ON THE BANKS OF THE MISSOURI, 1846.

Dedication of the Temple in Nauvoo.—The Exodus to Council Bluffs.—Accident to His Father.—Reaches Mt. Pisgah.—Meets Brigham Young.—Recruiting of the Mormon Battalion.—Colonel Kane.—Departure of the Battalion.—Organizations at Winter Quarters.—A Conference with the Chiefs of the Leading Indian Tribes.—Explorations.—Remarks by President Young.

Before Elder Woodruff reached his home in Nauvoo, President Young with a number of the Saints had already commenced their memorable exodus from that city. The Saints were in a state of active preparation for their departure westward. The mob was active, determined, and vindictive. The hatred against the Saints had become so intense among the anti-Mormon element in Western Illinois that it was a source of great disquietude among the people of Nauvoo. In the midst of the persecutions, however, there had been a faithful devotion to the work on the Temple which resulted in its completion and preparation for dedication.

Under date of April 30th, 1846, Elder Woodruff's journal contains the following: "In the evening of this day I repaired to the Temple with Elder Orson Hyde and about twenty other elders of Israel. There we were all clothed in our priestly robes and dedicated the Temple of the Lord, erected to His most holy name by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Notwithstanding the predictions of false prophets and the threat of mobs that the building should never be completed nor dedicated, their words had fallen to the ground. The Temple was now finished and dedicated to Him. After the dedication, we raised our voices in a united shout of 'Hosanna to God and the Lamb!' After offering our prayers we returned to our homes, thankful for the privilege enjoyed in our evening services."

On May 1st, 1846, a public dedication of the Temple took place at which Elder Woodruff opened the services by prayer. Elder Orson Hyde made appropriate remarks and then offered the dedicatory prayer. On Sunday the 3rd the assembly room of the Temple was filled and addresses were made by Elders Hyde and Woodruff. A point had been gained; under stress and strain the Temple had been completed and dedicated. More, however, than the completion of the Temple had been accomplished by the construction of that sacred edifice. Its rites and ceremonies had enlarged the vision of the Saints and broadened their conceptions of eternity. Their relations and obligations to the dead brought home to them greater responsibilities than they had ever heretofore imagined. Furthermore, they perceived the importance of a new gathering place wherein they might erect other Temples to the worship of their God. From that day to the present time, temple work has had a peculiar influence upon the lives of the Latter-day Saints. It has engendered brotherly love, a spirit of unity, and a steadfast devotion to God that perhaps nothing else in all their experience in the Church has given them. The work in Nauvoo was done; henceforth the city of the Saints was to be nothing more to them than a memory until God should determine otherwise. It brought its joys; but its history was also full of sad reminiscences, apostasy, murderous intent, and destruction.

"I was in Nauvoo," says Elder Woodruff, "on the 26th of May, 1846, for the last time, and left the city of the Saints feeling that most likely I was taking a final farewell of Nauvoo for this life. I looked back upon the Temple and City as they receded from view and asked the Lord to remember the sacrifices of His Saints."

Elder Woodruff had already left Nauvoo on the 16th and had preached his farewell sermon there on the previous Sunday. The farewell of which he now speaks followed his return to the City a few days later to obtain goods which he had left behind. There he met a company of Saints who had just arrived from Pennsylvania. Among them was Brother Sidwell who gave to Orson Hyde several hundred dollars for the Camp of Israel. He also gave a hundred dollars each for Elders Hyde and Woodruff.

The little company of which he had charge consisted of his wife and children, his father, and a few other members of the family. They had three baggage wagons, one family carriage, six yoke of oxen, six cows, four calves, one yearling, and a pair of mules, making in all twenty-five head of animals. The father was aged and had no grown sons other than Wilford to assist him, so that the weight and responsibility fell upon the son.

There began now the tedious and distressing journey across the state of Iowa. The inconveniences of loaded wagons and the inclemency of the weather superseded the comforts and conveniences of well-appointed homes. On the first day out their wagon mired down in the mud; the wagon tongue and several chains were broken in the effort to extricate it. Similar accidents occurred at intervals, and on the twenty-seventh he says in his journal that while his father was trying to climb into the wagon fell to the ground. Both wheels of the wagon which was loaded with twenty-five hundred pounds ran over his legs. It was marvelous that no bones were broken.

