45. ST. GEORGE TEMPLE DEDICATED…

45. ST. GEORGE TEMPLE DEDICATED

Visit to Randolph.--Governor Axtell.--Visit of President Grant.--Visit of Dom Pedro, Emperor of Brazil.--Dedication of St. George Temple.--A Grand Birthday Celebration.

On January 6th, 1875, Elder Woodruff accompanied by his son-in-law, Jesse Moses, left for Randolph, Rich County. Although the winter there was very cold he hauled wood from the mountains for the use of his family. He records that on the 17th of the month three men, while on their way from Evanston to Woodruff, had their feet badly frozen. With Bishop Lee he went to visit them and did all he could to save the unfortunate persons from the necessity of having their feet amputated. While in that section of the country he visited the Saints in Bear Lake as far north as Paris. On his return to Salt Lake City he met on the train, and became acquainted with the new Governor of Utah, Samuel B. Axtell. "I was much pleased with his sentiment and spirit," writes Elder Woodruff in his journal. Axtell was so honest and fair with all parties that the anti-Mormon element, whose tool he refused to become, by their opposition succeeded in obtaining his removal in about one month after he reached Utah. He was then made Governor of one of the southern territories. While in Utah, he spoke one night in the Liberal Institute, and related some of the iron-clad laws of the Medes and Persians. "God grant," he said, "that such a rule may never come to Utah." He was a man of good education and of refinement, and was fairly opposed to the corrupt methods of Judge McKean, as well as to those of other Federal officials.

On the 19th of February he went to York, terminus of the Utah Southern, where he met President Young and George A. Smith on their return from St. George. On the anniversary of Washington's birthday, February 22, that year he records the fact that he sealed for time and eternity the first Lamanite receiving the celestial marriage ceremony in this dispensation.

It was during this year that President Young was subjected {486} by Judge McKean to the latter's court indignities in consequence of Ann Eliza's divorce suit; and on the eleventh day of March 1875, President Young was sent to the penitentiary for contempt of court for one day because of his refusal to pay her alimony. Elder Woodruff went to the penitentiary with President Young and asked the privilege of spending the night with him, but was denied his request. However, D. H. Wells and Doctor S. B. Young were allowed to remain with the President. "This was the first time," says Elder Woodruff, "that President Young was ever confined in prison by order of any court." A few days later, March 17th, word came that Judge McKean had been removed and his successor appointed. "Glory Hallelujah, the Lord has answered our prayers and Judge McKean is removed out of his place!" Elder Woodruff wrote. Some time before this Elder Woodruff had written in his journal a prophecy of his in the name of the Lord, that Judge McKean would have his downfall and his disgrace. His words were literally fulfilled; the Judge became almost a cipher in the community. His health was shattered and he died of typhoid fever a little less than four years later in Salt Lake City. There is, perhaps, no more interesting study in Mormonism than the fate of those who have been conspicuous in the oppression of the Saints. Since the days of Joseph Smith men have sought popularity and honors by their bigoted efforts to solve the Mormon problem. To one of these so-called reformers has come obscurity, to another misfortune, to another disgrace, some have been handed over to the buffetings of Satan, and others have died in obscurity and unmourned.

Going back in the early history of the Church we find such names as Boggs, Hinckle, Bennett, Law, Foster. They are remembered only in association with Church history. To more than three hundred thousand people they have become a hiss and a by-word. Those not of the Mormon faith have no reason as they have no desire to do them honor. They are therefore left to the judgment of the Mormon people.

On the 6th of April, conference convened in the midst of a heavy snow-storm. The Church had grown from its membership of six to something like one hundred and fifty thousand souls. This conference was full of interest and lasted six days. At one of these sessions a Hawaiian brother spoke. After conference {487} Elder Woodruff and Erastus Snow went to Provo, where they held meetings and visited Provo Woolen Mills.

On his return from Provo he took up his work again on the farm; and on the 31st of May he recorded the return of his brother, Azmon, and wife to the body of the Church. The two brothers had not met for thirty-eight years, they therefore hardly knew each other. The light so long dimmed within him left him blind to the most important progress of the Church; although he had returned to the fold, there was a striking difference in the character of the two brothers. However, Wilford Woodruff was happy to receive Azmon and cheerfully assisted him in building a house in his own field, where now, Waterloo is located. In his journal of June 25th that year he wrote, that with Orson Pratt, Charles C. Rich, and Albert Carrington he assisted in laying the corner-stone of the new Z. C. M. I. building, and offered the dedicatory prayer. The co-operative movement, then inaugurated throughout the Church, received a great impetus from the establishment of this wholesale mercantile house, which has given a large measure of stability to all the mercantile institutions of the state.

On the 10th of July he went to Ogden and escorted some seventy eastern editors to Salt Lake City. Elder Woodruff's frequent selection by President Young to receive the strangers was largely due to the fact that he was a man of social instincts and friendly feelings towards all. Again, he was so sincere and so devoted to his faith that his words always created a strong impression of his integrity. Strangers liked him. There was nothing affected in his demeanor, or unnatural in his address.

The party on this occasion was escorted to the Tabernacle, where about three thousand children were assembled in a singing practice, preparatory to Pioneer Day of that year. He also escorted the editors to Clinton's Hotel on Salt Lake. Here a steamboat ride was given them.

On the 13th of July, in the evening, according to his journal, there was a priesthood meeting held in the old Tabernacle, where the subject of renewing covenants by baptism was discussed. The whole assembly voted to renew their covenants, and later the Presidency, the Twelve, the Seventies, and the Presiding Bishopric were baptized and entered into a special covenant to observe the rules of the United Order. Among them was this: "We will {488} sustain home industry and patronize our brethren who are in the Order, as far as possible." This movement became general throughout the Church.

On the 24th of the month there was a celebration in which twelve thousand people, mostly children, took part in the Tabernacle. "It was the grandest sight I ever witnessed in my life. The Tabernacle was adorned with one hundred and fifty thousand artificial flowers, and roses strung upon some three miles of cord. Mr. McCornick, late member of Congress, and wife, and other strangers were present. They were much astonished at what they saw." The Saturday and Sunday following, Elder Woodruff visited Provo, where a two days conference was held. At that time, August 1st L. John Nuttall was ordained the bishop of Kanab; George Halliday, bishop of Santaquin; Harvey H. Cluff, of the fourth ward, Provo; and John B. Maiben, of Manti, Sanpete.

