THOMAS' RESPONSIBILITY--JOURNEY TO WISCONSIN--DISAPPOINTMENT--A NEW
HOME SOUGHT--STRENUOUS LIFE--KNEE INJURED--INTENSE SUFFERING--GIVEN UP
TO DIE--STIMULATING VISION--BIRTH OF A DAUGHTER--NOVEL RUNAWAY--REMEDY
FOR HIS LAMENESS--SUNDRY EFFORTS TO EARN A LIVING--CHINCH BUGS THREATEN
DESTRUCTION OF CROP--CROP SAVED BY INSPIRATION.
THOMAS felt keenly his responsibility, in being left at the age of
twenty-one without earthly father and mother to appeal to for counsel,
in being the only male member of his parents' kindred upon whom the
duty rested of redeeming the dead, and in being so far separated from
the body of the Saints, with a wife and sister to care for, without
home of his own, and living in a city where death was stalking abroad
and smiting his victims by the thousand. The prospect, though gloomy,
only filled him with a determination to be faithful.
In October, 1853, Thomas and his wife and her parents left St. Louis to
locate at Baraboo, in Wisconsin, where, they had been informed, land
and stock were abundant, and could be had on easy terms. They expected
to go up the river by steamboat to Galena, but on reaching Keokuk,
Iowa, the water was found to be too shallow to float the boat, and
the freight was transferred to flat boats, and hauled up to Montrose,
opposite Nauvoo. But the boat, thus lightened, was three days getting
over the rapids, and the passengers were without shelter and suffered
from cold. On reaching Galena they hired teams to convey them to
Baraboo, and when they arrived at that place they found they had been
deceived in regard to it, as there was neither land nor stock to be
had; the soil was very poor and the residents couldn't sell what little
they did raise.
Thomas had spent his savings in getting there, and saw no chance of
earning more. Having an acquaintance living at Hebron, one hundred
miles south of Baraboo, he proceeded thither by stage, and, finding he
could secure work there at splitting rails, he hired a man and team
to go with him to Baraboo and bring his folks back. They arrived at
Hebron just before Christmas, bought forty acres of land on time, and
started in to earn a livelihood. He had not only his wife and sister
to provide for, but his wife's parents and their family of six members
relied upon him for protection and guidance at least if not for actual
support. The weather was much of the time unfavorable for work, and
the work--chopping and splitting large timber, and clearing land--new
and strange to him, so that he not only felt it severely, but the
family had little to subsist upon, and found it necessary to eke out an
existence by using bran and shorts for food, catching fish, or killing
an occasional squirrel.
The hardships and privations they endured during the first year or two
of their life in Wisconsin were such as to try their very souls, and
Brother Briggs pays a grateful tribute to his wife by recording the
fact that she never once murmured. He was young and strong and full of
endurance, and able to work almost night and day, and cared nothing for
himself, his only concern being for those dependent upon him.
On the 13th of September, 1854, his first child was born--Ephraim, who
brought cheer to the hearts of his parents, and as they became more
used to their surroundings they felt more reconciled, and indulged in
the hope of soon acquiring enough means to take them to the mountains.
They bought another forty acres of land on time, and Thomas spent every
hour that he could spare, when not working for others, at fencing and
improving his own property.
While so engaged, in the fall of 1855, he hurt his knee very severely,
when working in the timber, and, thinking it was only a temporary
hurt, and not caring to worry his wife about it, he said nothing about
it until the pain became so intense he could bear it in silence no
longer. A doctor was sent for, and he prescribed for him, but no relief
resulted from his treatment. He was told that an abscess was forming
on the knee joint, and he could hope for no relief until it would
burst. The limb continued to swell four or five weeks until it was
larger in circumference than his body, and the pain almost drove him to
distraction. His wife was almost worn out in caring for him, and his
own prayers seemed of no avail. Most thoroughly and sincerely did he
regret and repent of having wandered away from the Saints, where those
bearing the Priesthood might have rendered him assistance.
Finally the abscess burst, and the discharge from it saturated the
bed and ran down upon the floor. He was so weak and helpless that the
only way those surrounding him could tell that he still lived, was by
holding a mirror over his face, and watching upon it the effects of his
breath. However, he continued to live, and in course of time to show a
slight improvement.