At Farmington, Iowa, they bought a supply of flour consisting of four barrels. There they crossed the Des Moines River at the ferry. They were then twenty-five miles from Nauvoo on the 28th day of May. Several days later they overtook the Ramus Company consisting of about twenty-five wagons. On the evening of Sunday the 7th they traveled some distance when they came to a long swail which covered a distance of one and a half miles. It was wet and miry. He succeeded in getting his carriage across by dark, but in the center of the swamp his baggage wagons cut through the turf, and the wheels went down almost to the hubs. He worked most of that night in mud and water nearly knee deep and at the same time kept a watch upon the cattle. About daylight he rolled himself up in a buffalo robe and went to sleep. All day Monday they were obliged to rest and prepare for the journey the following day. His anxiety to overtake the main body of the pioneers led to this violation of his custom to refrain wholly from work on the Lord's day. Tuesday, the 9th, the company traveled twelve miles and camped with a body of Saints from Macedonia. The latter had thirty-one wagons. Here and there they were joined by scattered families of Saints who were wending their weary way westward. On the 15th of June they reached the Camp of Israel called Mt. Pisgah.

President Kimball and others of the Twelve were still ahead. Elder Charles C. Rich had been left in charge at Mt. Pisgah. There were many of his old-time friends there and the meeting brought with it reminiscences of earlier days. There was an exchange of the experiences which they had undergone since Brother Woodruff had left them for his mission, more than a year before. "I encamped," he says, "on the east side of the creek near the Camp of Israel. Here I learned that Brother Noah Rogers recently from a mission to the South Sea Islands had died and was the first to find a resting place in the burial ground at Mt. Pisgah. Brother Turnbow, one of our company, lost a child today. I was present at its funeral." Lorenzo Snow was also in this company and was suffering from sickness, but found great relief in the administration of Elder Woodruff.

On the 21st he preached to a large congregation of Saints and was followed by Elders Rich, Benson, and Sherwood. That day a messenger arrived from President Young, who was at Council Bluffs. The messenger brought a call for one hundred mounted men who were to serve as dragoons and as buffalo hunters for the Camp of Israel. In response to the call, Elder Woodruff and sixty others stepped to the front. He reported the response to President Young.

On the 26th the camp was thrown into some excitement by the appearance of Captain Allen and three dragoons of the United States army. The object of their visit was to raise volunteers for the Mexican War. He was sent by Colonel Kearney who was acting under instructions from President James K. Polk. These messengers were shown every courtesy, but were asked to confer with President Young. The day following, Elder Woodruff wrote President Young a letter in advance of the messengers who were commissioned to make a call for volunteers.

When the 27th of June arrived, the anniversary of the martyrdom of Joseph and Hyrum, Elder Woodruff though in poor health at the time addressed the Saints in Pisgah. It was his farewell sermon at that place, for on the following day he took up his travels again for Council Bluffs.

"I stopped my carriage," he says, "on the top of a hill in the midst of a rolling prairie where I had an extended view of all about me. I beheld the Saints coming in all directions from hills and dales, groves and prairies with their wagons, flocks, and herds, by the thousands. It looked like the movement of a nation."

Traveling a few miles from this point of observation he met Parley P. Pratt, who was returning from Council Bluffs with a message to raise a company of men to go in advance to the Rocky Mountains without their families. The Quorum of the Twelve had volunteered to go and in Elder Woodruff's breast there was a heart-felt desire to take up the proposed pioneer movement into the wilderness. He therefore hurried on with as much speed as the ox-teams could endure. They traveled more than twenty miles that day.

The day following they were overtaken by Parley P. Pratt who was returning to Council Bluffs after having delivered his message. He was accompanied by Ezra T. Benson who had recently been chosen to take the place in the Quorum of the Twelve formerly occupied by John E. Page. These brethren expressed a wish that Elder Woodruff accompany them to the Bluffs. The latter, in response, saddled his horse, and leaving his family and company, went on to join President Young and those with him at the front.

On the 4th of July they rode ten miles and breakfasted with some of the brethren whom they met. To their great surprise they were informed that President Brigham Young, Heber C. Kimball, and Willard Richards were near by on their way to Pisgah to raise volunteers for the service of the United States army. "We immediately rode down to where they were located," he says in his journal. "It was truly a happy meeting. I rejoiced to strike hands once more with those noble men. It was the first time we had met since I left Nauvoo on my mission to England soon after the martyrdom of Joseph and Hyrum."