On September 1st, 1875 Elder Woodruff recorded at some length the death of President George A. Smith. Concerning this counselor of President Young, Elder Woodruff, in his journal, wrote: "Time and death are thinning the ranks of the First Presidency, and the Twelve Apostles, and first elders of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. No man has ever lived in this Church who has left a cleaner and brighter record for both time and eternity than the Apostle George A. Smith. No man has been more diligent, virtuous or valiant in the testimony of Jesus Christ than he has been. He was an apostle foreordained before the foundation of the world to come forth in the last dispensation and fullness of times. He has well and faithfully filled his mission. He drew the first load of stone for the erection of the first Temple ever built by command of God in the last days, the one in Kirtland, Ohio. In all the trials of life, like Caleb and Joshua, he never murmured, he labored diligently to build up the work of the Lord to the day of his death. We were together in Zion's Camp; we traveled together on missions in the United States; we were ordained apostles on the same occasion on the corner-stone of the temple in Far West, Caldwell County, Missouri, in 1839. We traveled together in England, built up a church in London with Brother Heber C. Kimball. We returned together in the same ship, sleeping in the same berth. We have labored together for fifteen years as historians of the Church in {489} the same office. For many years we labored as members of the legislature. I can bear testimony that in all these labors and associations with Brother George A. Smith, under all these circumstances, an unpleasant word never passed between us."

On the 3rd of October that year he wrote: "President Grant is expected in this city, at 10 a. m. to-day. The city council appointed a committee to meet him. President Young and several of the Twelve Apostles went to Ogden in President Young's car to meet President Grant. Governor Emery and several non-Mormons went ahead as far as Echo to meet the President. When he arrived in Ogden the Utah Central Engine was attached to President Grant's cars. At this place President Young was introduced to President Grant by George Q. Cannon. As they shook hands Brigham Young said: 'President Grant, this is the first time in my life that I ever had the pleasure of seeing a President of the United States and of shaking hands with him.'" This was also the first time Apostle Woodruff had ever seen a President of the United States.

"Upon reaching Salt Lake City, the distinguished visitors were taken to the Walker House. Thousands of people lined the streets. Among them were several thousands of children. As they rode up the street, President Grant said to Governor Emery: 'Whose children are these?' The Governor replied: 'They are Mormon children.' The President, in a tone of serious meditation, said: 'Then I have been deceived respecting these people.' On the 4th President Grant, wife, and son visited the Temple Block where they went through the Tabernacle. Mrs. Grant and son remained in the building and listened to the organ while President Grant rode on to the hill above the City where he could view the valley. While the organ was playing, Mrs. Grant prayed for the people."

At the October conference that year, President Young presented in printed form his sermon on the resurrection, which was read by Elder George Q. Cannon. On the 9th of the month Elder Taylor offered the dedicatory prayer for the new Tabernacle. On the evening of that day twenty-five hundred men bearing the priesthood met in the old Tabernacle, where there was read to them the rules of the United Order. On this occasion Elder Woodruff in his talk to the priesthood said: "I see in my mind's {490} eye forty thousand men in these mountains bearing the Holy Priesthood, foreordained to come forth in this dispensation. Then I see in the vision of my mind's eye forty million devils gathered to make war against these forty thousand priests of the Lord. We have many bishops and elders who have but one wife. They are abundantly qualified to enter the higher law and take more, but their wives will not let them. Any man who will permit a woman to lead him and bind him down is but little account in the Church and Kingdom of God. The law of Patriarchal marriage and plurality of wives is a revelation and commandment of God to us, and we should obey it; but one says, 'If you do, Judge McKean will be after you.' What has given us a future in these Valleys of the Mountains? It is because we have obeyed this part of the Celestial Law of God."

On the 11th of October Elder Woodruff assisted in setting apart seventy-five missionaries. At that time eleven Lamanites were ordained to the priesthood. Closing his journal for that year, he said: "The future is before us and great events await us in this generation. The redemption and establishment of Zion, the fall of Babylon, the gathering of Judea and all the tribes of Israel, and the second coming of Christ, are all near at hand.

"This is the commencement of the Centennial year of the American Independence. One hundred years ago the nation was composed of an honest, industrious, Christian people, and the chief men of the nation were poor, honest statesmen, who lived to promote the welfare of the whole people. They established a constitution and laws, which were a glorious legacy to their descendants. By January 1st, 1876, a great change has come over the American government. To a great extent, virtue has departed from the land, and honesty has been driven from the various departments of government. Men seek office to aggrandize themselves rather than to serve the interests of the people. Death and destruction are sown in the land which is ripening for the harvest."

On the 22nd of April, Emperor Dom Pedro of Brazil arrived in Salt Lake City. He was the first emperor to visit the Saints. In the evening he went to the theatre, and on the 23rd attended a meeting in the 14th ward meeting-house, but left before the close of the services to take the train.

During the summer of the year 1876, Elder Woodruff traveled {491} through the various stakes of the Church. In Provo he wrote that he blessed Father Samuel Vincent, one hundred and one years old, and his wife ninety-nine. He also assisted in blessing Vienna Jacques, who is spoken of in the Doctrine and Covenants. At that time she was ninety years old. Much of the summer was also occupied in Temple work, a work in which Elder Woodruff always took a supreme delight, it was so in harmony with his spiritual nature.

In the early part of November that year, President Young and a large number of elder of the Church left for Saint George, whither they went to dedicate the Temple. This was the first Temple erected in Utah. During their stay in Saint George, preparatory to the completion of the Temple, President Young was in poor health, as he was nearing the last months of his life. The completion and dedication of the House of God in Saint George was to Wilford Woodruff a most joyful event. He saw in it opportunities which the Saints in earlier days had not been permitted to enjoy. In later days it became to him a haven of rest and spiritual strength.

There was perhaps no duty or labor in the Church more pleasing to him than the ordinances performed in the Temple of God. Its completion was a matter not only of special pleasure but of great pride to him. He had looked forward to its dedication and prepared his mind to participate, on that solemn occasion. He writes: "This is a very important day to the Church and Kingdom of God on the earth. President Brigham Young and members of the Twelve, with some two thousand Saints assembled within the walls of the Temple in St. George to dedicate certain portions thereof, that we might commence to administer the ordinances ordained of the Lord for the salvation of the living and the dead. President Young was ill and could not stand upon his feet."

At 12:30 on the 1st of January, 1877, Wilford Woodruff stood upon the upper step of the font and called the attention of the people to whom he spoke as follows: "We are this day blessed with the privilege which very few since the days of Adam have enjoyed. We assemble in a Temple built by the commandment of the Lord for the salvation of the human family. We have met to dedicate certain portions of this building. I realize that {492} this assembly is too large and too crowded to bow upon their knees, but all are asked to bow their heads and hearts unto God. All who are here are Saints, or should be, for none others ought to be in this holy Temple. I want the Saints assembled to repeat the words in secret that our prayers may ascend to the Lord of Sabbaoth, that they may be answered upon our heads."

