the 15th of June and at 8 o'clock the following morning they repaired

to the Mansion House to report to the Prophet; Reynolds Cahoon, the

doorkeeper, however, refused to grant them an interview with him,

saying that he was busy and did not wish to see any one. Anson after

a few moments' stay succeeded in learning what room the Prophet was

in and boldly opened the door and walked in. He was greeted in the

most cordial manner by the Prophet, who hastened to inquire when he

returned and where Brother Evans was. Then he insisted that Brother

Evans be admitted, and the two made their report, which they were then

requested to reduce to writing and make an affidavit of it before

Ebenezer Robinson, justice of the peace. They were then requested to

take the sworn statement to Judge Thomas whose court was in session

at Knoxville, eighty miles distant. Two of the best horses had to be

ordered for them to ride, and before sunset they were on the way. The

prophet told them to make all possible haste and to get an interview

with the judge if they had to follow him into court by holding on to his

coat tail. They left Nauvoo in the evening about sunset. It was raining

and the roads were muddy and the streams high. The following day they

arrived at a stream that was very high and rapid, and apparently very

dangerous. The nature of their errand admitted of no delay, and they

plunged in and after a hard struggle succeeded in reaching the opposite

shore. They arrived at KNoxville at 10 o'clock on the second day. The

court being in session, they presented the letter to the sheriff with

a request that he deliver it. He did so, and the judge opened and read

it and put it in his pocket. They chafed at the delay and tried to

get the sheriff to intercede to have the judge write a reply, but he

told them they would have to wait till after intermission. When the

court adjourned for luncheon they followed the judge to the hotel and

when he arose from the table they locked arms with him, one on either

side, and told him they must have an answer to General Smith's letter.

He said a written reply was not necessary; it would be sufficient for

them to report to him verbally, that he was mistaken in regard to

the instructions given him in Nauvoo. They, however, refused to be

dismissed in that way, and insisted upon a reply in writing, and he

reluctantly consented to write a short note. He allowed the brethren

to read it, and as Anson recalled it from memory in his later years it

read about as follows:

"General Smith:

"In perusing your letter I find that you were mistaken in the

instructions that I gave you while at Nauvoo, and I know of no course

for you to pursue to answer the requirements of the law, but to suffer

yourself to be taken by the officer holding the writ and go before the

justice of the peace who issued the same and have an investigation

of the matter. It is the officer's duty to protect you; this the law

requires, and I cannot as an officer of the law give you any different

instructions."

CHAPTER IV.

JUDGE THOMAS' WILLINGNESS TO SACRIFICE THE PROPHET--VAIN EFFORTS

TO SEE AND REPORT TO THE PROPHET--PERFIDY OF REYNOLDS CAHOON AND

ALPHEUS CUTLER--PROPHET'S LAST SPEECH--NEWS OF THE MARTYRDOM--ITS

EFFECT--ATROCITIES OF MOB.

The brethren protested strongly against the Prophet surrendering

himself to be taken to Carthage, as they believed the officers would

rather take his life than protect it. In vain they urged Judge Thomas

to set a date when the Prophet could be brought before his court for

the investigation of any charges that might be brought against him. He

said he did not wish to interfere in any legal matters; neither did

he consider the matter under his jurisdiction. In answer to what the

brethren had said about the danger of his going to Carthage, the judge

said "this is nothing but your imagination, and that will be better

understood when tried." And then he offered a suggestion that convinced

the brethren that he had already decided in his own mind that the

Prophet should be sacrificed. He said "would it not be better for one

or two men to be killed than for a whole community to be destroyed?"

The response to this traitorous suggestion was, "No; we would all

prefer to die in defense of innocent citizens rather than for one of

our number to be massacred by a ruthless mob; and we will show you and

all other men that we will protect one another in our rights."

The interview closed by the judge remarking that his visitors were

very zealous, and they declaring that they were not more zealous than

determined. They received the letter and made all possible haste to

Nauvoo, arriving there at 10 o'clock on June 20, 1844.

On entering the Mansion House they were met by Alpheus Cutler and

Reynolds Cahoon, who inquired as soon as they greeted them if they had

a letter from Judge Thomas. When told that they had, they requested

that it be given to them. To this the brethren demurred, and insisted

upon seeing the Prophet personally.

Cahoon and Cutler argued against the proposition and used all the

powers of persuasion they could command to get possession of the

letter; then, finding it in vain, they suddenly left the room. Hardly

had they done so when Emma Smith's nephew appeared and announced that

Mrs. Smith wished to see Brothers Call and Evans, and led them to

her room. As they approached she said "You have a letter from Judge

Thomas, haven't you?" They replied "Yes, and we want to see Joseph."

She declared positively that they could not see him, and was not moved

from the decision when they rehearsed to her their reasons for wishing

to see him. She did not tell them he was not at home, but her language

rather implied that he was absent. She plead hard for them to give her

the letter to deliver to him, and gave her solemn promise to so deliver

it, and then to arrange for them to have an interview with him. They

finally determined that if they could not see the Prophet and warn him

personally against being taken to Carthage, the next most important

thing was to get the letter into his hands, and they accordingly gave

it to Emma and she opened it and read it aloud in their presence and

also within the hearing of the doorkeepers, Reynolds Cahoon and Alpheus

Cutler. The brethren repeated to all three what Judge Thomas had said

to them, that they might be thoroughly impressed with the danger of the

Prophet giving himself up to be taken to Carthage, and requested also

that the Prophet be informed of all that they had heard. Had they known

then what they afterwards learned--that Joseph and Hyrum Smith were at

that very time out of the State, on the west side of the Mississippi

river, with the intention of journeying westward and keeping out of the

clutches of those who were seeking to deprive them of their liberty,

and if possible of their lives also, they would have entered their

solemn protest against their giving up that advantage and returning

again to Illinois in the face of the murderous hatred that was so

generally manifested towards them.

Anson was subsequently informed by Dr. Willard Richards that Reynolds

Cahoon and Alpheus Cutler had crossed the river in a boat in the

afternoon of the day that they had talked with Anson Call and David

Evans, and while what General Thomas had said to them, as related by

the brethren to them and to the Prophet's wife, must have been still

fresh in their minds, and induced Joseph and Hyrum Smith to return

to Nauvoo and give themselves up to the officers who had a warrant

for them (the very thing that Brothers Call and Evans had plead with

them to warn the Prophet against doing.) Anson also learned from Dr.

Richards that the letter they had brought from Judge Thomas was not

even delivered to the Prophet.

Anson never had the privilege of speaking to the Prophet again, but

he saw him on the morning of the 24th of June, when he rode up to the

Nauvoo Legion while on parade near the Nauvoo Mansion, and said, with

all the feeling he could express, "Boys, I have come to bid you good

by. I am going to leave you for awhile. You are my boys, and I bless

you in the name of Israel's God. Be faithful and true, and you shall

have your reward. Farewell."

Anson, in speaking of it later in life, said "I little thought,

knowing his many deliverances from the hands of his enemies, that it

was the last time I should see him alive. That night I went home to

rest with my family, about one-fourth of a mile east of the Temple,

on Brigham Street. On Thursday, the 25th, I as usual paraded with

the Legion. Friday and Saturday, 26th and 27th, attended to the same

routine of business. Saturday night I was one of the Temple guards.

Sunday morning, the 28th, I saw O. P. Rockwell ride into the city at

full speed, with the sweat dripping from his horse, shouting with his

stentorious voice pitched in the highest notes of intensified sorrow

and wrath: "Joseph is killed! Joseph is killed! They have killed him!

They have killed him!"

The sorrow that overwhelmed the Saints as that awful news spread

throughout Nauvoo, as it did in a remarkably short time, cannot be

adequately described by tongue or pen. Even those who knew that he had

been taken to Carthage and were also aware of the murderous spirit

that animated those who had been seeking to apprehend him, and the

threats they had indulged in, were unprepared for the news, for they

had vainly hoped that he would be set free when an investigation of

the charges brought against him had occurred, or be enabled to escape

as he had in the past. They were all conscious of his innocence, and

felt that the Lord would intercede in his behalf, and not suffer

his enemies to take his life; and on learning that they had done so

they were stunned--almost paralyzed. Few if any were more powerfully

affected by the news than Anson Call. By a strong effort he controlled

his feelings and suppressed the inclination to seek personal vengeance,

but was deprived of the power to sleep, and lost all desire to eat;

and besought the Lord in earnest prayer to restrain him from doing

anything that would be unwise or that would add to the trouble that

already enveloped the Saints. When the bodies of the martyrs were

brought into Nauvoo he took his family to see them, and they were

strongly affected by the sight. On the third night after the martyrdom

Anson had a dream or a vision in which he saw the Prophet and heard him

assure a congregation of Saints that, although dead, he should still

lead the kingdom, the keys of which had been given to him, and would be

held by him forever. This assurance proved a great comfort to Anson,

and enabled him to comfort others. Very soon thereafter he went to

Carthage and was piloted around by the jailer. He saw the blood from

the Prophet's veins upon the well curb, and the hole through the panel

door made by the bullet that killed Hyrum, as also the blood stain upon

the floor where he fell, which stain the jailer assured him he had

been unable to erase. Anson told him he hoped he never would be able

to wash it away, but that it would remain as an everlasting testimony

against his murderers. He saw a number of those who were implicated in

the murder, most of whom he was personally acquainted with, especially

Captain Robert Smith, of the Carthage Greys, the man who issued the

writs against Joseph and Hyrum, and to whom long before, Anson had

borne testimony that Joseph Smith was a Prophet of God, and who had

apparently never been able to look him in the face afterwards.

Anson took an active and prominent part in the events that followed

the martyrdom. He was detailed as one of the one hundred men who

were selected to assist the mob from burning houses and committing

other depredations against the Saints in the fall of 1845. He saw his

father's house burn down, and also the man who applied the torch to it.

