A MISSION TO THE EAST, 1848.

In Winter Quarters.—Battle of Nauvoo Commemorated.—Organization of Pottowatamie County.—Bids President Young and Saints Good-by.—Journey from Winter Quarters to Nauvoo.—From Nauvoo to Maine.—A Letter to His Wife.—Healing the Sick.—Discovery of Gold in California.

During the first three months of the year 1848, Apostle Woodruff devoted himself to the usual routine of business incident to frontier life. They were laying the foundations of a commonwealth and strengthening the religious organizations which were to play an important part in the social and religious life of the people. There were frequent meetings of the Twelve and the Presidency, and the future aspects of both the people and the country were under daily consideration.

It was during the early part of this year that petitions were sent to the Iowa Legislature, one asking for a county on the Pottawatomie tract of land, and the other for a post-office. Elder Henry Miller was the bearer of these petitions. About the same time the question of a disposition of the Nauvoo Temple came up, owing to the recent arrival from that city of Almon Babbit, Hyrum Kimball, and John Snyder. President Young was firm in his view that the Temple there should not be sold.

The battle of Nauvoo, which had been fought on September 12th, 1846, was commemorated on this anniversary by those who had taken part in the engagement. They wore a red badge on the left arm, as they had done during the contest, to distinguish them from their enemies. The disparity in numbers between the Latter-day Saints and their enemies,—about 100 of the former and between eight and ten hundred of the latter—was so great that the Saints felt that they had been the recipients of Divine favor, especially in view of the fact that only three of their number had been lost.

About the middle of the same month, Orson Hyde returned from the East. News also came at the same time of the success which the missionary work in Wales was achieving, principally through the labors of Captain Dan Jones. While the opposition there was intense, the struggle redounded to the spread of the Gospel and the increase of Saints through baptism.

March 1st was the 41st anniversary of Wilford Woodruff's life. A few days later, on the night of March 15th, he records a remarkable dream in which he passed in spirit through the air from state to state, escaped from his enemies and passed on to heaven. "I saw," he says, "Joseph and Hyrum and many others of the Latter-day Saints who had died. The innumerable company of souls which I saw seemed to be preparing for some grand and important event which I could not understand. Many were engaged in making crowns for the Saints. They were all dressed in white robes, both male and female."

About this time Wilford Woodruff recorded in his journal the death of John Quincy Adams, and made special mention of the death of John Adams and Thomas Jefferson, men in whose life and attainments he had taken great interest. His life was not confined to the limits of his personal activity, as he took a deep interest in all that was going on throughout the world.

On the 27th of March, the leaders of the Church met in council for the purpose of establishing a political organization of Pottawattamie County. The relations of the Church to political questions were carefully considered, and from the outset it was determined to keep separate the religious and political organizations of the new county which they were bringing into existence. They were a religious body of men in whose minds religious influences were dominant. It would have been the most natural thing, perhaps, in the world, for them to establish a politico-ecclesiastical government; however, they recognized from the outset, the constitution of their country, respected the forms of civil government, and so separated it from their religious organizations that non-Mormons who should thereafter settle in their midst, might enjoy with perfect freedom their political rights. This, however, did not mean as some non-Mormons thought it ought to mean, that they should be elected to office, and the failure to recognize them became a source of disturbance.

As the time for holding the annual conference for April approached, there appeared before the leaders several Pawnee chiefs asking in behalf of their people who were starving for food, for one hundred bushels of corn. The request was granted, the corn loaded upon the backs of the mules belonging to the Indians, who returned to their people with feelings of joy and appreciation. The spirit begotten by such an act of generosity opened the hearts of the Saints for the enjoyment of their conference, and fitted them more perfectly for the worship of God. President Young commented upon the organization of the Presidency which he said might have been effected the first conference after the Prophet's death, but it was not wisdom to do so. The authority and keys had been committed to the Twelve, and the Saints in following Brigham Young and the Quorum of which he was president, fully demonstrated their spirit to discern where the presiding authority of the Church was to be found. The interval between the death of the Prophet and the organization of the new Presidency gave the Saints ample opportunity by experience to confirm their belief in the leadership of President Young and his council. Before the conference closed, officers of the high priests and elder's quorum where chosen, also a high council for the Church in Pottawatamie County.