Mrs. Susa Young Gates, daughter of President Young, was requested to take in short-hand the proceedings of the dedication. The room was so thickly packed that there was no place for a table. She, therefore, laid her book upon the back of one standing in front of her while she made a stenographic report of the proceedings, which included the dedicatory prayer that was offered by Apostle Wilford Woodruff. After placing in remembrance before the Lord the Temple grounds, the building with its furnishings, and the organization of the Church, he concluded his prayer as follows: "May the blessings of God rest upon all the elders of Israel in all the world. We pray Thee to remember in mercy the Aaronic Priesthood, with its bishops, priests, teachers, and deacons, who are appointed to be standing ministers unto the Church. Bless their wives and their children. Bless, we ask Thee, Thy aged servant, Edward Hunter, who is called to preside over the Bishopric of Thy Church. Thou hast seen his labors and Thou knowest the integrity of his heart. Clothe him with Thy Holy Spirit; fill him with the spirit of counsel and with consolation for his brethren. Preserve him in the flesh, as long as he shall desire life; and when he shall sleep with his fathers, may he rest in peace and may the works of righteousness follow him. Bless all the organizations of Thy Church and Kingdom. May Thy people accomplish the work unto which they are ordained, build up the Zion of God, and prepare the earth for the second coming of the Son of Man. Bless the female Relief Society throughout the land of Zion. May that organization accomplish fully the object of its organization, which was effected through the Prophet Joseph. May the society influence the daughters of Zion to deeds of virtue, holiness, righteousness, and truth. May the blessings of Sarah, Huldah, Hannah, Anna, and Mary, the ancient prophetess, and of the holy women rest upon them. O God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, remember, we pray Thee, the covenants which Thou hast made with all the house of Israel: {493} remember them in their abidings in these last days. We pray that in this Temple of our Lord Thou wilt make bare Thine arm in the preservation and salvation of the small remnants of the Lamanites that are left in the land. Deliver them, we pray Thee, from the hands of the Gentiles who are bringing about their threatened annihilation from off the earth. Inspire their hearts with Thy spirit, that they may receive the Gospel of the Son of God, that they may be prepared to build up Zion, and to fulfill the covenants and promises made to them by their forefathers who inherited this land. Remember, O Lord, Thy covenant people in the north country; hasten the day when they shall come in remembrance before Thee, when their prophets shall smite the rocks and the mountains of ice shall flow down before them. May the highways speedily be cast up in the midst of the great deep, that they may come over dry shod. May the everlasting hills tremble at their presence and their enemies disappear before them. May they come forth unto Zion and bow the knee, that they may be crowned under the hands of Ephraim, Thy servant. We hold in remembrance before Thee the sons of Judah; wilt thou show unto them mercy, since the blood of Jesus Christ has rested upon them for more than eighteen hundred years. They have been trampled under foot of the Gentiles and have been made a hiss and a byword in the fulfillment of the words of Moses, their law giver, and of Jesus of Nazareth. We pray Thee, O Thou great Eloheim, that their past sufferings may suffice. Inspire their hearts to return home to Jerusalem, the land of their fathers, and to rebuild their city and temple. Prepare them for the coming of Shiloh, their king.

"O hear, O hear us Lord in these our petitions and answer us from heaven, Thy holy habitation, and we will ascribe all honor, glory, and thanksgiving unto God and the Lamb both now and forever, amen and amen."

After this a dedicatory hymn, composed by Elder Charles L. Walker, was sung. The vast audience then moved on to the main room above the font, where a prayer of dedication was offered by Apostle Erastus Snow. The sealing room was dedicated by Apostle Brigham Young, Jr. In the assembly room President Young, who had been carried from one apartment to another because of rheumatism, now arose before the vast assembly and spoke in part {494} as follows: "I cannot consent in my feelings to retire from this house without speaking to this people. Perhaps it would not be prudent to say all I have it in my heart to say to those assembled. I will say a few encouraging things to the Latter-day Saints. We are enjoying to-day a privilege which but few have enjoyed since the days of Adam. Solomon built a temple for the performance of certain ordinances, but through apostasy little was accomplished therein. I will not say that Enoch had not temples in which he officiated. His people became so perfect that the Lord took them to another place that removed them from the presence of the wicked.

"The Latter-day Saints have been laboring for over forty years in accordance with the revelations of the Lord to Joseph Smith, who was commanded to establish the kingdom by gathering the Saints, by building temples, by organizing the people as a heavenly family upon the earth. We built a temple at Kirtland and one in Nauvoo. Joseph located the site for one in Jackson County and for another in Far West, Missouri. From these we were driven by ruthless mobs; now we have a Temple which will be completely finished in a few days. There is enough now completed to commence work. Those who can see the spiritual atmosphere can see that many are still glued to the earth. They are lusting and longing for the things of this world, in which there is no profit. While we ought to look after temporal things, we should devote them all to the Kingdom of God. Where are the hearts of this people; where are their forefathers? What are they doing for their own salvation and for that of their forefathers? If we were awake to this great truth, this house would be crowded from Monday morning until Saturday night. This Temple has been built in a warm climate, where the people, including the Lamanites, can come in the winter and labor for their salvation and that of their progenitors. What do you suppose the fathers would say if they could speak from the dead? Would they not say: 'We have lain here thousands of years in this prison house, bound and fettered in the association of the filthy and corrupt.' If they had the power the very thunders of heaven would resound in our ears. All the angels in heaven are looking to this little handful of people. When I think upon this subject {495} I want the tongue of seven thunders to awaken the people to action. When we closed the Endowment House many of the people of the north came to us crying. They begged the privilege to be baptized for their dead. They can now come here, do the work and bid the prisoners go free. I shall never be satisfied until Satan is conquered and driven from the face of the earth." When he made this last remark, he struck the pulpit with a hickory cane and drove the knots of it into the wood. The indentations of the cane still remain upon the pulpit.

Upon the close of the dedication, Wilford Woodruff was appointed to preside over the work in the Temple. This appointment was a most fitting one in view of the spirit of Elijah which had always rested upon him. He worked for many years in the Endowment House in Salt Lake. He was familiar with the ordinances and instructions which belong to the House of God. His whole soul was wrapped up in the temple work for both the living and the dead. Within the walls of a sacred edifice, such as a temple, he found comfort, joy, and consolation. Such work was more important in his mind than public honors, and the station and honors that come from the world. The first to be baptized and confirmed in the new Temple was Sister Susa Young Gates, who preserved for the pages of history in stenographic report a voluminous record of the dedication.

The opening day, two hundred and twenty-four baptisms were performed. Those whose services as administrators in the Temple were given, were Elders John D. T. McAllister, Alonzo Raleigh, and Henry W. Bigler.

March 1st of that year witnessed his seventieth anniversary. On that occasion one hundred and fifty-four maidens and mothers in Israel assembled in the Temple to receive endowments for the dead female relatives of Wilford Woodruff. The address delivered to those gathered on that occasion is given in his journal as follows: "My beloved sisters, I present myself before you this morning, not only with prayer and fasting, but with a heart filled with praise and thanksgiving to my Heavenly Father, for His many mercies and for His kindness to me this day. I am thankful to you also, my sisters, for a blessing of such magnitude as you are bestowing upon me. I do not suppose such a {496} scene as this was ever before enacted upon the earth. Ever since I have been working in this Temple, my mind has been exercised in behalf of the dead. I have a great desire to see my dead redeemed before I pass away.