He had obtained special permission from the sheriff to look after his

father's property, as he was living in the region where the mob was

unusually active in committing outrages. He arrived at his father's

home about an hour after nightfall, and saw the house burning, and

various articles of household goods scattered about, but could see

none of the family. Surmising that they were not very far away, he

went through a cornfield near the house, calling for his father. After

awhile he heard a response "Anson, is that you?" and, following the

direction of the voice met his father, who felt so outraged that he

was rendered desperate and disposed to resist. On inquiring where his

mother and sisters were, the father led him out into the middle of the

corn field, where his aged mother was found resting upon a bed, her

daughters being elsewhere in hiding. He learned that ten minutes before

the torch was applied to the house the inmates were given a chance to

flee therefrom, and take such articles of clothing and bedding as the

could carry in away in their arms. While the mother and daughters were

doing this the father was talking with Mr. Stevenson, the leader, who

was master of the masonic lodge at Warsaw, of which Father Call was

warden. The bigotry and malice that swayed the people were so strong

that even the fraternity of the masonic order lost its power. Mr.

Stevenson did not attempt to restrain the mob who were with him, nor

even dismount from his horse; but, turning from Father Call, as if

ashamed to look him in the face, he said "I have nothing against you as

a man, but you are a "Mormon," and we must serve you all like." He then

called out to those who were with him, "Gentlemen, do your duty." One

man held a match, and another a bundle of hay, and at the expiration of

the ten minutes the hay was placed in one corner of the house and set

on fire. The same procedure was followed at the homes of Harvey Call,

Chester Loveland and Jeremiah Willey, all located in the same region,

the first mentioned being a brother and the latter two brothers-in-law

of Anson Call. These inoffensive and despoiled Saints arrived in Nauvoo

about noon the following day.

CHAPTER V.

PREPARATIONS FOR ABANDONMENT OF NAUVOO--JOURNEY WESTWARD--WINTER

NEAR INDIAN CAMP--TEST OF FEALTY--WESTWARD JOURNEY TEMPORARILY

ABANDONED--EMPLOYMENT IN MISSOURI--JOURNEY TO UTAH--CHOICE

OF HOME--MISSION TO COLONIZE PAROWAN--MISSION TO COLONIZE

FILLMORE--MASSACRE OF GUNNISON PARTY.

The winter of 1845 and 1846 was chiefly spent by Anson in the work of

making wagons and otherwise preparing for the journey westward. He

received his blessings in the Temple on the 10th of December 1845,

his wife at the time being unable to accompany him, as she had given

birth to a son five days before. She, however, was likewise favored

in the following spring. Anson succeeded in selling his home in Nauvoo

for about one-fourth its value, and he and his family crossed the

Mississippi and started westward on the 15th of June. They crossed

the Des Moines river at Eddyville, and there sorrowfully buried their

youngest child, a boy, six months and twelve days old. They overtook

Father Call at Pisgah and the body of the Church at Council Bluffs,

and crossed the Missouri river on the 7th of July. On the 9th Anson's

young son, Moroni, died and was buried the following day in a hickory

bark coffin, peeled from a tree by the father and grandfather. Although

the season was then so late, the question of journeying on as far as

possible towards the Rocky Mountains was still being discussed. Brigham

Young and Heber C. Kimball each organized a company of seventy-five

wagons for this purpose. Anson was made captain of the first ten

wagons of Brigham Young's company, which included Father Call and his

sons Harvey and Josiah. George Miller and James Emmett had previously

assumed to organize a company, including fifty-two wagons, and started

westward to find a favorable place to winter. Anson and such of his

command as were ready were advised by the council of the Apostles to

follow on after them, and did so. They left the Elk Horn river on the

22nd of July, 1846, and travelled up the Platte river to the Pawnee

missionary station, where they overtook the Miller and Emmett Company.

While camped on the west side of the Loupe Fork a message from the

apostles at Winter Quarters was received, advising that they proceed no

farther westward that season, but to find a good place and establish a

camp for the winter. They also advised that a council of twelve men be

selected to direct the affairs of the camp, and suggested the names of

twelve men to so act. The council was so organized, George Miller being

president, and considerable exploring done to find a suitable place

to winter, but without success. They were invited by two Ponca chiefs

to winter with them on the Missouri river, and guaranteed protection,

plenty of feed for their animals, and timber with which to build

houses. The invitation was accepted, and nine days spent in journeying

to the place. They located on the west side of the mouth of the Running

Water river, and one hundred and twenty-five houses were erected in

fort form.

Nucanumpa, the aged chief of the Poncas, was taken sick and sent for

the brethren composing the council to come and have a talk with him.

He had killed and cooked his best dog and had a feast prepared, which

the council, on being invited, partook of, and then proceeded to tell

them that he had a friendly interest in the "Mormons" and instructed

the Indians to treat them well, and in return wished the "Mormons" to

see the he was properly buried, and to erect at the head of his grave

stone such as he had seen in St. Louis when he once visited that place,

with a proper inscription on it, giving his name, age and title. The

proposition was agreed to and carried out, and the Poncas proved to be

good and peaceable neighbors. The Sioux, however, didn't feel bound by

the agreement made with the Poncas, and stole some of the horses and

cattle from the Saints. The principal feed for the animals consisted of

rushes, and the winter weather was severe, and some of the remaining

animals died as a consequence.

George Miller developed an arrogant and rebellious spirit, and was not

disposed to submit to the direction of the Apostles, and as many of

the people as could be influenced by him and James Emmett also became

disgruntled.

On the 27th of February, 1847, Apostles Ezra T. Benson and Erastus Snow

arrived at the camp with instructions from the Apostles' quorum for

the Saints to return to Winter Quarters before journeying westward, to

replenish their teams and stock of provisions. After delivering their

message the Apostles departed without waiting to see what action would

be taken as to their requirement.

The members of the council assembled to consider and discuss the

message, and James Emmett, although not a member, met with them, by

invitation of George Miller. George Miller addressed the council,

saying that he did not consider that the Apostles had any right to

dictate the camp; that he was their appointed leader, and it was the

duty of the camp to follow him into the wilderness, in fulfillment of a

special mission conferred upon him by the prophet Joseph. James Emmett

followed with a speech in the same strain. The members of the council

being then invited to express their views, Anson Call, who had been an

active member from the time the council was organized, then spoke. He

said the Twelve Apostles were the legitimate leaders of the Saints,

and he intended to remain loyal to them and follow their counsel. The

other ten members of the council who followed him were unanimous in

expressing the same sentiments. Bishop Miller grew furious when he

discovered that he was not supported by the council, and gave vent to

his feelings in a fiery but impotent speech. A motion was then put and

carried by the majority that the people be called together and allowed

to decide by a vote whether they return to Winter Quarters or remain

with Miller and Emmett. This was done and preparations were immediately

made for the journey, with the result that on the 3rd of April when the

start was made only five or six wagons remained with Miller and Emmett.

George Miller had formerly been a Bishop and influential man in the

Church, but was ambitious and impatient of restraint. He looked for

and found faults in those who were over him in the priesthood, and was

such a plausible talker that he soon obtained a following of kindred

spirits. When, however, he came out squarely in opposition to the

counsel of the Twelve Apostles most of his followers saw his true

character and abandoned him in time to save themselves from utter ruin.

On the 6th day of May, 1847, Anson, in company with his brother-in-law

Joseph Holbrook, moved to the Pottawatomie lands on the east side of

the Missouri river and engaged in farming, in which pursuit he had in

the past been successful. After plowing and seeding the ground the

fields were left to the care of their wives and children and they

sought work to provide their families with such necessaries as only

money could buy, and they engaged in cutting and hauling hay into St.

Joseph, and returned to their families in time to harvest the crop

they had planted. After making his family as comfortable as possible

for the winter, Anson returned to St. Joseph, this time accompanied

by his brothers Josiah and Harvey and his brother-in-law Chester

Loveland. They obtained profitable employment and remained there until

the following March when Anson returned to his family and began making

preparations for the journey to the mountains. He removed his family

from their temporary home on Mosquito Creek into Winter Quarters and on

the 14th of June left Winter Quarters for the westward journey. They

crossed the Elk Horn on the 17th and then halted for ten days for the

companies to assemble and organize. Seven hundred wagons were organized

into two divisions. In one of these Anson was placed in charge of

twenty wagons. The company was thoroughly equipped for self-defense

and had a remarkably successful journey, arriving in Salt Lake City,

September 19th, 1848. Three days later he removed his family ten

miles northward, and located in what was first known as North Canyon

Ward, afterwards Bountiful. When he arrived there he had one pig, six

chickens, one pet sheep, four oxen, four cows and two calves--not a

very great start towards stock-raising, which he expected to be one

of his pursuits. If he had been superstitious, he would probably have

decided that the signs were against his engaging in the stock-raising

business, as the 6th day after he located his farm his pig died, the

7th an Indian killed his sheep and on the 8th his best ox drowned in

a spring hole. He was not disposed to give up or get discouraged, but

proved himself a man of resource, and when his oxen were found to be

insufficient for the work required of them he used cows to help draw

the plow. He only had five bushels of seed grain, but he succeeded in

raising two hundred bushels from that the first year, besides quite a

lot of corn; and this notwithstanding the ravages of the crickets. He

showed good judgment in the selection of a farm; it proved to be as

good land as could be found in Utah, if not in the world.

In September, 1849, he was appointed to preside as Bishop over the

North Canyon ward, and that year raised one thousand bushels of grain.

In October, 1850, he responded to a call to assist in colonizing

Little Salt Lake Valley, under the leadership of Apostle George A.