Special attention was also given at that time to the condition of the poor, particularly to the families of the soldiers who had enlisted in the Mormon Battalion. A special committee was appointed to locate the poor and provide for their wants. A call was made for teams and wagons, and a hearty response was given. After the conference, Philo Dibble exhibited his paintings of the martyrdom of Joseph and Hyrum Smith, and of Joseph's last address to the Nauvoo Legion. There are many of the present generation who will remember Elder Dibble's efforts to preserve and disseminate the early history of the Church by exhibitions of his art, which he gave for the benefit of the Saints for many years throughout the stakes of Zion.

Soon after the close of conference three of the Battalion boys arrived from Salt Lake Valley, popularly know as "The Valley," and gave encouraging reports from the Saints there. They brought with them letters to the families that remained in Winter Quarters. At about this time an effort was made to move the bodies of the dead to a new cemetery which had been selected. The graves of many were so marked that they might be identified in years to come. There, two of Wilford Woodruff's sons, Joseph and Ezra, were buried in a grave designated No. 34, and marked "J. E. W."

While the spirit of gathering to their new found home in the tops of the mountains was uppermost in the minds of those at Winter Quarters, the leaders kept constantly before them their mission of carrying the message of the new revelation to the nations of the earth. Apostle Woodruff was preparing for a mission to the East, and Orson Pratt, to England. These men were specially fitted by nature and experience for missionary work, and their talents were fully recognized and made use of. At the same time President Young was making preparations for another journey across the plains to Salt Lake Valley.

These were busy days at Winter Quarters. All were full of hope and grand expectations. On Sunday, April 14th, President Young in an address prophesied that the Saints would never be driven from the Rocky Mountains, unless they were guilty of insurrection among themselves, and he had no fear of that. In the midst of preparations, a steam-boat arrived on the Missouri River at Winter Quarters loaded with groceries and general provisions needed by the people. The same steam-boat afforded Orson Pratt an opportunity to embark on his mission to England. A few days later another steamer came with 150 Saints from England. These were accompanied by Elders Franklin D. and Samuel W. Richards on their return from the British mission.

On Friday the 26th day of May, 1848, President Young began his second journey to the Rocky Mountains. Elder Woodruff writes: "In company with Orson Hyde, E. T. Benson, and others, on the 22nd of June, I rode out to the Horn to meet Presidents Young and Kimball and the Camp of Israel. We found on our arrival that all had crossed, and that Lorenzo Snow and Zera Pulsipher, captains of hundreds, had gone on, each with his hundred. There were about 600 wagons in all and they made a grand encampment—a beautiful sight, indeed. I spent a little time with President Young; went through the camp, and on the following day bade good-bye to the Saints and returned to Winter Quarters."

The efforts to provide the necessary equipments for this second exodus across the plains brought its hardship to those who remained. The latter were without sufficient means to meet their wants. President Richards was at this time sick and in straightened circumstances, so that he was unable to accompany the Saints on their westward journey.

Those who remained were naturally weakened in their ability to defend themselves by the departure of the strongest—those best able to endure the journey. They naturally feared their weakened condition and the danger from Indians, to which they were subjected. On the 14th there was a bugle sound "To arms!" The report came that the Indians were coming upon the people. The alarm, however, was not justified, although the people were greatly disturbed in their feelings by such excitement.

It was distinctly the Indian's country in those days, and the Saints had no one but themselves to look to for protection. The forces of the United States government were then engaged in Mexico. It is interesting at this point to observe that where the city of Omaha now stands the Saints were once busily engaged cultivating the soil and providing means for their expected journey westward, although Winter Quarters was a few miles north from the present site of Omaha.