This changed somewhat his plan of travel, and upon the invitation of President Young, Elders Woodruff and Benson returned with him until he met his family and company with whom he journeyed to Council Bluffs which he reached on the 7th of July, 1846.

Upon his arrival at the Missouri River, he set about the task of raising volunteers for the government service. It was about this time that the Saints there were visited by Thomas L. Kane from the City of Washington. His interest in the Latter-day Saints, his deep and unfeigned sympathy for them, naturally awakened feelings of gratitude toward one whose sympathies for them were so genuine. The Colonel's description of Nauvoo, and his defense generally of the Latter-day Saints, have always made his name with them a synonym of friendship. To what extent their faith and beliefs brought conviction to his soul, it will perhaps be impossible to say. It is certain, however, that the new religion awakened in him some belief that these unpopular people were perhaps after all the instrument of a divine providence in transforming the religious views of the modern world; for on the 7th of September he sought and received a patriarchal blessing under the hands of father John Smith, who at the time was living in a tent. Elder Woodruff wrote the blessing as it fell from the lips of the Patriarch and presented it to the Colonel.

It was Colonel Kane's belief, and it was so represented by him to the Saints, that President Polk was favorable to them and had really proposed the Mormon Battalion with the intention in his heart of helping them across the plains by government aid. There was, however, some skepticism, and a belief among some that the whole scheme was an anti-Mormon device, and intended to weaken the Saints in their exodus, and make them an easy prey to the Indians who might encompass the complete destruction of the Saints on the plains.

Brigham Young and other leaders were actively engaged in recruiting men for service in the Battalion. President Young had returned from Mt. Pisgah and met in council with the Twelve. Colonel Kane was present. Such tasks as these required just such enthusiasm and heart-felt conviction as men like Wilford Woodruff could give to them.

On July the 15th Elders Orson Hyde, Parley P. Pratt, and John Taylor were appointed to a mission in Great Britain for the purpose of regulating the affairs of the Church there and of appointing a new presidency over that mission.

On the 16th of July Elder Woodruff writes: "It was a great day in the Camp of Israel. Four companies of volunteers were organized and ready for marching. They were brought together and formed in a hollow square by their captains. They were then addressed by several of the Quorum of the Twelve after which the Battalion began its march in double file over the Redemption Hill, seven miles across the Missouri River bottom to the ferry. The brethren who formed these companies left their families, teams, wagons, and cattle by the wayside not expecting to meet them again for one or two years. They left their wives and children to their brethren and to the tender mercies of God, before they went. With cheerful hearts they believed that they were doing the will of their Heavenly Father. As I viewed them I felt as though I was looking upon the first Battalion of the army of Israel, engaged in the service of the United States."

Upon the departure of the Battalion, the Twelve proceeded at once to ordain Ezra T. Benson who had been called to their Quorum. That evening Elder Woodruff entertained the Apostles as his guests at supper. That body of men felt some pride in the success that had attended their efforts to enlist the Battalion. They were full of joy and were rejoicing together over the satisfaction which they felt in accomplishing that which they hoped would be of lasting benefit and honor to the Latter-day Saints.

A few days later while the Battalion of five hundred were in camp at the ferry, they were addressed by President Young, who bestowed freely upon them his blessings and his promises of safety. After that a concert was given in honor of Colonel Allen, the commander of the men, who were now ready to begin their long and perilous march to the sea.

With the departure of the Battalion, another great move in the exodus had been made. The way across the plains, however, had to be blazed and a route established for the travel of the tens of thousands who should follow the first company in quest of a home far removed from the confines of civilization, a home where the saints of God might enjoy the freedom and the rest that had been denied them ever since the organization of the Church in April, 1830.

During that period of sixteen years the Saints had been constantly fleeing from mobs and from the tyranny of oppressors. They were in a state of constant uncertainty and could find comfort and consolation only in the divine assurance that they were a peculiar people, a chosen people, destined to open a new and marvelous dispensation among the children of men.

The primitive conditions in which the Saints now found themselves along the banks of the Missouri River naturally gave rise to misgivings, murmurings, discontent, and sometimes rebellious sentiment. To maintain peace and order under such circumstances was no easy task. The leaders labored early and late and urged constantly, peace, fraternity, and good will. A new burden had been imposed upon those who were left behind and who were required to provide for the welfare of the families of the soldiers. About ninety men were appointed among the Saints to act as bishops. One of their special duties was to look after the families of those who were left dependent upon the Church at large. On the 21st of the month a high council was appointed. Isaac Morley became senior member.