Smith. Those who went occupied one hundred wagons. They were organized

into two companies of fifty wagons each. Anson was made captain of

the first fifty. They left Salt Lake City on the 7th of December and

camped on the present site of Parowan, Iron County, on the 12th of

January, 1851. On the 17th he was elected justice of the peace of the

new colony. He was active and energetic not only in the founding of

Parowan, but also in exploring the surrounding region. Being directed

so to do by the First Presidency, he returned to Salt Lake City in

the spring of 1851 to raise more colonists for the settlement of Iron

County, which he succeeded in doing, and returned south with them the

latter part of April. Before returning (on the 15th of April, 1851),

he enlarged his family and added to his responsibility by taking to

himself a second wife (Ann Mariah Bowen) a native of New York State,

who was born January 3rd, 1834, at Bethany, Genesee Co., and took her

with him to Parowan. The First Presidency and other Church officials

visited Parowan soon afterwards, and called upon Anson to return to

Salt Lake City and raise a company of fifty families to colonize

Pauvant Valley. He accordingly returned north in June accompanied

by his wife, spent the summer in looking after his affairs in Davis

County, and started southward with the new colony in October, 1851, his

wife Mariah, accompanying him. Before starting he was made president

of the new colony by vote of the general conference, and at a special

session of the Territorial Legislature he was made probate judge of

Millard County, which he was directed to organize. He arrived

on Chalk Creek, Pauvant Valley, November, 13th, 1851. He found Brigham

Young, Orson Pratt, a surveyor and about fifty others in the valley

ahead of him. They had laid out a city and called it Fillmore. By

act of the Legislature it had been designated as the capital of the

Territory. Anson devoted his energies to the development of Fillmore

and the surrounding region, with telling effect. At the August

election in 1852 Anson was elected to represent Millard County in the

legislature. On going north to attend the legislature he took with

him an Indian boy and girl whom he had purchased, and left them with

his family in Davis County. After attending the legislative session

of 1852-3 in Salt Lake City he had great difficulty in returning to

Fillmore in February because of the deep snow.

He attended an adjourned session of the legislature in the following

June and then spent some time with his family, but had to hasten back

to Fillmore in July on account of Indian troubles in the south.

About the 2nd of November, 1853, he, in company with eleven men,

gathered up and buried the remains of Captain Gunnison and party,

who had been massacred by Indians on the Sevier river about ten days

previously.

Having completed his mission to Fillmore, he left there on the 5th of

March, 1854, to return to his home in Davis County.

On the 18th of May, 1854, accompanied by his wife Mary and son Chester,

he started south on a visiting tour with President Brigham Young and

company of Church officials. On arriving at Fillmore, he remained

there attending to some necessary business while the rest of the party

journeyed farther south, then returned with them to Salt Lake City.

CHAPTER VI.

CALL'S FORT ESTABLISHED--ACTS AS DEPUTY U. S. MARSHAL--MISSION TO

COLONIZE CARSON VALLEY--OPPOSES ENTRANCE OF ARMY--ABANDONS AND PREPARES

TO BURN HOME--THE "MOVE" SOUTH--BROTHER KILLED BY INDIANS--CALL'S

LANDING ESTABLISHED--HIS LAST DAYS.

In the fall of 1854, Anson's ability as a colonizer was again called

into requisition. He opened a large farm in Box Elder County at a

place since known as Call's Fort, one of the purposes being to find

employment for poor Saints brought from Europe by the Perpetual

Emigration Fund Company. He sowed forty acres of grain, and wintered a

number of poor families there.

On New Years Day, 1855, Anson made a feast for all of his father's

family. It was the last gathering of the Call family during the life of

Father Call.

At the general conference in April, 1855, Anson was given another

mission to go to Fillmore and settle up the business connected with the

building of the State House at that place, which he accomplished in

twelve days, then returned home.

In May, 1855, the United States Marshal for the territory, Joseph L.

Heywood, appointed Anson to act as his deputy, and left the business

connected with his office for him to care for while he went on a trip

to California. That same year the grasshoppers were very destructive,

and Anson spent much time trying to prevent their ravages, and suffered

a heavy loss of crops as well.

Brigham Young having counseled Anson to build a fort on his farm in Box

Elder County for the protection of the settlers, he constructed a stone

wall, enclosing a space of 120 feet square, the wall being three feet

thick and six feet high.

The notorious Judge W. W. Drummond having arrived in Utah to hold

court, Anson, as Marshal Heywood's deputy, escorted him to Fillmore,

and made the necessary arrangements for the session of his court, which

was in session two weeks, and adjourned in January, 1856.

On the 16th of March, 1856, Anson's mother died in Bountiful, aged

sixty-five years.

At the general conference in April, 1856, Anson was again called upon a

colonizing mission, this time to Carson Valley, then in Western Utah,

but now a part of Nevada. After a strenuous experience he arrived home

from there October 13th, 1856. His wife Mariah also accompanied him on

this mission, and remained there after he returned; in fact, she did

not return until the summer of 1857, arriving in Utah soon after word

was received of the approach of Johnston's army.

On the 28th of October he started in charge of thirteen teams furnished

by North Canyon Ward to go to the relief of the hand-cart companies,

who, while en route across the plains, were then perishing in the

snow. They traveled to the Rocky Ridge, three hundred miles from Salt

Lake Valley, were absent thirty-three days, and were successful in

rescuing a large number who would otherwise doubtless have perished.

In February, 1857, Anson again exhibited his faith by taking two

additional wives, both of whom crossed the plains in hand-cart

companies. The first of these was Margaretta Clark, of Nottingham, born

May 28, 1828, the other being Emma Summers, born in Worcester, England,

August 1828.

In the latter part of 1857, as the army (whose supposed purpose was to

drive the "Mormons" from their homes or exterminate them) was nearing

Utah, Anson and his two sons went forth to assist in their people's

defense. Anson and his son Chester assisted in building fortifications

in Echo Canyon, and his son Vasco was doing scout duty in the region

of Green River. In the spring of 1858, when preparations were in

progress for abandoning homes and burning them if necessary rather than

have them possessed by the enemy, Anson stored four thousand pounds

of flour at Payson, to be available for the support of his family,

and later removed his family to the shore of Utah lake, below Provo.

Before leaving their home they prepared it and their other buildings

for burning at a moment's notice. Fortunately that extremity was never

reached, for the family returned and reoccupied their home on the 4th

of July following.

About the 1st of October, 1858, Anson received a visit from his brother

Josiah, whose home was at Fillmore. After a short stay he set out to

return to his home, accompanied by a friend named Samuel Brown. When

near Chicken Creek in Juab County, on their homeward journey, they were

ambushed by Indians, and both killed. When their bodies were found on

the 15th of October they had been partially devoured by coyotes.

On April 9, 1861, Anson showed his faith by complying with the Bible

rule requiring a man to marry and care for his brother's widow, by

taking to wife Henrietta Williams Call, whose husband was killed by

Indians as already mentioned. She had six children and he reared them

to maturity, treating them as well as his own offspring.

At the general conference in October, 1864, Anson, in connection with

others, was given a mission to establish a colony near the Colorado

river. The merchants of Salt Lake City had such difficulty in securing

the necessary supply of merchandise, either from the east or from

California, owing to the long distance it had to be hauled in wagons

and the limited season during which the roads were passable, that

the idea occurred to some one that, if shipped by steamboat up the

Colorado river to as high a point as possible and there stored in a

warehouse the cost of freighting might be materially reduced. It was

thought too that immigrants might be brought to Utah by the same route

with advantage. The merchants and others organized a company to build

and own a warehouse on the Colorado river, and they employed Anson to

act as their agent in carrying into effect a part of this scheme. He

accordingly started about the 1st of November with a company to locate

a road to the most suitable place on the Colorado river, and there

build a landing and warehouse. This he did to the satisfaction of those

who employed him, and returned home in March, 1865. After remaining

home about one month he went again to Call's Landing on the Colorado

river, accompanied by his wife Mary, and returned two and a half months

later.

On the 4th of August, 1867, Anson's eldest son, Anson Vasco, while

returning from a mission to Europe, upon which he had been absent

nearly three and a half years, died at Rock Creek, on the Laramie

Plains, four hundred and twenty-three miles east of Salt Lake. He was a

young man of great promise, and his death was keenly felt by his family

and friends.

On the 28th of October, 1870, Anson accompanied by his wife Mary and

sister-in-law, Mrs. Hannah Holbrook, started on a visit to their

numerous relatives in Ohio, Vermont and other places in the east, from

which they returned home in January, 1871.

In 1872 Anson accompanied the Palestine party, of which President

George A. Smith was the leader, to England, and spent five months

traveling in Great Britain and Ireland.

When the Davis County Stake of Zion was organized in 1877 Anson became

counselor to President Wm. R. Smith, his son Chester succeeding him as

Bishop of Bountiful, formerly North Canyon Ward.

The later years of Anson's life were spent in comparative peace and

quietude, largely on his farm in Davis County, where, surrounded by his

numerous family, he set an example of thrift and industry. But, though

relieved of those strenuous duties of pioneering that occupied so

much of his time in earlier years, his time was still to a very great

extent devoted to laboring for the public welfare, but chiefly in Davis

County, where, as a member of the Stake presidency, he was looked up to

as a safe and reliable leader, who was just as ready to sacrifice his

own interests and devote his influence and energies to the public weal

as he had been during his more vigorous days.

He retained the use of his faculties up to the last, and died at eighty

years of age, honored and respected by all who knew him, leaving to his

numerous posterity an untarnished record of service and devotion to the

cause of Truth.

Anson Call depended upon no man for his knowledge of the truth of

"Mormonism." His confidence in the Lord was supreme. His loyalty to

the Church and the Church leaders was unwavering. His consecration

to the service of the Lord was without reservation, and from the

time he embraced "Mormonism" up to the very day of his death he

hesitated at no sacrifice required of him in that service. Many made

greater pretensions to piety than he did, but no man surpassed him in

sincere devotion to the cause of God and in the modest practice of

true religion as he understood it, and this included strict honesty,

charity, self-denial and unfeigned love. He had a large family--six

wives and twenty-three children in all, though only eighteen grew to

maturity and had families. He was a kind and provident husband and

father, but exacting withal. He had strict ideas of duty, and expected

every member of his household to conform thereto.

He was essentially a man of peace. That he did not lack courage, was

amply proven by the personal risk he deliberately assumed in numerous

instances throughout his life, but he was wise enough to see that the

ends so often sought by quareling and fighting might be more easily

and effectively attained by peaceful methods, and so he advocated and

practiced peace and discountenanced strife and contention.