"A few days ago I went before the Lord in this holy Temple, where I often go to pray. There is no more acceptable spot on this earth to the Lord than this Temple. While in humble prayer, with the subject of temple ordinances resting upon my mind, I prayed the Lord to open the way for the redemption of my dead. The spirit of the Lord rested upon me and gave me the following testimony: 'Let My servant Wilford call upon the daughters and mothers in Zion, and let them enter into My holy Temple on the 1st day of March, the day that My servant Wilford shall see the time allotted to man, three score years and ten. There let them receive their endowments for his dead kindred, and this shall be acceptable unto me, saith the Lord. The dead relatives of My servant shall be redeemed in the spirit world and be prepared to meet My servant at the time of his coming, which shall be at the time appointed unto him, yet not revealed to man in the flesh. Now, go to and perform this work and all shall be accomplished according to the desires of thy heart.'

"This was merely a key to me, a light burst upon my understanding, and I saw an effectual door opened to me for the redemption of my dead. When I beheld this I felt like shouting, 'Glory hallelujah to God and the Lamb.' I did not pursue this course, however, without first making known my testimony to President Young. Upon consulting him, he said that my course was proper; what I did was right; and what I received came from the Lord. He offered to provide several persons himself. In the assembly on this occasion were three of his wives and five of his daughters. I feel thankful to you, my sisters, for this manifestation of your kindness to me. Had you sought the world over you could not have found a birthday present so precious to me as this. If I can redeem my dead and save myself and family I shall be highly gratified. I feel that when we get into the spirit world, we shall see the importance of this day. I pray that we may meet with our kindred dead in the Celestial Kingdom of our God."

{497} Late in the afternoon, at the close of the Temple services, Apostle Woodruff was escorted to St. George Hall, where he was greeted by the large assembly of more than one hundred, who were to join with him around the tables spread with the luxuries of life. The chief ornament of the tables was a three story cake adorned with suitable trimmings. On it were pieces of satin, containing poems composed for the occasion by home talent, Mrs. A. Randall, and Mrs. Emily B. Spencer.

Those were truly his brothers and sisters who in common with him enjoyed the spiritual life within the sacred precincts of God's house. Such manifestations of their love and confidence naturally touched him deeply and awakened within him the joys and satisfactions of the sincerest friendship.

Henceforth his temple work took on new pleasures and brighter hopes. He gave to the work his undiminished and undivided love. He felt the honor of his new calling and nothing that ever came to him in life gave him more supreme satisfaction.

During his life time three other temples were finished, in the dedication of which he took a leading part. As the April conference of 1877 approached, he looked forward to the occasion as something out of the usual. It was convened that year in the St. George Temple. There were present, President Young, Daniel H. Wells, John Taylor, Wilford Woodruff, Charles C. Rich, Erastus Snow, F. D. Richards, and Brigham Young, Jr. Following this conference April 6th, President Young left for Salt Lake City. Elder Woodruff recorded in his journal that this was the last time that he and President Young ever met in the flesh. They had long been closely associated in the ministry. They had traveled thousands of miles; they had rejoiced and had suffered persecution together. President Woodruff, after the parting continued his labors in the Temple. President Young and party, on their way home, stopped at Manti, on the 25th of April, where they dedicated the ground for another Temple. On the 18th of the following month, ground in Logan was dedicated for a similar purpose. There was thus brought about the fulfillment of God's purposes wherein He declared, "I always command My people to build a temple."

{498} On the first day of June, that year, Brigham Young reached his 76th birthday. Apostle Woodruff, in behalf of himself and associate Temple workers, wired President Young, as follows: "Dear Brother: All officiating in the Temple join with me on this your 76th birthday, in wishing you health and happiness, and that you may live to see wickedness swept from the earth and righteousness triumph. Wilford Woodruff."

President Young's response read as follows: "Salt Lake City, June 1st, 1877. Wilford Woodruff. My thanks and blessing for the words of kindly greeting contained in your dispatch. I desire nothing more anxiously than to see wickedness swept away and righteousness prevail. My health is good. I leave at six o'clock for Provo, where we hold a local conference, commencing to-morrow. May peace, abundant blessings, and great joy attend your lives and labors. Brigham Young."

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46. DEATH OF BRIGHAM YOUNG, AUG. 29, 1877

Death of His Son, Brigham Young Woodruff.--Prophetic Utterances.--Baptisms for the Signers of the Declaration of Independence.--Death of Brigham Young Changes His Plans.--Funeral.--Visit to Logan.--Visit to St. George.--A Vision.--Old Folks' Excursion.--Zion's Board of Trade.

On the 16th of June, 1877, while on a visit to Pine Valley, southern Utah, Elder Woodruff received the sad news of the death of his son, Brigham Young Woodruff, who was drowned in Bear River. The young man was in point of spirituality very much like his father, and his devotion, therefore, to the Church was a matter of both joy and pride to Elder Woodruff, who looked forward to his son's labors in the Church with great pleasure. The young man was also ambitious in an effort to obtain an education, and devoted himself at home and in the university to diligent study. At this time Elder Woodruff had changed the location of his family in Randolph, Rich County, to Smithfield, Cache.

"We cannot always comprehend the ways and means of Providence," the father said. "There is a mystery hanging over this affair. I never saw a person more anxious to obtain an education than he, as he often studied until midnight during the past two years. I now feel calm and composed and reconciled in this bereavement. I have done, and am doing a great deal of work for the dead. It may be necessary that one of my family be in the spirit world to labor among those for whom we are officiating in the Temple of the Lord."

Upon the return of Elder Woodruff to St. George, he resumed his work in the Temple there. During this and the immediate subsequent years Elder Woodruff devoted himself with great diligence to the work for the dead in the Temple at St. George. Work-day parties were gotten up for him. Hundreds of people gave him a day or two days or more in the Temple in the ordinances for his kindred dead.

If it can be truthfully said of any man that he followed the {500} injunction of the Savior, "Seek ye first the Kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all else shall be added thereto," it may be truthfully said of Wilford Woodruff. In his journal he wrote at that time: "I have passed through the whole history of the Church from the day I embraced the gospel until now; and after so long a time and such experience, I wish to bear my testimony that Joseph Smith was a Prophet of God, ordained from before the foundation of the world to come forth in the last dispensation of the fullness of times to lay the foundation of the Church and Kingdom of God on the earth, and his life was preserved against every foe by the power of God until he accomplished all that his Maker ordained him to do, then he sealed his testimony with his blood, and that testimony is in force upon all the world.

