The Autobiography of Parley
P. Pratt — Revised and Enhanced Edition
Edited by Scot Facer
Proctor and Maurine Jensen Proctor
Chapter 14
Labors
in Clay County — Conference — Appointment to a tedious journey
— A case of healing — Arrive at Kirtland — Revelation — Travel
eastward, in company with President Joseph Smith — Conference
in Geneseo — Pleasing reminiscence —
President Smith and others return home — Visit Sackett’s Harbor — Crowded meeting — Requested to visit the
sick — A little boy healed — Baptisms, etc. — Miraculous gifts
— Lying priests and rabble — Visit my parents in Canaan, N.Y.
— Return to Kirtland.
November
8, 1833–Late April 1834
As the history of this horrible persecution
of the Church was interwoven with my own, I have traced it for
a few years in connection; in which I have of necessity digressed
from the main thread of my own personal narrative, to which I
must return.
After making our escape into the county of
Clay — being reduced to the lowest poverty — I made a living by
day labor, jobbing, building, or wood cutting, till some time
in the winter of 1834, when a general Conference was held at my
house, in which it was decided that two of the Elders should be
sent to Ohio, in order to counsel with President Smith and the
Church at Kirtland, and take some measures for the relief or restoration
of the people thus plundered and driven from their homes. The
question was put to the Conference: “Who would volunteer to perform
so great a journey?”
The poverty of all, and the inclement season
of the year made all hesitate. At length Lyman Wight and myself
offered our services, which were readily accepted. I was at this
time entirely destitute of proper clothing for the journey; and
I had neither horse, saddle, bridle, money nor provisions to take
with me; or to leave with my wife, who lay sick and helpless most
of the time.
Under these circumstances I knew not what
to do. Nearly all had been robbed and plundered, and all were
poor. As we had to start without delay, I almost trembled at the
undertaking; it seemed to be all but an impossibility; but “to
him that believeth all things are possible.”
I started out of my house to do something
towards making preparation; I hardly knew which way to go, but
I found myself in the house of brother John Lowry, and was intending
to ask him for money; but as I entered his miserable cottage in
the swamp, amid the low, timbered bottoms of the Missouri river,
I found him sick in bed with a heavy fever, and two or three others
of his family down with the same complaint, on different beds
in the same room. He was vomiting severely, and was hardly sensible
of my presence.
I thought to myself, “well, this is a poor
place to come for money, and yet I must have it; I know of no
one else that has got it; what shall I do?” I sat a little while
confounded and amazed. At length another Elder happened in; at
that instant faith sprung up in my heart; the Spirit whispered
to me, “is there anything too hard for the Lord?” I said to the
Elder that came in: “Brother, I am glad you have come; these people
must be healed, for I want some money of them, and must have it.”
We laid hands on them and rebuked the disease;
brother Lowry rose up well; I did my errand, and readily obtained
all I asked. This provided in part for my family’s sustenance
while I should leave them.
I went a little further into the woods of
the Missouri bottoms, and came to a camp of some brethren, by
the name of Higbee, who owned some horses;
they saw me coming, and, moved by the Spirit, one of them said
to the other, “there comes brother Parley; he’s in want of a horse
for his journey — I must let him have old Dick;” this being the
name of the best horse he had. “Yes,” said I, “brother, you have
guessed right; but what will I do for a saddle?” “Well,” says
the other, “I believe I’ll have to let you have mine.” I blessed
them and went on my way rejoicing.
I next called on Sidney A. Gilbert,1
a merchant, then sojourning in the village
of Liberty — his store in Jackson County having been broken up, and his goods plundered and destroyed
by the mob. “Well,” says he, “brother Parley, you certainly look
too shabby to start a journey; you must have a new suit; I have
got some remnants left that will make you a coat,” etc. A neighboring
tailoress and two or three other sisters happened to be present
on a visit, and hearing the conversation, exclaimed, “Yes, brother
Gilbert, you find the stuff and we’ll make it up for him.” This
arranged, I now lacked only a cloak; this was also furnished by
brother Gilbert.
Brother Wight was also prospered in a similar
manner in his preparations. Thus faith and the blessings of God
had cleared up our way to accomplish what seemed impossible. We
were soon ready, and on the first of February we mounted our horses,
and started in good cheer to ride one thousand or fifteen hundred
miles through a wilderness country. We had not one cent of money
in our pockets on starting.