At no time in Anson Call's life was he really wealthy; in fact, he

was generally financially strained in carrying out his numerous

enterprises; yet he never contented himself with simply providing for

his own family; but always sought to give employment to many others,

and not always because of their being profitable employes.

One of the most striking characteristics that Anson Call possessed was

his ability to return good for evil. If he was ever wronged by any one

he attributed the act to the ignorance or prejudice of the individual,

and felt it to be his duty to impress that person with the friendliness

of his motives, and would go out of his way to do him a kindness. He

was full of charity, and abhorred a disposition to harbor malice.

Anson Call never betrayed a trust. When he gave his promise or

conceived it to be his duty to do anything it was as good as done. If

he had adopted "Do it now" as his motto he could scarcely have been

more prompt in action throughout life. He was the very embodiment of

probity. The Church authorities understood his character, and when they

required anything of him they had the utmost confidence that he would

not only do it promptly but well, for it was his habit to give his very

best service to whatever task he undertook. He was not a theorist,

not given to much meditation; but quick in deciding and instant in

executing. He was essentially a man who did things. His energy was

boundless; his perseverance unlimited.

Elder Brown's Experience

CHAPTER I.

FRIGID TRIP ON LONELY ROAD--TEAM EXHAUSTED--AGONY OF FREEZING--PRAYER

FOR DELIVERANCE--FRIEND INSPIRED TO GO TO HIS RELIEF--SHEEP HERDER

INSPIRED TO MOVE CAMP--EFFECTS OF FREEZING ON FEET.

Brother Jedediah M. Brown, of South Bountiful, is a man of great faith.

He feels that he has inherited the gift of faith, for he does not

remember the time when he did not possess it. When he is in need of

anything it is just as natural for him to appeal to the Lord therefor

as it is to work for it, and he is an industrious man, who never fails

when possible to combine works with faith.

When he was twenty-three years old he was employed by a co-operative

sheep company, as superintendent of its three large sheep herds, that

ranged during the winter on the Western Utah desert. One part of his

duty was to furnish supplies to the several sheep camps, and for this

purpose he made occasional trips to the nearest settlements.

In the early part of January, 1888, he started, with a horse team, from

one of the sheep camps, to drive to Grantsville, forty miles distant.

His intention was to drive to the settlement the first day, buy his

supplies and rest his team during the next day, and return to the sheep

camp the third day, and so informed the men at the sheep camp before

starting.

Having no load, he drove through the first day without trouble, and

secured his load, and, fearing some change in the weather might occur

that would hinder his return, if he delayed starting, he decided to

start back the next morning.

The weather had been mild and thawing, but soon after he started it

became terribly cold, and the wagon was so hard to pull, because of the

wheels breaking through the frozen crust, that one of the horses gave

out before the journey was half accomplished. He had no matches with

which to light a fire, nor bedding with which to keep warm, so he did

not dare to camp. His only hope was to keep on traveling. The cold was

so intense that he suffered the utmost agony, even while trying to keep

his blood in circulation by walking.

He realized that he was in danger of freezing to death, and plead

with the Lord in earnest prayer to spare him from such a fate. After

awhile his pain from freezing grew less, and a feeling of numbness and

overpowering disposition to sleep took possession of him. His ideas

became confused; he scarcely had will power enough left to urge his

team along or exert himself to walk; he frequently stumbled and fell

to the ground, and he had great difficulty in regaining his feet; his

power to resist the feeling of utter exhaustion and desire to sleep

were almost gone.

Just then a man on horseback appeared in sight, and as he drew near

he was recognized as Charles A. Howard, one of the men from the sheep

camp. It transpired that this man about the time in the morning when

Brother Brown's situation became critical was very strongly impressed

to start out to meet him, although he had no reason to suppose that he

would be on the road. He tried to reason away the impression but could

not, then failed to act upon it for several hours, until it became so

strong that he could resist it no longer, when he mounted a horse and

started towards Grantsville, protected to the utmost from the intense

cold. His horse was fresh, and he rode as rapidly as possible. He had

traveled almost if not quite fifteen miles without seeing a sign of a

human being, and was beginning to doubt the wisdom of what seemed to

be his fruitless trip, when he espied a team in the distance. As he

approached nearer he saw that it was his friend, and that his movements

were much like those of a drunken man, staggering as he walked. He

hastened to him, and found him so far gone that he could scarcely

speak. He realized that he would have to act quickly to save his

life, and that his only hope lay in taking him to the sheep camp, for

Grantsville was so much farther away it would be useless to try to take

him back there. It was then almost sunset, and growing more severely

cold every minute. He hastily unharnessed the exhausted horse, saddled

it and helped the suffering man to mount it; then hitched his riding

horse to the wagon in the place of it. Urging Brother Brown to ride as

fast as possible, he started driving the team towards the sheep camp.

The frozen man, however, couldn't even maintain his seat upon the horse

and had to be placed in the wagon, where is was with difficulty he was

kept awake by his friend as he almost frantically drove the team.

They had not proceeded more than a mile and a half when, to their

surprise, they came upon a sheep camp, which had just located beside

the road, and which was nowhere in sight when young Howard had passed

the spot going eastward.

The herd belonged to Bishop J. W. Hess, of Farmington, and one of his

sons was in charge of it. As he afterwards explained, his camp had

been located some distance away and he had no intention of moving it

until the afternoon of that day, when, without any reason that he could

offer, and notwithstanding the cold weather, he took a sudden notion to

do so, and acted upon it. It was providential for Brother Brown that

he had done so, as he might not have survived the long ride to his own

camp.

A good fire was burning in the stove in the camp wagon, and the

frozen man was immediately helped in beside it, and with true western

hospitality every comfort the camp afforded was placed at his disposal.

Stimulants were immediately supplied him, his boots were cut from his

feet, as they could not be otherwise removed, and a proposition was

made that his feet be thawed out in the oven of the stove, but young

Howard knew that would be unwise, so he sat up all night and kept them

packed in snow.

In the afternoon of the following day Brother Brown was removed to his

own camp, where he had to remain and be cared for during the ensuing

two weeks before he could stand it to ride home. During all that time

it was necessary to keep his feet elevated, as the pain in them when

hanging down was unbearable.

He really never recovered the use of his feet until Spring, as the skin

peeled off them from his ankles to the ends of his toes, and the nails

also were shed.

He has always since regarded the help he received from Brothers Howard

and Hess as a direct answer to his prayer.

CHAPTER II.

SENT ON A MISSION--STRICKEN WITH CHILLS AND FEVER--PRESIDENT OF

MISSION PROFFERS TO RELEASE HIM--UNWILLING TO BE RELEASED--INSTANTLY

HEALED WHEN ADMINISTERED TO--TWIN BOYS HEALED IN ANSWER TO ELDER

BROWN'S PRAYER--ELDER BROWN HAS A RELAPSE--INSTANTLY HEALED WHEN AGAIN

ADMINISTERED TO--AGAIN URGED TO ACCEPT HIS RELEASE--FIELD OF LABOR

CHANGED--HEALTH FAILS, AND HE IS SENT HOME--REPROVED BY PRESIDENT

WOODRUFF--VICTIM OF A STREET CAR ACCIDENT--HEALED IN ANSWER TO PRAYER.

In 1895 Brother Brown went on a mission to the Southern States, and

labored chiefly in Tennessee. He suffered severely from chills and

fever, and Elias S. Kimball, president of the mission, wanted to

release him to return home. He was ambitious, however, to remain the

usual length of time, and make a record as an efficient missionary, and

protested against being released. He had faith that he would be healed

if administered to, and requested Elder Kimball to anoint his head with

oil and pray for his recovery. While Elder Kimball's hands were still

upon his head he felt that he was completely healed, and was apparently

as free from the ailment afterwards as if he had never been affected by

it.

He entered again upon his labors with zest, enjoyed the spirit of his

calling and felt very much encouraged over the prospects ahead of

making converts and filling a successful mission.

About this time a man who was not a member of the Church brought two

boys to him--twins--about six years old, who had been afflicted with

fits almost from birth, and requested him to administer to them. He

did so, and they were immediately and permanently relieved of their

ailment. It created something of a sensation in the neighborhood, where

they were well known. The family were encouraged to investigate the

Gospel, did so deliberately and thoroughly, became satisfied of its

truth, were baptized and remained faithful.

In his zeal to accomplish as much as possible, Elder Brown over-exerted

himself and had a relapse of chills and fever, again applied to

President Elias S. Kimball, was again administered to and was again

healed.

President Kimball again took up a labor with Elder Brown to induce

him to accept his release, telling him that according to his judgment

he was not the kind of a man to stand the malarial climate of the

south. Elder Brown, however, had set his heart upon the work and still

declined to accept a release.

In the hope that a change of his field of operations might result in

benefit to Elder Brown, President Kimball sent him to labor in a new

district for him--in West Tennessee. He gave the President of the

Conference special instruction to take an interest in Elder Brown,

and, if possible, guard against a recurrence of his ailment. They were

temporarily short of traveling Elders in that conference, but more were

expected to arrive soon, when it was suggested that he be released from

acting as traveling Elder, and allowed to spend his time among the

larger branches, organizing Sunday Schools. President Kimball felt that

he could be usefully employed in that line, and be able to take better

care of his health, because of not being exposed to bad weather.

The result was that the new Elders did not arrive when expected, and

Elder Brown was kept laboring as a traveling Elder in that field five

and a half months, instead of only a couple of weeks, as intended. He

was laboring "without purse or scrip," having agreed to so labor when

he first arrived in the mission. While he had faith enough to do so, it

involved hardships for which he was in no way fitted, because of his

impaired health. He was determined not to give up, and not to volunteer

any information in regard to his health either to the conference

president or to President Kimball. He grew so bad that he suffered

constantly from chills and fever, lost flesh until he was a mere shadow

of his former self and for more than a week at a stretch was almost

wholly without sleep. His companion had urged him many times to make

his condition known to the mission president, but all in vain. Finally

his companion became really alarmed about his case, and posted a letter

off himself to the mission president, informing him of Elder Brown's

condition.