"I am now called to preside over the only Temple there is on the earth, built for the salvation of the living and the dead. There are but a few of us living who were in Zion's Camp. I will here say that God has inspired me to keep a journal and write the history of this Church, and I warn the future historians to give credence to my history; for my testimony is true, and the truth of its record will be manifest in the world to come. All the words of the Lord will be fulfilled upon the nations, which are written in this book. The American nation will be broken in pieces like a potter's vessel, and will be cast down to hell if it does not repent,--and this, because of murders, whoredoms, wickedness, and all manner of abominations, for the Lord has spoken it. Awake, therefore, O Zion, to the coming of the Son of Man. Let the people sanctify and purify themselves before the Lord, and be prepared for the redemption of Zion and the coming of the Son of God, for His coming is at the door, and will overtake the world like a thief in the night."

There is throughout the journal of Wilford Woodruff that continuous spirit which manifests itself in the revelations and head-dealings of God. His spirit is like that of the prophets and patriarchs of old, and what he has written day by day represents the spirit of the times and is in response to the needs of the hour. He was always in close touch with the Prophet and was always in harmony with his divine calling. There may be traced throughout the journal of this remarkable man a certain devotion to those fundamental principles which God revealed in the establishment {501} of the Church in this dispensation. These principles gave him his guiding star, and by them he interpreted the history of the world and its destinies. He was not overtaken by vagaries, and he never had a thought of stamping his own personality on anything that he did or said. He was always impressionable to the spirit. His journal, therefore, is a storehouse of beautiful and convincing testimonies; for his testimonies beget faith and lead to a better and more exalted life. Elder Woodruff lays bare his spirit in his journal day by day, and it is the same humble devoted childlike faith from the first to the last page.

Leaving St. George, Elder Woodruff made a tour of the settlements in southern Utah. He celebrated the 24th of July in the State House at Fillmore. On this tour, he, for the first time, visited the beautiful Panguitch Lake. He was a great lover of scenic beauty. The work of God was no less precious to him than the word of God. At that lake he also enjoyed the opportunity of his favorite pastime, fishing for trout. He was a great fisher and hunter, both of game and men.

After his return to St. George on the 21st of August, that year, he was baptized for the signers of the Declaration of Independence and other notable patriots in the history of his country. It was a part of his loyalty to the United States to crave God's blessing upon the men and women who had laid the foundation of free institutions. To his mind they were all the instruments of a divine purpose, and he sought their welfare according to the light and intelligence which God had given him.

His work in the Temple was suddenly disturbed by a telegram stating that President Young had died at four o'clock p. m. August 29th, 1877. He, therefore, in company with Erastus Snow, hastened by private conveyance and stage to York, the railroad terminus, that they might reach Salt Lake City as soon as possible. A distance of three hundred and forty miles was covered in two and a half days, though Elder Woodruff at that time was over seventy years old. On reaching Salt Lake they immediately went to the Tabernacle where the remains of President Young lay in state. From his journal we learn that something like twenty-five thousand people took a parting look at the remains of the dead Prophet. At his funeral Elder Woodruff spoke. Perhaps no man in the Church knew Brigham Young better than he knew him. {502} They were pioneers together, and spent months and years together preaching the gospel and compiling Church history.

This change brought the quorum of the Twelve Apostles, with John Taylor at the head, in control of Church affairs. The following September, Elder Woodruff visited Logan, where he took part in laying the corner-stones of the Temple, concern-whose erection he had prophesied many years before. Temple work was now the burden of his thought and discourse; and at the following October Conference he talked at great length of his labors in the St. George Temple, where, he said, between the first of June and the first of September twenty-three thousand nine hundred and eighty-nine baptisms for the dead had been performed. He was now also joyful in anticipation of the Temple which was to be built in Manti. This location on the hill overlooking the country made him feel, when its erection was completed, that it was truly the mountain of the Lord's House.

During this year repeated mention of his work on the farm is made in his journal, though at the time he had passed three score and ten years of life. He loved farm work and devoted to it much thought. With him it was all in the purpose of God and his devotion never flagged whether he was on the farm, in the canyon, or in the pulpit. His Church duties, however, as time went on, weighed more heavily upon him, and on the 15th of December, that year, he resigned his position as President of the Deseret Agricultural and Manufacturing Society, a place he had occupied with zeal, interest, and honor, as well as with ability, for fifteen years.

On Christmas of that year he made note of the joy he found over the privilege of being at home with his wives and children, whose happiness and welfare were matters of great satisfaction to him. He watches them take their presents from the Christmas tree, and he enters into the childish joy of his little children with a tender and fatherly love. It would swell beyond due proportions his biography to recount his movements to the different parts of the Church, and the daily duties of his life. Elder Woodruff was an excessively busy man. He was always looking for something to do, and he never had any difficulty in finding it. His constant travels and administrations among the Saints made him to them one of the most familiar figures among their leaders.

Early in January he set out on a mission to the southern settlements {503} and St. George, which he reached on the 22nd of the month. There, he again took up his labors in the Temple. The people there knew how happy Temple work made him and they turned out in great numbers to render him assistance in the work he had planned to do for his kindred dead.

It was at this time that he paid his first visit to Kanab, going by way of Rockville and Grafton. He calls the Hurricane Hill there the worst hill he ever drove a team up in his life. He and his companions camped for the night on the summit. He slept on the ground. The next morning he encountered a heavy snow-storm which continued until noon. At night they reached Pipe Springs, a little oasis in northern Arizona. This was also the first time he had been in that Territory.

On the return to St. George he resumed his work in the Temple. Of that work he said: "In one year and fourteen days endowments had been received for ten hundred and sixty-two of my dead." On March 20th he returned to Salt Lake City by way of Parowan, Cove Creek, Richfield, Manti, and Nephi.

He wrote a brief account of the April conference. Here, it should be said that matters of general Church interest which were taken down by stenographers ceased to find a place in his journal, and he confines himself more to personal affairs and matters of special interest. In many places, taking it for granted that the facts are known, he made his journal simply a commentary.

About the time of conference that year, there were difficulties between the heirs of President Young and the Church over the estate of the late President. "I will say," he wrote, in his journal, "for and in behalf of the executors of the estate of Brigham Young; namely, George Q. Cannon, Brigham Young, Jr., and Albert Carrington, that they have done all in their power to settle this estate in justice, equity and righteousness." In those trying difficulties Elder Woodruff acted as a peace-maker.

The year 1878 began to witness some of those beautiful outings, designated "The Old Folks' Excursion." The early history of the Church was beginning to crystallize in beauty and importance. To the Latter-day Saints, the men and women who had borne the burden of those early days were veterans of distinction, and the people loved to honor them; besides there is something in the spirit and teachings of Mormonism that calls forth reverence {504} and honor for old age. There is within the Latter-day Saints a marked disposition to manifest gratitude. On the 11th of June, that year, thirteen cars conveyed the aged veterans, men and women, to Ogden, where they were received by a hundred and twenty-five conveyances and taken to Farr's Grove. Since then, these outings have become frequent and general throughout the Church.