Preparatory to the march across the plains the coming summer, some explorations were begun. Elder Woodruff traveled along the country of the Big Pigeon River on which the camp of the Saints was established. On the 25th of July he crossed the river to the Nebraska side with his family, wagons, and household effects. On the 2nd of August the Twelve met in council and decided that Winter Quarters should be established on the site then occupied by the camp. On the evening of that day President Young and Elder Richards called at the tent of Wilford Woodruff where President Young gave him and his family some instructions on the subject of the priesthood and of the sealing power. That day was also marked by the arrival of a messenger from the Mormon Battalion that was now within thirty miles from Leavenworth.

After settling the question of a location for the winter, twelve men were selected to serve in the joint capacity of a High Council and City Council for the transaction of all business relating to the settlement of the Saints during the winter.

About this time there was a meeting of the Saints with Colonel Kane, and in it the adoption of certain resolutions of respect and gratitude to President Polk for the steps taken by him in arming five hundred men and of furnishing them an opportunity to reach the valleys of the Rocky Mountains. At this time they also urgently protested against the appointment of Lilburn W. Boggs, the former governor of Missouri, and a bitter enemy of the people, as governor of California and Oregon, a position he was anxious to occupy and one which his friends were helping him to secure.

At this time President Young informed Colonel Kane that it was the intention of the Saints to settle in the Great Basin, and that as soon as they were located to apply for a territorial government. Thus their plans were early revealed to a tried and trusted friend.

The Sunday following, a meeting was held at a place prepared for worship, a place capable of seating about three hundred people. After the people were addressed by Apostle Woodruff, President Young declared that when the Latter-day Saints should finally reach their resting place, he would labor hard to build another temple. The erection of a temple whose blessings they so meagerly enjoyed in Nauvoo was constantly in the mind of the leaders who were inspired by a desire to enjoy the ordinances for the living and dead which belonged, peculiarly, to the temples of God.

In the management of the affairs at Winter Quarters, the Saints were divided into encampments and these again into subdivisions. President Young took charge of division 1. That allotted to Elder Woodruff was No 10. It consisted of thirty-six men, thirty-two wagons, nine horses, 129 oxen, 59 cows, four mules, and forty sheep. The whole of Winter Quarters consisted at this time of 549 men, 597 wagons, 229 horses, 2,110 oxen, 1,168 cows, 49 mules, and 660 sheep.

The entire population of those that located at Council Bluffs at that time is not stated in his journal.

On August 17 Orrin P. Rockwell arrived in camp and brought with him the mail from Nauvoo. The letters from home showed that the mob were still active, that some of the Saints had been whipped in a shameful manner and that there was no hope of any return to the city they loved so well. There was nothing in the information that reached them from Nauvoo to give the least encouragement to any of their number to turn back; their hope was now all directed westward.

There was naturally much suffering in the midst of all the exposure to which the Saints were subjected. Elder Woodruff records the fact that his wife suffered a great deal from sickness and it was with great difficulty that she was kept alive.

The Mormon Battalion constituted the advance-guard for the pioneer movement. It is true that they were taking a route different from that which the body of the Saints intended to follow, but the Battalion was penetrating the great and unknown wilderness. Its difficulties would be their difficulties, its hardships, their hardships. All news therefore brought back from the Battalion was discussed by the Saints on the banks of the Missouri with intense interest. They had reason to be proud of their representatives in blue. The soldiers were making a good record. They were spoken highly of because of their exemplary habits, their willing service, and their powers of endurance.

He writes in his journal of August 22nd that he, in company with other members of the Twelve, crossed the river to Council Point where they found many of the people sick. They went about administering to them, and after rebuking the diseases that were afflicting the Saints, they went on to what is called Redemption Hill. Upon their return to Council Point, they found, to their great pleasure and gratification, that the exercises of the healing power with which the Lord had clothed them was resulting in the restoration of those to whom they had administered.

The leaders here were planning an exodus for the coming year. Preparations of all kinds were therefore being made for a journey of a thousand miles through the wilderness, the country of the red man. The Book of Mormon taught them who the red man was and the promises of which some day he should be a happy recipient. Their sympathy for the Indian, therefore, rested upon religious convictions which they entertained for his future, a future in which he would find redemption from the slothful and slovenly conditions of life into which he had fallen.