Brother Brown seemed to be very slow about learning that the Lord

required the missionaries engaged in his ministry to use wisdom in

the matter of conserving their health, to avoid undue exposure, the

drinking of impure or contaminated water, going heedlessly in the way

of epidemics, etc. While the Lord has the power to heal them, and they,

being in His service, should have a special claim upon His protection

and blessing, they should not knowingly "tempt the Lord." The account

given us in the Bible of Satan taking the Savior up on to the pinnacle

of the Temple and proposing that he cast Himself down, may serve as

an illustration of the principle under consideration. Of course, the

Father had it in His power to save Him, but the injunction was, "Thou

shalt not tempt the Lord thy God." In the ordinary nature of things

certain penalties follow the breaking of certain laws. One of the laws

of nature is that the human body is incapable of enduring an intense

heat. If it comes in contact with fire the flesh is burned, and pain

and suffering and perhaps dissolution follows. Of course, the Almighty

is able to arrest the operation of a law of nature, as He did in the

case of the three Hebrew children that the Bible tells us of being cast

into the fiery furnace, but there was special reason for His doing so

in their case. They were in the line of their duty, and it was because

of their devotion to His cause that they were cast into the furnace,

and there was therefore more reason for the Lord coming to their rescue

than there would have been had they voluntarily gone into the fire, and

thus "tempted the Lord" to suffer them to be destroyed.

Every missionary owes it to himself, to his family, to the people among

whom he is sent to labor and to the cause he represents, to take good

care of his health, to consider differences in climate, and food, and

water and altitude, any or all of which may affect him injuriously

unless great care be exercised on his part until he become acclimated

or accustomed thereto.

Elder Brown had exhibited more zeal than wisdom in persisting in

staying in the mission field after his President had advised him to go

home, in enduring hardships and privations that were enough to break

the constitution of a thoroughly healthy man in his anxiety to make a

record as a missionary. Of course his traveling without purse or scrip

rendered him more subject to exposure than if he had been entirely

master of the situation by having money in his pocket to pay for food

and lodging and transportation whenever required. But if he had been

impressed with the fact that his health was of the first importance,

and that being out in a shower or even getting his feet wet, and

especially going to bed in his wet clothing meant endangering his

health in the malarial region in which he traveled, he would have been

less reckless than he really was. If he had realized that the natural

effect of fasting--voluntary and involuntary--to which he had been

subjected, sometimes to an excessive degree, was to weaken his body and

render it less capable of withstanding disease and enduring hardship,

he might have curbed his enthusiasm, and been more moderate in that

respect. As it was, his zeal and enthusiasm really made him reckless,

and there is little doubt that he has suffered ever since as a result.

When President Elias S. Kimball received the letter from Elder Brown's

companion informing him of the real situation, he sent peremptory

orders for the release of the suffering missionary and had him

forwarded home without delay.

On his arrival in Salt Lake City he called upon President Woodruff and

reported his labors in the mission field, and was taken to task for his

reckless disregard of the rules of health. He was told that it was his

positive duty to return home when the President of the mission wished

to release him, as he was the man whose privilege it was to know the

will of the Lord on the subject. His persistence in remaining in the

mission and continuing his labors under such unfavorable conditions

after such ample warning as he had received of the danger, was really

tempting the Lord. The fact that the Lord had mercifully healed him on

two different occasions in the mission field, did not even justify him

in continuing the risk in the face of the mission president's protest.

How far his good intentions served as a palliation of his offense, is

a matter of conjecture. That the Lord has not cast him off is evident

from the fact that he enjoys a goodly degree of His spirit. He is a

faithful laborer in the cause of God, but his usefulness is very much

impaired by his poor health.

Brother Brown has had many evidences since his return from his mission

of the willingness of the Lord to hear and answer his own prayers

and the prayers of others in his behalf. As an instance, he mentions

that he was accidentally thrown from a street car on the evening of

January 30, 1913. He was unconscious when picked up, and taken to a

hospital, and remained so until 10 o'clock the next morning, when he

rallied. Upon examination, it was found that his nose had been broken,

three teeth knocked out, four ribs fractured and a rupture produced.

Three days afterwards, while suffering from internal hemorrhage and in

very great pain, he called for Brother William Newell to administer

to him. He felt a change occur while the hands of the Elder were upon

his head and testifies that it was by the power of God that he was

healed. His improvement from that time was rapid, and the readiness and

completeness of his recovery surprised his friends and the doctors who

knew the extent of his injuries.

Remarkable Patriarchal Blessing

DR. GLEDHILL'S WIFE OPERATED UPON REPEATEDLY FOR INTERNAL

TUMOR--BLESSED BY A PATRIARCH--PROMISED THAT SHE SHOULD RECOVER AND

GIVE BIRTH TO MORE CHILDREN--SCIENTIFIC OPINIONS UPSET BY FULFILLMENT

OF INSPIRED PROMISE.

When we read the many miracles in healing that we find recorded in

a few chapters in the Bible, one is apt to think that to-day these

things are not found among us so generally now as anciently, but

on more mature thought, one will discover that there are many more

manifestations of God's healing power to-day on record than in the Holy

Bible.

Being a physician, and dealing with that most sacred and miraculous

thing we call life, I often see the power of God made manifest through

his authorized servants, and I have personally taken part in this holy

ordinance of the administration with oil, where healing, and other

blessings have occurred.

Young people sometimes fail to appreciate the priesthood of God. They

little realize the power and blessing that may come through this

channel. It is with a heart full of gratitude for His Priesthood and

the blessings that have come to me and mine from this channel, and

with a prayer in my heart that faith may be kindled in the heart of

some reader, that I write the following narrative of what I consider a

modern miracle.

Mrs. Gledhill, my wife, had been ill for one and a half years; had been

to two hospitals including the L. D. S. Hospital of Salt Lake City,

and had been examined by five of the best doctors in the State of Utah

and their advice and treatment faithfully followed, but her symptoms

gradually grew worse. Three times a slight operation had been performed

with no improvement, and it was decided that a major operation would be

necessary.

Just prior to this time President William H. Seegmiller had just been

released from his duties as Stake President of Sevier Stake, an office

which he held with honor and credit for thirty years, and had just been

appointed a patriarch in the Church. Mrs. Gledhilll requested him to

give her a patriarchal blessing, and among other things he promised

her, first, that she should become a well woman, and second, that she

should become a mother in Israel of additional children.

She was operated upon by two of the best known doctors in the State.

On opening the abdomen they found a large tumor of the uterus that

was also attached to the bowel. The doctors consulted each other and

told me that the growth was probably the most fatal of all growths

known in surgery to-day, and that the only hope of her life would be

by the removal of the uterus and surrounding tissue, and even then her

prospects for recovery would be very small. Then it was that the faith

my parents and teachers had tried so hard to instill within me came to

my rescue, and I told the doctors that she would live and that I would

under no circumstances consent to have her uterus removed and thus

prevent the fulfillment of a prophecy uttered by the servant of God in

a patriarchal blessing to my wife. I was told that it would recur, and

that she would lose her life if I refused, and that according to all

the teachings of science and their own extended experience it would be

very unwise to leave any part of the uterus. I told them that I would

trust the Lord, and in this I was not alone, for Mrs. Gledhill had made

a special request, before being operated on, that whatever else was

done, not to allow anything that would make impossible the blessing

that she had received, and to which she clung with great faith.

The result was that about one-third of the uterus was removed in

order to get the tumor. The doctors gave us very little hope even

of her recovering from the operation. She slowly and gradually

improved, it seemed for five months, when I discovered that the

growth was recurring. Just prior to this I had received the following

heart-rending news. The pathologist of the L. D. S. Hospital, who made

the microscopical examination of the tumor which was removed, wrote

me in effect as follows:--That he was "sorry the whole uterus had not

been removed, and it was a question in his mind if it wouldn't be best

even yet to have the complete removal of the uterus undertaken, as this

would give the only hope of recovery."

Another doctor wrote me, saying that all the authorities he had

consulted said that these tumors are fatal, no matter what is done.

I then turned to my text book on this subject and read as follows:

"Seventy-five per cent of all cases terminate fatally within six

months." Then in italicized words it said "Cyncisiomia Malignant is the

most fatal of all known tumors, that by an early and complete removal

of the uterus before metastasis has taken place, some cases, it has

been reported, have been cured."

At times in the past I have felt that my troubles were great, but

now it seemed that all the powers of evil were arrayed against me. I

thought of how willingly my wife had undergone the hardships incident

to going to school in the east with very limited means, and of the many

tender circumstances connected with our courtship and newly married

life, etc., and now to think of her being taken from me, was more than

my failing heart could stand. So that I humbled myself before God as I

never had done before, although all my life I had been a praying man.

But yet there was seen during all this time, dimly and at the close of

this trouble more clearly, a silver lining to this great dark cloud.

It was the promise of President Seegmiller. I took these letters above

quoted from with my text book and read them to President Seegmiller

and then asked him point blank if it was he who had made the promise,

or if it was from God. I told him I must know immediately, Yes or No.

President Seegmiller, in his calm but positive way, told me that when

his hands were upon my wife's head with his eyes closed, he saw her a

well and perfect woman and said he, "I cannot take back what I have

said, for it is from God." From this moment on there never was a moment

that we have ever doubted or lost faith in this promise.

Mrs. Gledhill was operated on again. The tumor had recurred as had been

predicted. This time she refused to go to the hospital, and I operated

on her myself, putting by trust in God. I found several tumors had

started, and it was impossible to remove them all, so I removed the

large one in the scar of the previous operation and left the others on

account of the great hemorrhage. About two weeks after this operation,

inflammatory rheumatism set in, and for eight long weeks we "wrestled"

with the Lord for her life; nor were we alone, for we summoned all

available help. Her name was sent to all the temples for the prayer

circle. The Primary Stake Board, of which she was in the presidency,

prayed for her as a board and individually. Her kindergarten class in

Sunday School prayed for her and brought bouquets of flowers to her

bed, and for five weeks two Elders called and petitioned the Throne of

Grace in her behalf. Finally, it seemed that the Lord had tested us

sufficiently; she became better and finally well.