Elder Woodruff gives us some data of an Old Folks' Excursion in those days. He says that prizes were distributed for various distinctions. Mrs. Catherine Wilson received one because she was the oldest person present--ninety-six years. William Wilde was likewise honored because he was the next oldest, ninety-five years. Five sisters obtained prizes because they had yoked and unyoked two yoke of cattle and driven them across the plains. Five others received them because they had drawn hand carts to Salt Lake Valley. One woman, Mrs. Ann Moses, was distinguished because she was the mother of twenty-one children. Mrs. Elizabeth Taylor came in also for her honors because she was the mother of fourteen children and six hundred grand, and great grand children. Elder P. Green Taylor, fifty-one years old, got a prize because he had more children than any man present; namely, thirty-six. Nor was Elder Woodruff forgotten on this occasion. He received a prize because he had baptized and had been instrumental in bringing into the Church a great number of souls, something like two thousand. He tells us in his journal that there was a foot-race by William Barnes, eighty-nine; Elias Adams, eighty-six; and Thomas Edmunds, likewise eighty-six years of age. He says Brother Edmunds won.

On the second of September, that year, he said he took part in blessing a number of missionaries and of setting apart Orson Pratt and Joseph F. Smith for a short mission to Missouri to visit the Whitmer families and places of note in the travels of the Church.

The October conference of that year was held in the Tabernacle and at its close there began the organization of a general Zion's Board of Trade, of which the Apostles were made honorary members. Local organizations of the same character were effected in different parts of the Church. The purpose of this organization was to promote the temporal welfare of the people and aid them in acquiring the best markets for their produce by co-operative effort.

{505} On the 25th of that month Elder Woodruff records his visit with Senator McCrary of Kentucky and Mr. Hooper of Mississippi and other prominent gentlemen to the Smelting Works of Mr. L. E. Holden. Upon their return these gentlemen called upon President Taylor.

On the 28th of November, Elder Orson Hyde died at his home in Spring City, San Pete County, at the age of seventy-three. This left but one of the first quorum of the Twelve Apostles living; namely, Elder Orson Pratt. On the 30th Elder Woodruff attended the funeral. Proceedings of which are found in the Deseret News of Dec. 5th, 1878.

Closing his long description of the scenes of a remarkable dream which he gives in detail at this time, he uses the following words: "I saw a short distance from the Missouri River, where I stood, twelve men dressed in the robes of the Temple. They stood in a square near by and I was given to understand that they represented the twelve gates of the new Jerusalem. Their hands were uplifted while they were consecrating the ground; and later they laid the corner-stones of the house of God. I saw myriads of angels hovering over them, and above their heads there was a pillar-like cloud. I heard the most beautiful singing in the words: 'Now is established the Kingdom of our God and His Christ, and He shall reign forever and forever, and the Kingdom shall never be thrown down, for the Saints have overcome.' I saw people coming from the river and from distant places to help build the Temple. It seemed as though there were hosts of angels helping to bring material for the construction of that building. Some were in Temple robes, and the pillar-like cloud continued to hover over the spot.

"Later I found myself in the Ogden Tabernacle, where I was calling upon the people to listen to the beautiful strains of music there. I rolled over in my bed and heard the clock of the City Hall strike twelve." This was December 16, 1877.

{506}

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47. EXPERIENCES IN ARIZONA, 1879

In Arizona.--An Epistle to the World.--Birthday Celebrated in St. George.--Travels in Arizona.--Hunt with Pelone, the Apache Chief.--A Visit to the Zunies.--Travels with Lot Smith.--Dream.--Letters.

On New Year's Day, 1879, Elder Woodruff moved to his new brick home next door south of the Valley House. The old Valley House had been his first mountain home. On the third of the month, in company with Moses Thatcher, he started on a tour of the southern counties. One of the chief purposes of this tour was to organize local boards of trade. While they were at Nephi on the 6th, Elder Thatcher received word of his appointment to fill the vacancy in the Quorum occasioned by the death of Elder Orson Hyde. They reached St. George on the 20th of the month.

On February 7th Elder Woodruff found it necessary to go into exile because of the special effort at that time to prosecute those in Plural Marriage. "For the first time in my life I have had to flee from my enemies for the gospel's sake, or for any other cause. They are trying to arrest me for obeying the law of God in reference to Plural Marriage." To escape his pursuers he went to Arizona where he remained a couple of weeks, and then returned to St. George. While there in the Temple on Washington's birthday he wrote an epistle to the world, dated February 22nd, 1879, from which the following is taken:

EPISTLE OF ELDER WILFORD WOODRUFF, ONE OF THE TWELVE APOSTLES.

To the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, and to all the world, greeting:--

I feel desirous once more, while in the flesh, by the word of God and testimony of Jesus Christ, to bear my testimony unto you as the Church and Kingdom of God, established on the earth by the God of heaven in this last dispensation and fulness of times; {507} I also wish to bear my testimony to all nations under heaven, to emperors, kings, presidents, statesmen, governors, judges, Jew, and Gentile, and to all rulers, and the ruled who dwell upon the face of the whole earth. My testimony is this unto all men and nations, that you live in the day and hour of the judgments of God Almighty. You live in the day and generation when the God of Israel has set His hand to perform His work, His strange work in the latter-days. You live in the age in which God will bring to pass the fulfilment of that flood of prophecy and revelation which has been spoken by all the prophets since the world began, which stands recorded in the sacred books of divine truth; and the fulfilment of these revelations will involve the destiny of the whole world, Jew and Gentile, rich and poor, high and low, saint and sinner, Babylon and Zion. Therefore, prepare yourselves, O! ye inhabitants of the earth, for the hour of God's judgment is at the door. As it was in the days of Noah and of Lot, so shall it be in the days of the coming of the Son of Man.