On the 27th the Twelve and the high council met with the representatives of two great Indian tribes. The object of the meeting was to get the permission to remain upon their lands and use the wood, grass, and water as long as they wished to stay. "We first met with the Ottos between whom and the Omahas there was a dispute as to who owned the land. The Ottos said the land was theirs. The chief with five or six others was present. We talked to him, after which he returned home. We later met in council with the Omahas. The old chief's name was Big Elk and his son, a young chief, called Young Elk. There were also present with them about sixty old men and braves of the tribe. As it was late, the council adjourned until the morrow. On the 28th we met in the morning with the Omaha chiefs. We smoked the pipe of peace and President Young then spoke to them through their interpreter. He told them it was our desire to winter there; and if they wished it we would do some work for them, make them a field, repair their guns.

Big Elk replied: "My son, thou hast spoken well. I have all thou hast said in my heart. I have much I want to say. We are poor, when we go to hunt game in one place we meet the enemy and so in another, and our enemies kill us. We do not kill them. I hope we shall be friends. You may stay on these lands two years or more. Our young men may watch your cattle. We would be glad to have you trade with us. We will warn you of danger from other Indians." Much more was said by Big Elk after which the council closed and the Indians, after being fed, returned to their homes.

On September 11, 1846, the leaders rode out in search of Old Council Bluffs. They built a bridge to cross a creek, and after traveling over flats and hills they came to the object of their search about sundown. They found that there was once on that place some old barracks. Nothing was left of it except the body of the magazine with one gable end. The object of this search was to make themselves familiar with the surrounding country and to gain information.

Orson Pratt had been on a visit to the Otto and Omaha Indians, and on his return reported that it was the wish of each of these tribes to perform a war dance before the people. The Omahas were then on their way to war with the Sioux.

It was necessary to secure a certain class and a certain amount of provisions for the journey of the coming season. Bishop Whitney and several others were delegated to proceed to Saint Louis and make the necessary purchases. There was a busy life in the camp. As winter approached, men were actively engaged in putting up log cabins, making dugouts, and taking what precautions they could, under the circumstances, against the inclemency of the winter season.

The situation was so full of anxiety and attended by so many fears, that it was necessary to keep up the spirits and cultivate the hopes of the people. Amusements, chiefly dancing, were provided. These amusements gave opportunity to unruly characters to demonstrate their unworthiness. Mirth, especially excessive mirth, breaks down the natural reserve of man and discloses much of his motives and especially his follies and vices.

The Saints assembled at that time were gathered from all parts of the states and from Great Britain. That community consisted of men and women of all shades of thought, all traditions, beliefs, and customs. The grave and austere, and devoted Saints mingled with the light-minded, the indifferent, and the gay. There were those that constituted the drift wood of the community. They were found piled up where the current had taken them. Some in the camp had no faith, others made no pretensions to faith. There were young men who were wild and unruly. Such conditions naturally gave the leaders much anxiety and brought to them some discouragement. They realized that it would be easy to bring disorder and confusion into their midst. Recording the remarks of President Young to the people on Sunday, Sept. 13th, Elder Woodruff quotes as follows: "I wish to say a few words upon principle. There is one thing I want you to realize and that is that God, angels and saints—Heaven and all of God's creations—are governed by law. I want the Camp of Israel to understand that we must be so governed. If Heaven were not so controlled, what sort of a place would it be? Every man would be in danger of losing his rights and of having them trampled upon. All celestial beings are governed by law and order, for the celestial law is a perfect order of things, a perfect system of light, law, intelligence, exaltation, and glory. We do not arrive at this all at once. A prophet once declared that we should have precept upon precept, line upon line, here a little and there a little until we arrive at a fullness of knowledge and glory, even a fullness which reigns in the Heavens.

"We must begin to be governed by law here before we are prepared to receive the fullness that reigns in the Heavens. We must have law and order in our midst."

Some agitation was manifested at this time in consequence of certain favors received by those who then on the banks of the Missouri River were permitted to have more than one wife. Respecting this President Young is quoted as saying: "Some young men are jealous for fear I shall receive more blessings, more wives, or some other blessings than themselves. These men have never preached the gospel in their lives. If they will travel the world over in poverty as I have done and on foot with blood in their shoes and spend years and years to save the world they will cease to be jealous of the blessings that I enjoy. A woman who has the spirit of God will join herself to a good man who honors and bears the Holy Priesthood. Such a man, if he continues faithful, will be saved in eternal glory and all who are with him.