Can my college professor tell me any more that there is no God? Can I

doubt His power or the truth of His restored priesthood? Can I afford

to dishonor that sacred priesthood? No, no more than I can say black is

white. Men may try to explain this some other way, but we know better,

and we thank God for every gift and blessing he has given us.

There is the second part of this blessing I want to tell you about.

Mrs. Gledhill had been in good health for nearly three years, and we

became very anxious for the Lord to grant us the second part of His

promised blessing, namely, that additional children should come to our

home. We talked it over and decided that when we went to the temple to

do work for the dead, as it is our custom to do once each year, that we

would have Mrs. Gledhill washed and annointed for this special blessing.

On arriving at the temple we told President Anderson that we had great

faith that the Lord would keep His promise to us, but we were impatient

and wanted to intercede for the Lord to grant us this blessing now.

When the sisters were washing and anointing Mrs. Gledhill, the

spirit of the Lord whispered to her an assurance of our desire, and

at the conclusion of this Holy ordinance she came and told me of

this assurance she had received, and that she knew it was from God.

President Anderson, who was mouth in the prayer that was offered in

her behalf, at the conclusion of this Holy ordinance promised her the

desire of her heart. After working in the temple two or three days for

our dead, we returned home.

In the required time from this temple blessing God gave us an

eleven-pound son, notwithstanding the predictions of the doctors to

the contrary. Our hearts are so full of gratitude that we wish we

could tell the whole world of this modern miracle. On hearing of

Mrs. Gledhill's condition, one of the doctors wrote and asked one to

take her to a hospital to be confined, and suggested that operative

interference might be necessary. But instead of doing this we called in

the Elders at this critical hour, and our baby was born naturally. No

sooner had the birth occurred than I sent word to the doctors, who, by

the way, are very dear friends of mine, and told them of our promised

son.

In conclusion let me bear you my testimony that I know that God lives

and that the divine plan of salvation, called "Mormonism" is the only

plan that will bring genuine happiness and joy to the souls of men; and

that, as far as I have been able to learn, there is no known scientific

fact that does not harmonize with this revealed gospel. The longer I

live, and the more I study, the more virtue I see in our gospel; and

for this testimony I thank God.

T. R. GLEDHILL, M. D.

Richfield, Utah.

Lambert Reminiscence

APPLIES FOR WORK UPON NAUVOO TEMPLE--ACCEPTS WORK WITHOUT PROSPECT OF

PAY--HIS HAT STONED--OFFERED WORK BY LUCIFER, WHO DISPLAYS ABUNDANCE OF

GOLD--JOURNEY WESTWARD--MONEY PROVIDENTIALLY FURNISHED FOR COMPLETION

OF WAGON--MONEY FOR MEDICINE OBTAINED IN LIKE MYSTERIOUS WAY--ARRIVAL

IN WINTER QUARTERS--AMBITION TO GO WEST WITH PIONEERS--PLAN FOILED BY

INDIANS KILLING TEAM ANIMALS--PRESIDENT YOUNG'S CONFIDENCE--NEW SHOES

PROVIDENTIALLY FOUND--DISLOCATED ARM PROVIDENTIALLY RESTORED TO USE.

When Charles Lambert, in the early part of 1844, arrived in Nauvoo,

fresh from his native land, England, he was full of zeal for his

newly-found religion, and willing to devote his life to the service of

the Lord. He applied for work upon the Temple, showing credentials from

master workmen, under whom he had served in England, that testified to

his superiority as a mechanic. He was informed that there was plenty

of work for him to do, but no pay. The means that had been subscribed

for the building of the Temple had been exhausted. Many of the most

skillful workmen had already found employment elsewhere, and it

looked as if the work would have to cease unless more funds could be

collected. He said he had come to Nauvoo with a determination to help

build the Temple, and he proposed to do so if he never received any

pay. He was accordingly set to work. He had been a master workman or

contractor for a long time before leaving England, and consequently

wore only good clothes; in fact, he had none suitable to wear while

working as a tradesman. He therefore appeared for work wearing a good

suit of clothes and a high silk-finished hat. He hung his hat up in the

work-shop, donned an improvised cap and apron and commenced work.

Many of those employed upon the Temple were Americans who seemed to

have a contempt for foreign mechanics, and especially for dandies in

that line, and to show their contempt, or else in a spirit of fun or

mischief, they threw spalls at the "stove pipe" hat as it hung in the

shop until they cut it to pieces.

Charles Lambert wisely saw the folly of quareling with his fellows over

this act of vandalism, so he ignored it, and treated the perpetrators

of it as if it had not occurred. His courteous and dignified conduct

and lack of ostentation, combined with his superiority as a workman

soon overcame the prejudice arrayed against him and won the respect if

not the admiration of his fellow workmen, and he got along agreeably

with them.

So many of the mechanics quit work from sheer necessity and went

elsewhere to seek employment that the question of how and when the

Temple was ever to be completed became more of a problem every day.

Charles Lambert and one of his fellow mechanics (W. W. Player) who

also was an Englishman, and a man of faith, discussed this problem

between themselves, and voluntarily pledged themselves to continue

at work until the Temple was built whether they were paid for their

services or not. It is one thing, however, for a man to deny himself

and quite another to deny a dependent wife and children the comforts or

necessaries of life.

Charles Lambert had married during the first year of his residence in

Nauvoo and undertaken the support of two brothers and a sister of his

wife, who had recently been orphaned and were helpless. He felt keenly

his responsibility, and wished for money as he never had done before.

While feeling thus he was passing along the street in Nauvoo one day

when he met a well-dressed, genteel stranger who inquired if his name

was Charles Lambert. On being told that it was, he said his name was

Higgins, and that his home was in Missouri. With an ingratiating smile

he said "I have heard of your skill as a workman, and want you to go

to Missouri and work for me. You are not appreciated or properly paid

here. If you will quit the Temple and go and work for me you can name

your own price and you will be sure of your pay. You see I have plenty

of money with which to pay you." Suiting the action to the word, he

thrust his hand into his pocket, and drew it out full of $10.00 and

$20.00 gold pieces, which he displayed in a tempting manner, and urged

him to accept his offer and not to submit any longer to the unfair

treatment accorded him at the Temple. With a gesture of impatience

called forth by the intimation of unfairness, Father Lambert thanked

the stranger for his offer, but said he couldn't think of accepting it.

He said he had no complaint to make of his treatment at the Temple,

and the price others would pay for work they wished done would not

influence him in the matter, as he intended to continue on at the

Temple from principle. Bidding the stranger "Good-day" he turned to

continue his walk along the street, but almost immediately the query

arose in his mind as to how the stranger knew his name, and where he

got his information from about his skill as a mechanic, and turned

to take a final look at the stranger, when lo! he was no-where to be

seen. He had disappeared as completely as if the ground had opened and

swallowed him, and yet he had not had time by any ordinary means of

locomotion to get out of sight. His opinion then was, and remained so

up to the day of his death, that he had been talking with no other than

Satan, the prince of tempters, and though he had not yielded to his

tempting offer he was vexed with himself for listening to him at all,

and especially to his insinuations about the Temple management.

When Father Charles Lambert left Nauvoo he entered upon an order of

life that was entirely new to him--that of a frontiersman. In remaining

in Nauvoo until the work on the Temple ceased he not only followed the

counsel of the authorities of the Church, but fulfilled also the vow

that he has personally made to do so regardless of compensation. There

was, however, an additional reason for his so doing. While continuously

employed upon the Temple he had no opportunity of earning by work

elsewhere the necessary equipment for migrating. He had, partly by his

own labor at odd times and partly by help from others, completed the

wood work for a wagon but lacked the required iron to finish it, or

the necessary money with which to buy it. Preparation for the journey

was thus effectually blocked for some time until the money was finally

provided in a most miraculous manner, as a direct answer to prayer.

He had been out in a rainstorm one day and had returned home drenched

to the skin. After changing his clothes he hung his wet trousers over

a chair back before the fire to dry. When he was about to resume the

use of the same clothes again after they had become dry, an English

gold sovereign and fifteen cents in silver rolled out of the trousers

pocket upon the floor, notwithstanding the fact that he had previously

had no money. This was just the amount required for the purchase of

the iron, and the wagon was soon completed. This was not the first

time money to supply a dire necessity had been furnished the family in

answer to prayer in a most mysterious manner. Once when Charles J.,

the first child in the family was taken violently ill and money was

needed and prayed for with which to buy medicine the father entered

the house feeling something that he had discovered in the waist-band

of his trousers, and which he remarked felt like money. On having the

waist-band ripped open the object was found to be twenty-five cents,

just the amount required for the medicine. They would not use it,

however, until they had inquired of the tailor who made the pants a

short time previously if he had lost it, but he said he could not

possibly have accidently sewed the money in the waistband when making

the pants, for he had no money. In both of these instances the money

was accepted as a gift from the Lord.

Driving team, and especially an ox team, was a new experience for

Charles Lambert; but what he lacked in experience or tact he more

than made up in kindness to his animals and willingness to sacrifice

himself to save them. The team consisted of a yoke of full grown oxen,

a yoke of young steers and a yoke of cows--all unbroken. Of course

common produce demanded that the driver walk beside the team while

the animals were wild or where the roads were bad, as they frequently

were, but when the team became tractable and the roads were good a

teamster inclined to self-indulgence would certainly have ridden. Not

so, however, with Charles Lambert, who so sympathized with his team

animals that he refused to buy a whip when starting on the journey

lest he might in a rash moment be tempted to abuse them. In the

exuberance of his young manhood he preferred to walk, and it may be

said that he practically if not literally walked the whole of the way

from Nauvoo to Salt Lake Valley. On arriving at Winter Quarters--the

main camp of the migrating Saints--it was late in November, and he

remained there personally only long enough to build a log cabin to

shelter the family and then went to Missouri to find work. He was

ambitious to journey westward with the pioneers, and to earn all he

could in the meantime. He was doomed to disappointment, however, for

the Indians killed the team animals in the Spring of 1847, after the

oxen had been brought through the winter in fine shape. This was a

serious set back, but, undismayed by this misfortune, he returned to

Missouri, taking his family with him, to work for another outfit. The

mention of an incident that occurred at Winter Quarters will serve to

illustrate the confidence the Church leaders had in the subject of

our sketch. During a council meeting that was being held there some

person reported that he had heard that Charles Lambert was living

in Missouri among non-Mormons and would probably lose the faith if

indeed he had not already apostatized. President Brigham Young replied

immediately, "You need not worry about Charles Lambert. I am willing to

answer for all the sins he commits in Missouri." Samuel Turnbow, who

was present at the council and afterwards related the incident, said

he was so impressed with the remark of Brigham Young and so pleased

with his rebuke to the retailer of gossip, that he ever afterwards

longed to become acquainted with Charles Lambert. He not only did so

at the earliest opportunity, when they met in the Salt Lake Valley,

but remained an ardent friend up to the time of his death. President

Young's confidence was not misplaced. Charles Lambert's loyalty to the

Church and its leaders never wavered.

