START UPON OUR JOURNEY--A HAZARDOUS UNDERTAKING--SICKNESS---SEVERE
WEATHER--MY WIFE CONTINUES TO FAIL--HER SPIRIT LEAVES HER
BODY--RESTORED BY THE POWER OF GOD--HER SPIRIT'S EXPERIENCE
WHILE SEPARATED FROM THE BODY--DEATH OF MY BROTHER--ARRIVAL AT
ROCHESTER--REMOVAL TO QUINCY.
On the afternoon of the 9th of October, we took leave of Father Carter
and family, and started upon our journey of 2,000 miles at this late
season of the year, taking my wife with a suckling babe at her breast
with me, to lead a company of fifty-three souls from Maine to Illinois,
and to spend nearly three months in traveling in wagons, through
rain, mud, snow and frost. It was such a trial as I never before had
attempted during my experience as a minister of the gospel.
On our arrival at Georgetown we were joined by Elder Milton Holmes.
We traveled each day as far as we could go, and camped wherever night
overtook us.
On the 13th of October, while crossing the Green Mountains, I was
attacked with something resembling the cholera. I was very sick. I
stopped at a house for about two hours, but the Elders administered to
me, and I revived.
On the 24th I was again taken sick, and my wife and child were also
stricken down. We also had several others sick in the company, through
the exposure of the journey.
On the 31st we had our first snow storm, and the horses dragged our
wagons all day through mud, snow and water.
On the 2nd of November Elder Milton Holmes left us, and took steamer
for Fairport; and two days afterwards a little boy of Nathaniel
Holmes', about six years of age, died, and we had to bury him at
Westfield.
The roads finally became so bad and the cold so severe that Nathaniel
Thomas and James Townsend concluded to stop for the winter. We parted
with them on the 21st of November, near New Portage, Ohio.
On the 23rd of November my wife, Phoebe, was attacked with a severe
headache, which terminated in brain fever. She grew more and more
distressed daily as we continued our journey. It was a terrible ordeal
for a woman to travel in a wagon over rough roads, afflicted as she
was. At the same time our child was also very sick.
The 1st of December, was a trying day to my soul. My wife continued to
fail, and in the afternoon, about 4 o'clock, she appeared to be struck
with death. I stopped my team, and it seemed as though she would breath
her last lying in the wagon. Two of the sisters sat beside her, to see
if they could do anything for her in her last moments.
I stood upon the ground, in deep affliction, and meditated. I cried
unto the Lord, and prayed that she might live and not be taken from me.
I claimed the promises the Lord had made unto me through the prophets
and patriarchs, and soon her spirit revived, and I drove a short
distance to a tavern, and got her into a room and worked over her and
her babe all night, and prayed to the Lord to preserve her life.
In the morning the circumstances were such that I was under the
necessity of removing my wife from the inn, as there was so much noise
and confusion at the place that she could not endure it. I carried her
out to her bed in the wagon and drove two miles, when I alighted at a
house and carried my wife and her bed into it, with a determination to
tarry there until she either recovered her health or passed away. This
was on Sunday morning, December 2nd.
After getting my wife and things into the house and wood provided to
keep up a fire, I employed my time in taking care of her. It looked as
though she had but a short time to live.
She called me to her bedside in the evening and said she felt as though
a few moments more would end her existence in this life. She manifested
great confidence in the cause she had embraced, and exhorted me to have
confidence in God and to keep His commandments.
To all appearances, she was dying. I laid hands upon her and prayed for
her, and she soon revived and slept some during the night.
December 3rd found my wife very low. I spent the day in taking care of
her, and the following day I returned to Eaton to get some things for
her. She seemed to be gradually sinking and in the evening her spirit
apparently left her body, and she was dead.
The sisters gathered around her body, weeping, while I stood looking at
her in sorrow. The spirit and power of God began to rest upon me until,
for the first time during her sickness faith filled my soul, although
she lay before me as one dead.
I had some oil that was consecrated for my anointing while in Kirtland.
I took it and consecrated it again before the Lord for anointing the
sick. I then bowed down before the Lord and prayed for the life of my
companion, and I anointed her body with the oil in the name of the
Lord. I laid my hands upon her, and in the name of Jesus Christ I
rebuked the power of death and the destroyer, and commanded the same to
depart from her, and the spirit of life to enter her body.
Her spirit returned to her body, and from that hour she was made whole;
and we all felt to praise the name of God, and to trust in Him and to
keep His commandments.
While this operation was going on with me (as my wife related
afterwards) her spirit left her body, and she saw it lying upon the
bed, and the sisters weeping. She looked at them and at me, and upon
her babe, and, while gazing upon this scene, two personages came into
the room carrying a coffin and told her they had come for her body. One
of these messengers informed her that she could have her choice: she
might go to rest in the spirit world, or, on one condition she could
have the privilege of returning to her tabernacle and continuing her
labors upon the earth. The condition was, if she felt that she could
stand by her husband, and with him pass through all the cares, trials,
tribulation and afflictions of life which he would be called to pass
through for the gospel's sake unto the end. When she looked at the
situation of her husband and child she said: "Yes, I will do it!"
At the moment that decision was made the power of faith rested upon me,
and when I administered unto her, her spirit entered her tabernacle,
and she saw the messengers carry the coffin out at the door.
On the morning of the 6th of December, the Spirit said to me: "Arise,
and continue thy journey!" and through the mercy of God my wife was
enabled to arise and dress herself and walked to the wagon, and we went
on our way rejoicing.
On the night of the 11th I stopped for the night at an inn, the weather
being very cold. I there learned of the sudden death of my brother,
Asahel H. Woodruff, a merchant of Terre Haute, Ind.
I had anticipated a joyful meeting with this brother on the following
day. Instead of this, I only had the privilege of visiting his grave,
in company with my wife, and examining a little into his business.
I was offered the position of administrator of his affairs, but I was
leading a company of Saints to Zion, and could not stop to attend
to his temporal business. Strangers settled his affairs, and took
possession of his property. His relatives obtained nothing from his
effects except a few trifling mementos.
I left this place and crossed into Illinois on the 13th of December,
and arrived at Rochester on the 19th, and, getting information of the
severe persecutions of the Saints in Missouri and the unsettled state
of the Church at that time, we concluded to stop at Rochester and spend
the winter.
Thus ended my journey of two months and sixteen days, leading the Fox
Island Saints to the west, through all the perils of a journey of
nearly two thousand miles, in the midst of sickness and great severity
of weather.
I took my family in the spring and removed to Quincy, Illinois, where
I could mingle with my brethren, and I felt to praise God for His
protecting care over me and my family in all our afflictions.