On June 21st, 1848, Elder Woodruff with his family, and several others, eleven in all, started upon his Eastern mission. They first went to Mt. Pisgah where they found a number of the Saints to whom they preached. There would naturally be some misgiving as to the faith and continuity of those who remained some distance in the rear of the Saints, those who were unwilling to follow the lead of President Young and the Twelve would naturally discourage the more timid ones.

It was during this journey, and on the 5th of July, that Elder Woodruff records a miraculous escape by one of those spiritual impressions that frequently came across his life. He had tied his mules to an oak-wood tree beside which he was camping. His children were sleeping in the wagon, and he felt impressed to move from his camping-ground, so he moved his children into a house. Only a short time elapsed when a thunder-storm swept over the place in great fury. Of the circumstance he writes: "We had just retired when the storm reached us in great fury, and in a moment the large oak came thundering down to the ground with a terrific crash. Had I not moved my mules, it would probably have killed them. Had I not moved my carriage, it would have been crushed to atoms, and we would have been killed, as the tree fell where my carriage stood. It just missed Brother Kingsley's wagon. I consider my impression an interposition of Providence to save our lives."

On the 9th, they arrived at Nauvoo and went through the Temple from basement to steeple, and again gazed on the once beautiful, but now desolate city of Nauvoo. While at the city, in the home of Almon Babbit, Elder Woodruff met a man who had come from Michigan to hear the gospel, and to whom he preached for one hour and then led him down into the waters of the Mississippi. During the same day, in a house built by George A. Smith, and occupied by Elder John Snyder, he confirmed the man whom he had just baptized and ordained him an elder and sent him on his way rejoicing.

Before leaving Nauvoo on his eastward journey, he sold his mules, carriage and harness and took steamer down the river to St. Louis. From this point Elder Woodruff boarded a steamer for La Salle, Illinois, and thence to Louisville, where he visited his brother-in-law and sister, Luther and Rhoda Scammon. Here death, for the fourth time, entered his family circle and called to the spirit world an infant of nine months.

Here Elder Woodruff's industrious nature asserted itself, and he went into the wheat field pitching bundles of grain. After leaving his kinsmen he continued his journey by wagon, rivers, lakes, and railways via Chicago and arrived in Boston on August 12th, 1848. The journey, by the route which he had taken from Council Bluffs, covered a distance of 2,595 miles. He remained some time preaching the gospel at Boston and then continued his journey to Portland, Maine. From there he went to Scarboro where he met other relations. It was a happy reunion after a separation of eight years.

The return of Apostle Woodruff to the East would naturally awaken within him the keenest satisfaction over the opportunity it afforded to meet, after years of strenuous life and marvelous adventure, old friends and kinsmen. To them, his affections first turned, and he told all the wonderful things which God had wrought in the gathering of the Saints to the Valleys of the Mountains. From Maine he returned to Boston, went on to New York, and a little later took up his labors in Philadelphia. It was here he called on Colonel Kane, a tried and true friend to the Mormon people in the hour of their sorrow. By Colonel Kane he was most cordially welcomed.

To his wife who remained with her people in Maine, he wrote on October 18th, 1848, this very significant letter: "I have been much blessed by the spirit of God since I saw you. I have felt more of the presence and power of God in me than I expected to enjoy on this Eastern mission. I have felt that someone has prayed for me much of late. I wonder if it was Phoebe! I know how often you pray for me, and I feel its power and prize it much. I have never felt such a desire to prove worthy of your confidence and trust, and shun every appearance of evil, keep out of the path of all temptation, and do right in all things. I have had much of the spirit of secret prayer, have poured out my soul in supplication to God with tears of joy, and at the same time the visions of my mind have been opened so that I saw clearly my duty to my God, to my wife, to my children, to the Saints, and to the world at large. I have also seen the awful and certain judgments of God, which like a gathering storm are ready to burst upon the whole Gentile world, especially this nation which has heard the sound of the gospel but rejected it, together with the testimony of the servants of God; has stoned and killed the prophets; has become drunk with the blood of martyrs and Saints; and finally has driven the entire Church with the priesthood and keys of eternal life out of its midst into the wilderness and mountains of Israel."