It was on President Young's advice that the Lambert family returned to

Missouri again in the Spring of 1848, instead of migrating to Utah that

year, as they intended, and so it happened that they did not arrive

in Utah until the fall of 1849. On the journey across the plains no

member in the large company, which included 100 wagons, too a more

active part than did Charles Lambert. When the company was organized he

was appointed captain over ten wagons, did his duty as such with zest

and set an example to the whole company in the matter of early rising,

providing fuel, caring for the animals, etc. While on the plains his

shoes gave out and his feet became very sore. Early one morning while

he and a companion named Wm. Bateman were out rounding up the stock and

the grass was hurting his feet badly, he said as he hobbled along, "I

do wish the Lord would send me a pair of shoes." They had not proceeded

much farther when he noticed some dark looking object protruding above

the grass a short distance ahead. Pointing it out to his companion, he

remarked that one of the animals must have lost his bell, and walked

along intending to recover it. Imagine his surprise when he discovered

as he approached the object that it was not a bell but a pair of new

shoes, looking as fresh as if they had just come from the shelf of a

store. The sole of one was sunk into the top of the other, so that

they would occupy as little space as possible--the shape in which

stoga shoes were kept in pairs in a shoe store in that age, before it

became the vogue to keep them in paste board boxes. The place in which

they were found was so far from a traveled road as to render it highly

improbable that they had fallen there from a passing wagon, nor indeed

was there any wagon tracts visible in the vicinity of the place. No

time was lost in speculation as to how the shoes happened to be there,

but Father Lambert jumped to the conclusion that they were there for

his special benefit, and exclaimed, "The Lord has sent me some shoes!"

His companion, however, put in a counter claim by saying, "One shoe

is mine, for I helped find them!" But the shoes proved to be entirely

too small for him to wear, while they fit Father Lambert as if they

had been made for him. The result was that he retained the undisputed

possession of them.

Early life in Salt Lake Valley was exceptionally serious. Hard work

and long hours were the portion of every one who was able and willing

to work, and Charles Lambert was unusually able and more than willing

to do his full share. His robust constitution, which for a long time

seemed able to withstand anything, in time yielded to the unusual

strain, the severe privations and the frequent hardships and exposure

to which he was subjected. He contracted inflammatory rheumatism,

which frequently affected his eyes and sometimes rendered him almost

completely blind, and actually drew his shoulder out of joint, so that

for a period of several months he was unable to use his right arm even

to dress himself. He was examined by surgeons while thus crippled,

who were unanimous in declaring that the shoulder was dislocated, and

in urging him to have it set; but he absolutely maintained that he had

done nothing to displace the joint, that the Lord knew better than man

the nature and cause of his trouble and that he would trust in the

Lord to cure him. It may be interesting here to relate how he again

obtained the use of his arm. A man by the name of Gallup at that time,

(about the year 1853) resided in the 7th ward, where also was the home

of the Lambert family. This man though he had a membership in the

Church was a rank apostate at heat, and quite active in advocating the

doctrines of Gladden Bishop, a notorious dissenter from the Church,

and maligning the Church Authorities. Gallup held the office of school

trustee in the ward, (an office which in those days was usually filled

by appointment of the Bishop or election in a Church meeting and not

by vote of the tax payers as in later times) and this afforded him

some prestige in circulating among the people his apostate principles.

Father Lambert protested to the ward bishopric against such a man being

retained as school trustee. As a result, a meeting of the Priesthood

of the ward was appointed by the Bishop to consider the matter. When

the meeting opened Gallup was informed that his fealty to the Church

had been questioned, and was asked to state his feelings. He arose and

boldly declared his unbelief in the doctrines of the Church, and then

proceeded to say that Joseph Smith was a wicked and adulterous man;

he had associated with drunkards, his lot was cast with the hypocrite

and unbeliever and he had gone to hell. The assembly listened with

astonishment almost with stupefaction to the man's utterances, without

apparently any thought of resenting his slanderous imputations, with

the exception of one man. Charles Lambert was seated in the opposite

side of the room, and a number of benches intervened between him and

Gallup, but springing to his feet he leaped over the benches and rushed

towards Gallup, crying out as he did so, "I will send you to hell," and

raising his right arm, that he had never been able to use for months,

was about to deal him a blow with his clenched fist, when Gallup

dodged backward to escape from him, and others seized his belligerent

assailant to prevent a collision; at the same time a chorus of voices

cried out in surprise, "Brother Lambert has recovered the use of his

arm!" The meeting ended by Gallup bein deprived of office and also

fellowship in the Church by vote of the assembly, and Charles Lambert

returned home rejoicing in the use of his arm, which was now free from

pain; and Mother Lambert wept for joy when she met him at the door and

saw him swinging his arm high above his head and heard him declare it

was as good as ever.

Though a fiery-tempered man, and hasty to act in the defense of his

friends or his principles, he was essentially a man of peace, and his

life was an object lesson before his family of patient endurance of

bodily ills, perseverance in the midst of obstacles and unwavering

fidelity to his religion. Courage is not always best displayed in

fighting; generosity not always in ostentations giving; zeal not always

in outward show of piety. He had all of these and many other good

qualities, but not for public parade. He never shrank from duty however

great the danger or exacting the bodily exertion involved. The cry of

distress never appealed to him in vain; the needy never had to ask

him for aid, for he sought them out and quickly and quietly gave them

freely of the best he had.

A Timely Warning

VISIT TO A VOLCANO--MADAM PELE'S HAIR--NARROW ESCAPE FROM FALLING INTO

A VOLCANO.

Two "Mormon" Elders--missionaries on the Sandwich Islands--once had

occasion to visit that great natural wonder, the Kilauea volcano on the

island of Hawaii, which is the largest island of the group. The Kilauea

is 4,000 feet above sea-level and is on the side of a mountain, which

rises 10,000 feet higher. On the top of this mountain is the master

volcano of the Pacific.

At the time of the visit mentioned the Kilauea activity was confined

to an immense cavity in the center of the crater valley, which is

three miles in diameter and sunken two hundred feet below the surface,

with black walls surrounding it which could only be descended with

the utmost caution. While traversing this black surface, to reach the

living lake of molten lava the visitor is liable to break through a

blister and imagine he is about to make an involuntary descent into

the fiery liquid below until he grasps the surface with his hands and

obtains a firmer footing. On reaching the "lake" he looks downward

two hundred feet upon a restless moving mass of red hot lava, surging

against the rocky sides with such force as to throw masses of lava

into the air, there to be caught by heavy gusts of wind and spun out

into threads that bear some resemblance to a woman's hair. Indeed it

is called "Madam Pele's hair," that is, the hair of "Pele," the fabled

goddess of the volcano.

On the occasion mentioned curiosity and ambition led the two Elders

to walk out to the very edge of the crater in order to look down more

directly upon the fantastic display of the red hot mass. One of them

even ventured to stand upon a projecting point of rock, veneered

over with black and glossy lava, from which vantage point he watched

the changes constantly occurring upon the surface of the crater. The

glaring red lava sometimes cools very rapidly, and the surface of the

crater may change in appearance within a few minutes from a brilliant

red to a glossy black. Then within a few minutes a strip of red may

appear across the surface, as if it were furrow plowed by some mighty

genii, and then extending from this line, as if by magic, the black

surface caves in or is overflowed by the fiery liquid below until the

whole lake is again an active pulsating mass of red molten lava. As

the beholder views this impressive spectacle he is apt to yield to a

feeling of fascination, until he contemplates the Power that controls

the mighty forces of nature of which that before him is only a slight

exhibition, when a feeling of awe and sense of his own insignificance

overwhelms him. He realizes how utterly impotent he would be if left

to contend with such forces, and is impressed with the incomparable

majesty and greatness of that Being who controls, operates and holds

in check the forces of nature, and feels like exclaiming as one of old

"What is man, that thou art mindful of him?"

While the two Elders stood upon the brink of the volcano absorbed in

thought a sudden feeling came over the one who occupied the position

upon the projecting rock that he remove therefrom, and he immediately

acted upon it by walking back to where his companion stood, a few feet

distant. He had scarcely vacated the projecting point when it split

off from the mainland and dropped into the seething mass below. An

instant's delay in acting upon the admonition that came to him would

have meant certain death in a most shocking form. The volcano no longer

had any attraction for him; on the contrary, he felt impelled to hurry

away from the scene; he did so with a fervent feeling of gratitude to

the Lord for the presence of the monitor that prompted him in time to

enable him to escape from the horrible death that menaced him.

H. H. C.

One of Nature's Gentlemen

FINE SPECIMEN OF MAORI--EFFECT OF THE GOSPEL UPON HIM--HIS EXCELLENT

FAMILY.

"Piripi" (Philip in English) Te Maari, the subject of this sketch,

was one of the first Maoris to embrace the Gospel in New Zealand,

when the Elders opened up the work there in 1882. Truly Philip was

one of nature's noblemen. He stood six-foot-one in his stockings; was

as straight as an arrow; was handsome and, before his death in 1897,

he became almost white; his hair and beard were as white as snow and

always kept neatly trimmed. He had a very stately walk, and on seeing

him approach one would intuitively stand erect and throw his shoulders

back.