I address myself first to the Saints of God, who have entered into covenant with the Lord and have been ordained unto the holy priesthood. If you are living your religion, and enjoy the spirit of inspiration, which is your duty and privilege, you know as God lives that Joseph Smith was a prophet of God; that he received the administration of angels; that he brought forth the Book of Mormon, and translated it by the power of God. You know he received the fulness of the Everlasting Gospel, and the holy priesthood and apostleship and the keys thereof; and that he organized the Church of Christ, the only true and living Church upon the face of the whole earth, with its gifts and graces, with which the Lord is "well pleased." You do know Joseph Smith, the Prophet, left his testimony upon the earth and sealed that testimony with his blood, and that testament is in force upon the world, and that testament is filled with the revelations of God, that stand upon its pages like flames of living fire, ready to be fulfilled upon all the inhabitants of the earth. In this testament the Lord has commanded His servants to go to all the world and preach this gospel of the kingdom to every creature, as far as doors are open. He also commanded His servants to visit New York, Albany, Boston, and all the notable cities and villages of the world, reproving them for their ungodly deeds, {508} and warning them of the desolation and utter destruction which awaits them, if they reject the testimony of the servants of God. "With you, saith the Lord Almighty, I will rend their kingdoms, for I will shake not only the earth, but the starry heavens shall tremble; you cannot see it now, but soon you will see it and know that I am God." You Latter-day Saints, do you not know these things are true? You do, and so do I, for the spirit of God bears record, and the record is truth, and truth abideth forever. Under the circumstances, what manner of men and women ought we to be? Are we prepared as a people for the great events which await us; which await both Zion and Babylon? Judge ye! What is our duty as Saints of the living God? It is our duty to humble ourselves before the Lord and call upon His name, until we are filled with the Holy Ghost and the spirit of inspiration, which is the light of Christ. Pay our tithes and offerings, keep the commandments of God and have faith in His word, remember and honor the ordinances we have observed, and the covenants and obligations we have entered into in the holy places and temples of our God. We should unite ourselves together in a temporal as well as in a spiritual point of view, as directed by the wise men of Israel. We should seek to build up the Kingdom and Zion of our God, and not ourselves alone. When we do these things we are prepared as a people to let our prayers ascend into the ears of the Lord of Sabbaoth, and they will be heard and answered upon our heads. Again, this testament which Joseph Smith left, contains a revelation and commandment from God, out of heaven, concerning the patriarchal order of marriage. The Lord has commanded us to have our wives and children sealed to us, for time and eternity, that we may have them with us in our family organizations in the resurrection to dwell with us forever in the eternal worlds, that we may have an increase of posterity forever in connection with Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and all the ancient patriarchs. I would say to all Israel, treat your wives and children kindly, and keep the commandments of God and trust in Him, and He will fight your battles. And I will say, in the name of Jesus Christ, the Son of the living God, that "Mormonism" will live and prosper, Zion will flourish, and the Kingdom of God will stand in power and glory and dominion as Daniel saw it, when this nation is broken to pieces as a potter's vessel and laid in the {509} dust, and brought to judgment, or God never spoke by my mouth. Therefore I say to all the Saints throughout the world, be faithful and true to your God and to your religion, to your families and to yourselves. Jesus of Nazareth has suffered death on the cross for the redemption of the world, and his apostles followed his example for the word of the Lord and testimony of Jesus Christ, and Joseph Smith proved to God, angels, and men that he would and did abide in his covenants unto death, and none of us shall be called to do anything more. We certainly, any of us, would be ashamed to deny the faith, to accommodate our enemies, then meet the prophets and apostles in the spirit world. May God forbid that this should be the case with any of the blood of Ephraim. I wish in this testimony to say that the time is not far distant when the rich men among the Jews will be called upon to use their abundant wealth to gather the dispersed of Judah, and purchase the ancient dwelling places of their fathers in and about Jerusalem, and rebuild the holy city and temple.

For the fulness of the Gentiles has come in, and the Lord has decreed that the Jews should be gathered from all the Gentile nations where they have been driven, into their own land, in fulfillment of the words of Moses their law-giver. And this is the will of your great Eloheim, O house of Judah, and whenever you shall be called upon to perform this work, the God of Israel will help you. You have a great future and destiny before you and you cannot avoid fulfilling it; you are the royal chosen seed, and the God of your father's house has kept you distinct as a nation for eighteen hundred years, under all the oppression of the whole Gentile world. You may not wait until you believe on Jesus of Nazareth, but when you meet with Shiloh your king, you will know him; your destiny is marked out, you cannot avoid it. It is true that after you return and gather your nation home, and rebuild your City and Temple, that the Gentiles may gather together their armies to go against you to battle, to take you a prey and to take you as a spoil, which they will do, for the words of your prophets must be fulfilled; but when this affliction comes, the living God, that led Moses through the wilderness, will deliver you, and your Shiloh will come and stand in your midst and will fight your battles; and you will know him, and the afflictions of the Jews will be at an end, while the destruction of the Gentiles will be so {510} great that it will take the whole house of Israel who are gathered about Jerusalem, seven months to bury the dead of their enemies, and the weapons of war will last them seven years for fuel, so that they need not go to any forest for wood. These are tremendous sayings--who can bear them? Nevertheless they are true, and will be fulfilled, according to the sayings of Ezekiel, Zechariah, and other prophets. Though the heavens and the earth pass away, not one jot or tittle will fall unfulfilled.

I would say to the Lamanites, if I could speak to them understandingly, that you are also a branch of the house of Israel, and chiefly of the house of Joseph, and your forefathers have fallen through the same examples of unbelief and sins, as have the Jews, and you, as their posterity, have wandered in sin and darkness for many generations; and you, like the Jews, have been driven and trampled under the foot of the Gentiles, and put to death through your wars with each other, and with the white man, until you are almost destroyed. But there is still a redemption and salvation for a remnant of you in the latter days. It is time for you to cease shedding each other's blood or making war upon your fellow-man. Cease to destroy one another, learn to cultivate the earth, and raise your food therefrom; call upon the Great Spirit to protect you and deliver you from bondage and darkness, and the Great Spirit will hear you and deliver you, and a remnant of you will again become a delightsome people as your forefathers were when they kept the commandments of God.

Could I speak to the Ten Tribes of Israel, in the north country, I would say, call upon the God of your fathers Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, that your prophets may come in remembrance before God, that they may hear His voice and no longer stay themselves, but smite the rocks, that the mountains of ice may flow down at their presence. "A highway shall be cast up in the midst of the great deep;" their enemies shall become a prey unto them. Bring forth your records and rich treasures unto the children of Ephraim, the servants of the Lord in the land of Zion, and the boundaries of the everlasting hills shall tremble at your presence, and you shall fall down and be crowned with glory, even in Zion, by the hands of the servants of God, even the children of Ephraim, and you shall be filled with songs of everlasting joy; behold this is the "blessing of the everlasting God upon the tribes {511} of Israel, and the richer blessing upon the head of Ephraim and his fellows."