In May, 1856, however, he had a relapse, and the doctor was hastily
sent for. He attended him for several days and then declared he could
do nothing more for him; he could not possibly recover, and he could
not last more than a few days.
After the doctor had gone the patient dosed off for a few moments,
and when he awoke he saw his wife standing by his bedside with tears
streaming down her pale cheeks. Rallying his slight remaining strength,
he said: "Ann, dry your tears, for I am going to live to go to the
mountains, and shall there build a large house."
It was thought at first that he was delirious, and little credence was
given to what he said, but later on he repeated the declaration and
explained that the mountains and valley had passed before his mind in
vision and he had seen the very place where his home was to be, and
the spirit bore testimony to him that he would live to realize it. He
was not shown what he would have to endure before the vision would be
realized, but the assurance had a stimulating effect upon him.
A slight improvement was soon noticeable in the sick man, and by the
30th of June, 1856, he was able to be carried to the home of his
father-in-law. His leg was still discharging, and there were nine holes
just above the knee; the limb was also crooked, and the cords so rigid
that it was feared he would never be able to straighten it again, even
if he were permitted to recover.
Under these circumstances, and while his wife was weak and careworn
after her long and anxious siege of watching over him day and night,
and without proper nourishment or comfortable surroundings, she gave
birth July 1, 1856, to Emma her second child, and, to the surprise of
all concerned, she and the babe got along wonderfully well; which was a
proof to the household that the Lord had not forgotten them.
On the 3rd of July, 1856, after Thomas had been taken back home,
and when he was barely able to sit up, his father-in-law called and
announced that he was going to town (Whitewater) the next day, to see
his daughters, who were in service there. Thomas expressed a desire to
go with him, as he was anxious to see his sister, who was also working
there. Their only means of conveyance was an ordinary dump cart, drawn
by a yoke of steers. A start was made the next morning, Thomas lying
upon a mattress in the cart, and the father-in-law driving. Thomas
fainted twice from pain before they had proceeded far, and each time,
after he had been revived, the proposition was made to return home
with him, but he was determined to proceed, and they continued on. His
sister was overjoyed at seeing him, and arranged with the family she
was working for to return with him, for a short visit. On the return
journey the steers became frightened and ran away, and Father Kirkham,
thinking he could outrun them, jumped off the cart and tried to get
ahead of them, to stop them, but was soon left far in the rear. The end
gate was lost in the race, and Thomas, lying upon the mattress, slid
backward, and would have fallen out had not his sister, who was seated
beside him, gripped the front of the cart with one hand and Thomas'
collar by the other, and thus held him. After running frantically quite
a long distance, the steers were finally stopped by a man who was along
the road in front of them. The incident ended without any serious
results, but it was a narrow escape for Thomas, who was as helpless,
bodily, as a child, and who was partially hanging from the cart when it
came to a halt. He couldn't help feeling that the devil was trying to
execute his threat against him, and that a higher power had preserved
him.
From that time his improvement was more rapid, although there were
seven or eight running sores on his leg, and they kept him very weak.
When he was able to hobble about on crutches, he used to have to
carry his leg in a sling, suspended from his shoulder. When the limb
hung down without a sling, it was so far from being straight that the
toes were fully six inches from the ground, and the leg was much more
painful than when suspended. How, under such circumstances, he was
ever going to support his family, to say nothing of going to Utah,
was beyond his power to foresee, and had it not been for the heavenly
assurance he had received he would probably have lost hope.
About that time he met a man who claimed to be skilled in the art of
healing, who prescribed certain herbs for his use, and told him to
fill a bottle with angle worms and stand it in the sunlight until the
worms turned to oil, and then rub the oil on his leg. He followed the
directions, and his leg and health improved. After a few months he
could touch the toes of his lame limb to the ground, and dispense with
the bandages and sling.
The family removed to a stone quarry, and his wife boarded the men
employed there at $10.00 per month each, and the family lived upon such
scraps as were left from the boarders' table. Thomas was ambitious to
do something, and tried sawing wood, at 75c per cord, and, though the
exertion made his leg pain him much worse, he persevered, his wife
quitting her housework from time to time to do the lifting for him, as
he couldn't do it himself. Then he tried driving team to haul wood for
a lime kiln. The men who accompanied him had to lift him on and off the
wagon, as well as to load and unload the wagon for him, but this they
did out of sheer sympathy for him.