His face wore a smile that captivated and drew men and children alike

to him. He was a leader among men, not alone among his own people, but

among Europeans, with whom he mingled and had dealings; all learned to

know his worth and that he was a man far above the average in knowledge

and goodness. He was chosen by the English government and by his own

people to represent the Maoris in the Colonial Government. He also

held many other positions of honor and trust among his people and the

whites. He was possessed of considerable wealth, and owned a city and

a country home, where he entertained many people, sometimes members

of the nobility, who were on business for the Government. A most

praiseworthy fact is that the poorest of the poor were just as welcome

under his roof as the wealthy were. All were treated alike.

His home life was simple. He was most devoted to his wife and children.

He loved to take them to his country home and spend his spare time with

them in the woods, the fields and in the mountains, where all nature

smiled on them. He felt that he could get closer to his boys and girls

there and teach them the lesson of life more effectually than in the

city, where he was kept so busy with affairs of the Government and

native officials.

He had seven sons and two daughters. At the death of his beloved

wife he mourned full seventy days--an old Israelitish custom. At the

opening of the Gospel in Maoridom, in 1882, this man had never heard

of "Mormonism." He was surrounded by worldly friends--both white and

native--and possessed of wealth and lands. With these surroundings

followed banqueting, games, and English horse races.

He owned several very fine race horses. With all these temptations

he lived a good and pure life. He however, as was the custom of the

country, was a user of tobacco. This he was very fond of. The class of

people he entertained at his home frequently indulged in the use of

intoxicants; but these "Piripi" never tasted.

He attended the Episcopalian church, but always felt that there was

something lacking, and he was looking for something to satisfy his

spirit. The manner in which he became acquainted with the Gospel was

related by him to the writer in substance as follows:

"Two strange men came to our home. They were unheralded by any pomp

or display. They were not so much as dressed in the ordinary gown and

tall hat worn by our preachers. They were clothed in very plain, but

exceptionally clean clothing. There was something very different about

them from our ministers. We had been in the habit of building homes

for our preachers, and fed them a little better than the ordinary

folks; but when these things were offered to these two preachers from

a strange land--the "land of the rising sun"--America, they said:

'No, we are your fellow servants, we are here to do you service, your

superiors. Let us eat with you, and of what you eat.'

"Imagine our amazement--preachers eating out of a common family dish,

and with natives too! They had with them a new book, which they

explained was the history of my people before they came to this land.

They read portions of it to us and explained that the people of whom it

spoke had lived and died in the great land to the east--the 'land of

the rising sun'. We had been told by one of our native seers that the

true Gospel of the Lord would be brought to the Maoris, by white men,

who would come from 'the land of the rising sun.'

These men were very humble, and would not accept any of our lands, as

pay; nor did they meddle with our women, but spent day and night in

preaching and teaching us. We soon accepted the Gospel, and can not

tell you half our joy and how the Holy Spirit was poured out upon us.

And to know that we really were of the House of Israel. Why this alone

brought joy unspeakable to our souls. We received that long-looked for

something that we had before lacked."

"But now," said Piripi, "came the hardest task of all. They told us

the good news, that we had a right to the Priesthood, and could act

as ministers to our people. They were instructed to organize a branch

among us; and that, should we qualify ourselves, the authority would be

given us to be spiritual leaders among our kindred. We must lay aside

the use of tobacco and we must not gamble nor race horses. They did not

require us to 'sign the pledge' nor don the 'blue ribbon.' They were to

be gone a month, and during this time we were to consider, and fast and

pray and ask the Lord to help us decide.

"O, friends I will never forget my feelings. Had our other ministers

requested that we conform to this ruling we would not have done so.

There was not the comfort there to lead us to make sacrifices. I dearly

loved my tobacco, and would have parted with all my wealth and lands

rather than forsake the pipe. I did get so much good--comfort--out of

it; and my blooded race horses were the pride of the land. But this new

information--that 'we were of Israel' and might be ministers to our

kindred--was a blessing not to be refused. They said, 'pray, fast and

ask the Great Spirit to help you to decide.'

"I took my pipe and tobacco and left my home early on the morning that

the Elders took their departure. Reaching a little plateau up in the

hills, I found a huge rock. I sat down by it and cut up my tobacco

and filled my pipe full, then took out some matches and placed them

all on top of the stone. Then I stepped back a few paces. I looked at

them and said to myself: 'There,' pointing to the things on the rock,

'is the devil, and there,' pointing away up the valley and over the

hills in the direction of the Elders, 'is the Priesthood. Which shall

I obey, God or the Devil?' Then I went to the opposite side of the

rock and prayed for help. When I returned I had decided. I said, 'I

will not smoke my pipe again.' Then I took a stone and broke the pipe

into fragments. On the second and third days I can not tell the trials

through which I went, and how I was tempted. By reason of the fasting

and denying myself tobacco I became deathly sick, and on the third

day, something suggested to me that my oath was that I would not smoke

my pipe again, but that I did not say 'I will not use tobacco again.'

'Piripi, try a cigarette; it is the going without a smoke that makes

you so ill.' I yielded and smoked two, but I did not improve, so I

said, 'I will never use tobacco again in any form. Old Satan is trying

to cheat me out of the Priesthood that rightfully belongs to me.' When

the Elders returned I had--by the help of the Lord--conquered, and was

prepared to receive the blessings that had been promised."

Later this good man disposed of all of his race horses, and worked for

the uplift of his people, and died as he lived--true to the faith.

A most remarkable thing is that all of his children followed in his

footsteps, and are now leading pillars in the Church. He assisted

in proof-reading the Book of Mormon when it was translated into his

language. He died in 1897. His life was an inspiration to all who knew

him. What he did in the matter of controlling his appetite, and the

comfort he experienced as a result, should encourage others to try to

do so.

L. G. H.

Praying to Death

ATTEMPT OF HAWAIIAN PRIEST TO PRAY MORMON ELDER TO DEATH--HIS FAILURE

AND HAWAIIAN DISCOMFITURE

Praying to death is an old practice among the Hawaiians, that prevailed

in former times more than at the present day. How successful it was I

am not prepared to say. I know that it proved a failure when an attempt

was made to exercise it upon me over thirty years ago.

An offense, intentional or unintentional (it made no special difference

which) being given, revenge was at once sought to be inflicted upon the

offender without the shedding of blood. I suppose success was attained

oftener when the party under anathema knew or heard of what was going

on against him.

The attempt against me was so secretly kept from my knowledge that I

knew of no such project against me until the affair was settled in

court.

The episode developed, in the following way: I had leased a tract of

rush, swampy land in Crater Valley, consisting of about fifty acres to

a Chinaman for the cultivation of rice. Within the boundaries of this

tract was an old "loi" of about a half acre which in former years had

been devoted to the growing of kalo roots, from which poi is made. When

the Chinamen began work on this loi with their big hoes two native

women with native men came with a din and noise such as only Chinamen

and Hawaiians can make and drove the Chinamen off. I was in Honolulu

at the time. On returning Kupau, a noted lawyer for the konehike,

(employed to watch and see that the Chinamen did not trespass upon the

land) came to me and informed me of the fiasco, and was anxious to know

what could be done to prevent strife. I advised that he muster all the

Chinamen he could and divide them into four squads; then place one

squad or division at each corner of the land which the natives were

contesting for, and have them go to work. If the natives should come

and drive them from one corner of the land, let the Chinamen proceed

to another corner and take the place of the Chinamen stationed there,

who would in turn supplant the next squad until the fourth squad should

take the place of those just ousted by the natives, and resume work

until they in turn were driven off. In this way the Chinamen could keep

alternating all day if necessary. My policy was to limit the contest

if possible to the natives and Chinamen, and if litigation had to be

resorted to I preferred to defend rather than prosecute. The plan

worked, and after half a day of intense noise, the echo of which was

wafted through the mountains, the natives planted a suit against me as

the "konehike" for ejectment. In connection with the planting of the

lawsuit, the two women went and secured the services of a "Kahunapule"

--a priest of the ancient order. This priest sacrificed black pigs

and chickens and went through with his incantations while he feasted

on pork and fowls for three weeks previous to the trial. The last act

which the two contesting women were instructed to do before the trial

was to express great love and respect for me, but they were to heap

anathemas on Kupau, the attorney. They did meet me in a street in the

city of Honolulu as I was on my way to the court house.

I may here add that the purpose of the kahunapule and the meeting of

the two women were not understood by me until after the trial was over

and the jury, after being out two hours, came in with a verdict in my

favor. During these two hours I sat in the center of the courtroom with

my head resting on my hand. In the hall way of the courtroom sat ten

or fifteen members of our Church, intensely interested in and anxious

as to what the verdict should be. As I refused to go to lunch with the

sheriff the natives believed I was praying during the two hours the

jury was out, for they knew of the kahunapule though I did not, and

they wanted to see which God would prove to be the more powerful. When

the jury came in and announced the verdict every Church member gathered

around me with expressions of "aloha" far to exceed what the two women

had manifested to me on the street, although that was so public I felt

ashamed.

The two women left the courtroom and repaired to their Kahunapule,

moaning and lamenting as they traversed the streets of Honolulu.

As the accusers departed my people informed me for the first time of

the action of the kahunapule and told how anxiously they had awaited

the result. They remarked "we watched you during the two hours the jury

were out and believed you were praying to God."

At the time of the occurrence of the court proceedings my wife and I

were in Honolulu ready to take the next steamer for San Francisco.

Thirty-three years have passed since then, and I am still alive,

notwithstanding the efforts to pray me to death.

H. H. C.

[Transcriber's Note:

Misprints or misspellings in the text have been

corrected, or are otherwise as they appear in the book. Changes

include: Prophet, Massacre, unusual, following, ridicule, thereafter,

missionary, displayed, concerned, repudiated, although, inmates,

bishop, presume, Colonel, murderous, without, wilderness, Millard and

scientific.]