We travelled every
day, whether through storm or sunshine, mud, rain or snow; except
when our public duties called us to tarry. We arrived in Kirtland
early in the spring,2
all safe and sound; we had lacked for nothing on the road, and
now had plenty of funds in hand. President Joseph Smith and the
Church in Kirtland received us with a hospitality and joy unknown
except among the Saints; and much interest was felt there, as
well as elsewhere, on the subject of our persecution.
The President inquired of the Lord concerning
the matter, and a further mission was appointed us.3 In fulfilment
of which we continued our journey eastward, in connection with
President Joseph Smith, S. Rigdon,
Hyrum Smith, Frederick G. Williams, Orson Hyde and Orson Pratt.
We journeyed two and two in different routes,
visiting the churches and instructing the people as we travelled.
President Joseph Smith and myself journeyed together. We had a
pleasant and prosperous mission among the churches, and some very
interesting times in preaching to the public.
We visited Freedom, Catteraugus County, N.Y.;
tarried over Sunday,4 and preached several discourses, to which
the people listened with great interest; we were kindly and hospitably
entertained among them. We baptized a young man named Heman
Hyde;5 his parents
were Presbyterians, and his mother, on account of the strength
of her traditions, thought that we were wrong, and told me afterwards
that she would much rather have followed him to an earthly grave
than to have seen him baptized.
Soon afterwards, however, herself, her husband,
and the rest of the family, with some thirty or forty others,
were all baptized and organized into a branch of the Church —
called the Freedom branch — from which nucleus the light spread
and souls were gathered into the fold in all the regions round.
Thus mightily grew the word of God, or the seed sown by that extraordinary
personage, the Prophet and Seer of the nineteenth century.
As we journeyed day after day, and generally
lodged together, we had much sweet communion concerning the things
of God and the mysteries of His kingdom, and I received many admonitions
and instructions which I shall never forget.
Arriving in Geneseo, we met with the other Elders who had started from
Kirtland on the same mission, and with others who were local,
and held a general Conference. Among those whose hospitality we
shared in that vicinity was old father Beeman
and his amiable and interesting family. He was a good singer,
and so were his three daughters; we were much edified and comforted
in their society, and were deeply interested in hearing the old
gentleman and brother Joseph converse on their early acquaintance
and history.6
He had been intimate with Joseph long before the first organization
of the Church; had assisted him to preserve the plates of the
Book of Mormon from the enemy, and had at one time had them concealed
under his own hearth.
At this Conference we had an interesting time;
public meetings were convened; multitudes assembled to hear, and
Presidents Joseph Smith and S. Rigdon addressed the crowds in great plainness of speech
with mighty power. At the close of this Conference we again parted
company, President Smith and most of the Elders returned home
to Kirtland.7
I then journeyed in connection with a young
Elder, named H. Brown, as far as Henderson County, in northern
New York, where lived Elder Brown’s father, and where there was
quite a branch of the Church. I visited with them for a few days,
resting from my toils and ministering among them.
Taking leave of these friends, I went to Sackett’s
Harbor, where all were yet strangers to the fulness
of the gospel. Leaving an appointment at a hotel that I would
return in a few days thence, and address the people wherever they
saw fit to assemble, I crossed over the bay to a country neighborhood,
called Pillar Point. In this neighborhood there had been some
preaching by our Elders; but no branch of the Church organized,
though there had been one or two instances of healing, and some
few were believing. Here I appointed a meeting for evening in
a school house; it was crowded full of people; indeed, all could
not get in.
As the meeting closed a man named William
Cory stepped forward, and earnestly begged of me to go home with
him and minister to his wife, as she was lying at the point of
death in consequence of a lingering sickness, not having risen
up in her bed for six days without swooning or going into fits.
He further said that he was worn out by being up with her every
night, and that his neighbors were weary with watching, and it
was doubted whether she could survive through the night without
relief.
The Spirit would not suffer me to go with
him that night, but I promised to call in the morning. At this
many voices were heard, saying: “Yes, yes, there’s a case in hand;
let him heal her and we’ll all believe.” Others exclaimed: “I
wonder if she’ll be at his meeting tomorrow! We shall see, and
if so, we’ll all believe.” Expressions like these, joined with
my own weakness, only tended to dampen my courage and confidence
in the case.