In the spring of 1858 he moved back to the farm which he had lost,
through sickness, the owner being willing to let the family occupy the
house, and pay his wife for boarding men he employed at farming, while
Thomas fed the pigs and did odd jobs.
On the 15th of September, his third child, David, was born. The larger
the family grew the less likely it really seemed to be that they would
ever reach the mountains, but Thomas fondly clung to the promises made
him, that he should do so, and his faith in the Lord never wavered.
In the fall of the year he bought a span of horses and wagon, and spent
the winter hauling wood into Whitewater, buying it for $1.00 per cord
and selling it for $2.50 or $3.00. His leg was still very painful,
but he could not content himself to be idle. In the spring of 1859
he obtained considerable employment on the roads, working poll tax
for people who were too busy to work it out for themselves, getting
$2.25 per day for himself and team. He also secured the privilege of
cultivating a three-acre patch of a large farm, the owner of which was
willing that he should have all he could raise on it. He planted it to
corn, and raised 200 bushels to the acre, which, although corn was very
cheap, insured them against want for bread and provided feed for the
animals.
In the spring of 1861 he rented nine acres of land, and sowed it to
wheat, with a fervent hope that if the Lord favored him with a good
crop on it, he would be able, with what he had already saved up, to
journey to the mountains.
On the 6th of April, that same year, his fourth child, Mary Ann, was
born. She was welcomed as the others had been, notwithstanding the
increased number it involved for the prospective overland journey.
The wheat planted grew well, and promised a heavy yield, but one
morning it was noticed that numerous black bugs, called the chinch
bug, had begun to devour the grain, or rather suck the sap from the
stalks just as they were heading out, and it looked as if the next
few days would witness the total destruction of the crop. One of the
strange things about it was, that his seemed to be the only field in
that vicinity that was affected with the bugs. While contemplating the
shattering of his hopes, the Spirit of the Lord prompted him to go to
the man who was working the other part of the farm and borrow a cradle
(the best implement used at that time to cut grain with,) and cut a
swath through the grain with it. He had an assurance that this would
have the effect of stopping the ravages of the bugs.
He immediately went to the man and told him what he intended to do, and
the man laughed at him, and told him it was a foolish notion. After
some pleading and persuasion, however, the man took his cradle and cut
a swath through the field, Thomas (whom the man evidently regarded as
slightly demented) following along after him.
After the man had gone, Thomas knelt and offered up a silent prayer to
the Lord, telling him that he had acted according to the promptings of
His Spirit, and that he would leave the result with Him.
On his return he told his wife of the presence of the bugs in their
wheat field, and what he had done. She felt very sorrowful, knowing
that the habit of the bugs was, when they commenced on a field, never
to leave it until it was completely destroyed, but he assured her that
the crop would be saved.
The next morning Thomas hitched up his team, and, taking his son
Ephraim, who was then seven years old, with him, drove up to the field.
When he arrived there he was astonished to find that the road bordering
his field fairly swarmed with bugs, that were making their way to a
wheat field on the opposite side, and that the swath that had been
cut through the field was covered with millions of the insects, that
seemed to travel as if they were inspired. The field they entered was
just about ready to ripen, and before the advent of the bugs, gave
promise to yield forty bushels to the acre, but a few days later the
forty-acre field was completely destroyed. The owner was so disgusted
that he later set fire to the straw which was left standing, and thus
cleared the land; and the language in which he denounced Thomas and the
bugs was simply awful. Still he acknowledged, and so did many others,
that there was something marvelous about the saving of one crop and
destruction of the other.
Thomas wished his neighbor no harm, but he acknowledged the power of
the Lord in what had occured. When his wheat was ready to cut, his leg
was so much worse that he was not able to stand on it. Hired help was
so scarce and hard to obtain that it seemed doubtful whether he would
be able to save his crop after all. He finally induced the former who
cultivated the adjoining land to cradle it, a little at a time, while
the boy Ephraim raked it into bundles, and Thomas crawled on his hands
and knees, and bound it. When threshed, the wheat yielded twenty-five
bushels to the acre. He was gratified with the result of his summer's
work, felt that the Lord had greatly blessed him and had strong hopes
of being able to migrate to Utah in the following spring.