"I am determined that my affections shall be with God. I will not allow them to be placed upon things that perish. When plagues and disease get hold of our bodies we become loathsome, our beauty fades away. Our affections should be placed upon things that are noble, exalted, lasting, and glorious. I love an exalted mind, it is eternal and cannot fade. I want all my affections to be subject to God and to the principles of glory and eternal life."

A pleasure loving camp in those days had many of the same temptations that beset the pleasure loving world now. Those, then, in whose minds every thing was associated with a pleasure loving spirit attributed self gratification to the motives of their leaders who were then inculcating faith by teaching and practicing the doctrine of plural marriage.

On the 23rd of September the Saints removed their encampment from the prairie ridge where they had been located to the tableland on the bank of the Missouri River. At the latter place a townsite was laid out into blocks, 120 by 40 rods. Each block was divided into lots four by ten.

Two days later Daniel H. Wells and Elder Cutler arrived from Nauvoo. At the meeting on Sunday afternoon of the 27th they gave an account of the Battle of Nauvoo, where the Saints were engaged in resisting the encroaching mob. Three of the Saints were killed and two wounded. It was never known how many of the mob lost their lives. The skirmish resulted in a treaty which required the Saints to leave the city within five days. The little remnant of those compelled to leave was composed chiefly of men and women whose circumstances did not permit them to leave with the main body of the Church. A few remained to protect the property rights of the people who had been driven from the city. There were a few who fostered some lingering thoughts of returning to Nauvoo, or of mercenary advantages in days to come. These property rights which the Saints sought to retain only excited the cupidity and murderous disposition of the mob. It was the property of the Saints they craved and bloodshed did not stand between them and the cravings of their own selfish dispositions. This lingering remnant was, therefore, inhumanely treated and driven into the wilderness without provisions and without shelter. Their distress was pitiful. The Battle of Nauvoo removed from the hearts of all the Saints the last lingering hope of any return to that city. All was gone, their property rights destroyed, and their homes passed to new ownerships. The destruction of all hope in their return to the city they loved made their undertaking in a new and perilous journey the only thing to be reckoned with.

The first Sunday in October, Orson Pratt, Amasa Lyman, and Wilford Woodruff began the organization of the new city of Winter Quarters. It was divided into 13 wards, with a bishop over each. Thus, responsibility was extended and order more firmly established throughout the Camp.

On the 15th Elder Woodruff met with one of those serious experiences recorded in his chapter of accidents. He was struck by a falling tree and disabled for a number of weeks. While he was recovering his little son Joseph was stricken with disease and died on the 12th of November.

On the 17th of that month Elder Woodruff took up again his manual labor. Writing in his journal of those times he says: "I had never seen the Latter-day Saints in any situation where they seemed to be passing through greater tribulations. After being exposed to the sufferings of a tedious journey of ten months in tents and wagons, they were obliged to build a city of log houses numbering more than one thousand. All this work had only a temporary enjoyment. We had to go a great distance for wood and timber, and it was difficult to secure from the deep ravines and hollows where we found it. The labor was hard to endure. I was endeavoring to build a log house for myself and one for my father."

Quite a number died during the winter of 1846-47, in Winter Quarters. Elder Woodruff records the death of Sister Benbow, the wife of his time-honored friend.

On the 8th of December there was born to him a son whom he named Ezra who lived only a few days and was buried by the side of his brother Joseph. Thus afflictions and death visited the Saints while they were camping along the banks of the Missouri River. By the close of that year their numbers reached 3483. Christmas day was duly observed and such joy and such gratitude as were possible under the circumstances were manifested throughout the Camp.

On the 29th the Twelve met to consider the organization of a pioneer company whose duty it would be to set out for the valleys the following spring. From now on there was a feverish excitement in consequence of the preparation going on for the accomplishment of a journey whose vicissitudes they could not even imagine. Truly they had to walk in the light of faith. In turn it filled their hearts with hope and fond anticipations. Faith taught them to look on the bright side of life and anticipate the best, that they might endure cheerfully the worst that was to overtake them. Thus ended the year 1846 in the life of Wilford Woodruff.