I went home with a friend who invited me to
partake of his hospitality for the night. As we entered his house,
we found one of his children very sick with a violent pain in
the head, to which it had been subject from its birth, and which
came at regular periods, and was never relieved till it gathered
and broke at his ear — so said his parents. The little fellow
was rolling from side to side in his bed, and screeching and screaming
with pain. I stepped to the bedside, and laid my hands upon his
head in the name of Jesus Christ; he was instantly made whole
and went to sleep. Next morning he got up well, and continued
so; he said that the pain all left him as soon as my hands touched
his head.
In the morning, before I arose, I had a vision,
as follows: I saw a log house, and entered it through a door at
the northwest corner; in the northeast corner lay a woman sick
in bed; in the southeast corner was a small door opening into
an adjoining room, and near it a stairway, where stood a ladder;
the fireplace being in the south end. As I entered the house and
laid my hands on the woman, she rose up and was made whole; the
house being crowded, she took her seat near the fire and under
the ladder, or near by it, and she praised God with a shout of
glory, clapping her hands for joy, and exclaimed: “Thank God,
I’m every whit whole.” I awoke from my vision and related the
same to the family where I stayed.
The man harnessed his horses, and with seven
or eight persons in the wagon, including myself, we started for
meeting, intending to call and see Mrs. Cory on our way, as I
had appointed the previous evening. On alighting at her house
I saw it was the same that I had seen in the vision; there were
the doors, the stairway, ladder, fireplace, bed, and sick woman,
just as I had seen and described.
I laid my hands upon the woman, and said:
“In the name of Jesus Christ, be thou made whole this instant.”
I then commanded her to arise and walk. Her husband burst into
tears; the people looked surprised; but the woman arose and walked
to the fire, and happened to take her seat near the ladder, as
I had related in the vision before I saw her. She then clapped
her hands for joy, gave a shout of “Glory to God in the highest,”
and testified that she was every whit whole.
We invited her to accompany us to the meeting;
she immediately made ready, walked out, helped herself into the
wagon, and rode some two miles over a very rough road. She then
got out of the wagon, and walked with a strong and quick step
into the meeting, where she sat till the discourse was over; when
she arose and testified what the Lord had done for her. She then
rode home, and was baptized in connection with several others,
who came forward and obeyed the fulness of the gospel. We afterwards laid our hands on them
for the gift of the Holy Ghost, when it fell upon them in great
power, insomuch that all in the room felt its power and influence
and glorified God; some spake in tongues, others prophesied and bore testimony to
the truth.
The next evening I went over to Sackett’s
Harbor in order to preach; many of the people from Pillar Point,
who had witnessed these things, went with me, and, among others,
Mr. Cory with his wife, who had been so miraculously healed. A
great rabble came out to hear, or rather to disturb the meeting;
and among others, some half dozen clergymen of different orders,
who were loud in their challenges and calls for miracles; “give
us a miracle — we want a miracle — heal the sick — raise the dead,
and then we’ll believe.” The lying, rage, and confusion excited
by these wicked spirits, broke up the meeting, and I had much
ado to get out of the crowd without being stoned or torn to pieces.
After tarrying a few days in this region,
I took leave and continued my journey as far as Columbia County, east of the Hudson.
I arrived at my Aunt Van Cott’s, and
found them all well; paid a visit to my father and mother; gave
them money sufficient to enable them to remove to Kirtland, Ohio,
and then commenced my return.8 I had started from the frontiers of Missouri
and ridden on horseback fifteen hundred miles.
As I returned towards the West, I came to
the town of Freedom, Catteraugus County,
N.Y., where President Joseph Smith and myself had preached on
our outward journey, a few weeks previously, and where we had
baptized a young man by the name of Heman
Hyde, as the first fruits in that place. As I called for the night,
I found that a large church had been gathered during my absence,
consisting of some forty members or more, principally through
the labors of my brother Orson. The new members, and the people
in general, rejoiced to see me, and aided me on my journey; and
Heman Hyde accompanied me to Kirtland, where we arrived the
latter part of April,9
and were kindly and hospitably entertained by President Joseph
Smith.
Notes