At New Haven, on the 21st, a remarkable case of healing occurred, of which Elder Woodruff writes as follows: "A sister Turtle was very low with yellow fever. Some of Job's comforters had called upon her and reproached her for being a Latter-day Saint, and had asked her why she did not get her elders to heal her. While under this strain and reproach she cried out, 'O, that the Lord would send Brother Woodruff here!' It was only a few moments before she received a note from me saying that I was coming to see her. When I came, we laid hands upon her and she was healed, and I returned home praising God. The following day, Sunday, Mr. Smith Turtle and his wife, who had been healed the day before, were present in our meeting.

"On the 23rd of October, 1848, I ordained Jairus Sanford a high priest. He was nearly 86 years of age. He had been liberal with his means and faithful in his duties. I left the aged patriarch rejoicing in God and went on my way to North Haven."

On the 25th of October, Elder Woodruff arrived in Boston by rail and found himself in the midst of a grand demonstration. The people were celebrating the inauguration of a new water system by which the water of the Long Pond was conveyed into the city of Boston. The procession covered a distance of seven miles, requiring two and a half hours to pass any given point. Of that occasion Elder Woodruff writes: "At the close of the speeches the mayor arose and said: 'Fellow citizens, it is proposed that the water of Lake Cochitreate be admitted into the city of Boston. All those who favor it say, 'aye.' The response was in a voice of thunder. At a given signal a column of water 8 feet in diameter shot up 80 feet in the air and fell into a great reservoir." In the evening there were fire-works and other illuminations. This was considered at this time the grandest celebration ever witnessed in any American city.

On the following day, October 26th, Elder Woodruff went to New Bedford with Brother Nathaniel Coray. It was there he read with feelings of deep sorrow the burning of the Nauvoo Temple by a mob. He then went to Maine where he had parted from his wife earlier in the year, and returned with her to Cambridgeport on the 17th of November. Here he took a house for his family, and finished the labors of the year in Boston and its vicinity. Here he compiled a brief account of the current events among the nations of the earth. He read history in the light of God's recent revelations, and out of it he extracted the signs of the times.

The year had been a trying one to the Saints in Utah who were greatly distressed because of the cricket plague, from which, however, they were measurably relieved by the miraculous destruction of these insects by the sea-gulls.

Gold had been discovered in California by members of the Mormon Battalion, and by others, a circumstance which created a feverish excitement throughout the Eastern States. The rush to California again brought the Saints in Utah into conspicuous relations with the outside world. That meant financial relief to the people in Salt Lake City. In his journal he records the fact that Captain Dan Jones by his labors in Wales was adding to the Church many persons each month. Elder Orson Spencer gave very encouraging accounts of the work throughout the British Isles.

It was at this time that Almon Babbit called upon Elder Woodruff and sought to induce him to go to Washington for the purpose of accomplishing certain things which he said would be favorable to the Latter-day Saints. "After hearing him, I concluded that he was working on his own account and without the counsel of the President of the Church. I therefore concluded that my health, calling, and the spirit within me would not permit me to leave the mission upon which I was sent, to go to Washington." Subsequent events proved the correctness of his impressions.

Concerning the events of the year he remarks: "At home new towns were laid out, both to the north and south of Salt Lake City. Elders were arriving from the Sandwich Islands. Walker, the Indian chief, visited the Saints in the Valley and expressed friendship for them and his antipathy toward the Spanish. Brothers Brown, Browett, Allen, and Cox were killed by the Indians in the California mountains, while they were exploring the country. These brethren I baptized in Herefordshire soon after I commenced preaching at John Benbow's. Brother Browett had been an especially earnest, true Latter-day Saint, and I know nothing to the contrary of the others. They went into the army as soldiers in the Mormon Battalion and died in the cause of their country."