These events referred to are but a very limited portion of the revelations of God which are about to be fulfilled upon the heads of this generation. I wish to warn all nations of the judgments of God which are at their doors. Thrones will be cast down, nations will be overturned, anarchy will reign, all legal barriers will be broken down, and the laws will be trampled in the dust. You are about to be visited with war, the sword, famine, pestilence, plague, earthquakes, whirlwinds, tempests, and with the flame of devouring fire; by fire and with the sword will God plead with all flesh, and the slain of the Lord will be many. The anger of the Lord is kindled and His sword is bathed in heaven, and is about to fall upon Idumea, or the world. And who is able to abide these things? And who will stand when He appeareth? The fig trees are leaving, and the signs of all heaven and earth indicate the coming of the Son of Man. The seals are about to be opened, the plagues to be poured forth. Your rivers and seas will be turned to blood and to gall. And the inhabitants of the earth will die of plagues. And the unbelief of great Babylon, with the whole Christian world, will not make the truths of God without effect. Let the world look, for example, at the ancient cities of the nations. Where are Thebes, Tyre, Sidon, Nineveh, and Babylon the Great, which were built to defy all time, and all power but God Himself? They were laid in the dust and their inhabitants destroyed, when they were ripened in iniquity, and this too, in fulfilment of the word of God unto them through the voices of righteous men, who spake as they were moved upon by the Holy Ghost. In like manner was Jerusalem destroyed and the Jews scattered among the Gentiles in fulfilment of the words of Moses and Jesus Christ. Will the Lord any more spare the cities of the Gentiles and Great Babylon than he spared the ancient cities of the Jews? No, verily no. The question may be asked, why these judgments are coming upon the world in the last days? I answer, because of the wickedness of the inhabitants thereof. The very proclamation of the angel of God when he delivered the fulness of the Gospel as revealed in the Revelations of St. John was, "crying with a loud voice, fear God and give glory to Him for the hour of His judgment is come." And when that proclamation {512} was made to Joseph Smith the Prophet, it was half a century ago, "light has come into the world, and men love darkness rather than light, because their deeds are evil." The Lord has raised up prophets and apostles who have cried aloud to this generation with the proclamation of the Gospel for half a century, and warned them of the judgments which were to come, and the inhabitants of the earth have rejected this testimony, and shed the blood of the Lord's anointed and persecuted the Saints of God, and the consequence is this: "Darkness covers the earth, and gross darkness the people," and the Lord is withholding His spirit from the inhabitants of the earth, and the devil is ruling over his own kingdom and wickedness and abominations of every kind have increased a hundred fold within the last few years, until the whole earth is filled with murders, whoredoms, blasphemies, and every crime in the black catalogue that was manifest in the antediluvian world and in Sodom and Gomorrah, until the whole earth groans under its abominations, and the heavens weep, and all eternity is pained, and the angels are waiting the great command to go forth and reap down the earth. This testimony I bear to all nations under heaven, and I know it is true by the inspiration of Almighty God, and the decision of the Supreme Court of the United States bears me out in the opinion that the constitution gives me the privilege of enjoying my belief, and faith and opinion in religion. Therefore the execution of all these tremendous events I leave for the God of heaven, which He most assuredly will bring about. What I have spoken I have spoken, and I excuse not myself, and "though the heavens and the earth pass away, my words will not pass away, but will all be fulfilled," saith the Lord of Hosts.

I subscribe myself an Apostle of the Lord Jesus Christ, and member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

WILFORD WOODRUFF.

On his birthday, March 1st, Elder Woodruff was greeted by a hundred women and forty-eight men, who assembled in the Temple for the purpose of aiding him in the ordinances for his kindred dead. For that occasion Mrs. Emily Spencer, and Moses Farnsworth composed in his honor verses containing congratulations and praise.

{513} On the 6th of March, accompanied by Erastus Snow, he left St. George at three o'clock in the morning. They went direct to Kanab where they held a two days meeting, and then with William Johnson, and Brigham Y. Duffin he began his pilgrimage and exile among the colonies of Saints and among the Indians of Arizona. The following account of his travels is taken from the Deseret News, Weekly, 1879, page 314:

SUNSET, ARIZONA, May 29th, 1879.

Editors Deseret News:

As I have been traveling for a season as a missionary among the Saints and Lamanites in Arizona, and have taken observations of the country, men and things, I have thought perhaps a few dottings by the way would not be uninteresting to the numerous readers of the News. After crossing over the great Colorado River at Lee's Ferry, and crossing the hog's back, which seemed to be the most difficult and dangerous road for loaded teams to pass over that I ever saw, I indulged in the thought and hope that not many years would pass before a suspension wire bridge would span that river many miles below its present crossing, which would save fifty or one hundred miles of weary travel, and entirely escape the dangerous crossing of that terrible mountain.

We viewed the Colorado River far below the ferry, confined within its narrow bed by solid perpendicular stone walls two thousand feet high, which made the stream look quite diminutive. It being a very dry season throughout the whole country, the wells, tanks, and springs were dry in a great measure. It makes it very difficult for companies to travel this season owing to the want of water for both man and beast. The distance from Willow Springs to Moan Copy is some fifteen miles over a strange country of a barren desert of rocks, sand hills, mounds, gravel beds, and many curious rocks which look as though they were hewn, some of them twenty feet long by twelve to eighteen inches wide, and twelve to eighteen inches thick. The hills are of thin slate in a decayed state, rocks are in every shape of men, women, children, and palaces. The country is without water, grass, or soil, until we arrive at the Moan Copy wash bottoms which contain a large quantity of good land, covered with vegetation and soil suitable for wheat or any cultivated crops.

{514} The present settlement, in a fort form, is located on a hill a hundred feet above the cultivated land, in the midst of sand hills. A good spring of water is a hundred feet below the fort, the water is brought into the fort by a hydraulic ram, placed there by John W. Young. This saves much labor, as it avoids the necessity of carrying the water a hundred feet up a steep hill. There is a townsite laid out two miles north of the fort, called Tuba, which stands upon a plat of good soil, with good springs of water. A number of families are building upon the new location. I consider Moan Copy a very important location in many respects for a settlement of the Saints, as an outpost, and especially its connections with the surrounding Lamanites of the Moqui and Navajo tribes. I held many interesting meetings with both the Saints and Lamanites, and with the Indian chiefs at Moan Copy.

The great change which has of late come over all the tribes of Indians in Utah, Arizona, and Mexico, from war to peace, is visible to every observing mind and could have been accomplished only by the power of God. A few years ago neither "Mormon" nor "Gentile" could travel with any safety among the Navajo, Apache, or other Indian tribes of this country; while to-day any white man can travel, either alone or in company, with safety, if he will attend to his own business and not interfere with the Indians. Many of the Lamanites are uniting with the Saints at Moan Copy, Sunset, and other settlements in cultivating the earth, raising wheat, corn, and vegetables, and the brethren are doing what they can to help them. A young man by the name of Polakkah, son of the Chief Cashaby, has a prospect of being a benefit to his tribe. He speaks seven different languages, including good Spanish, and some English. He is raising wheat at Moan Copy, and learning English. He is intelligent, and active, is trying to understand the geography of the earth. The Indian tradition is that there is a new sun every day. But while he was trying to understand that the earth revolved upon its axis and we have but one sun, his faith was tried. While on a visit to San Francisco, he saw the sun sink into the sea and the water put it out. He could not see for a while how it could come out again, but being informed the earth was round, and the sun was hidden from view by the rotation of the earth, he became reconciled.

Brother John W. Young has established a trading store at {515} Moan Copy, and is furnishing the Lamanites goods for their wool and the brethren goods for their labor, which is a benefit for both the Saints and Lamanites. He pays a liberal price for wool and sells goods very reasonably. This brings the Moqui and Navajo tribes, both chiefs and people, to Moan Copy to trade. He has bought some thirty thousand pounds of wool this season, baled it up and sent it to Utah to be manufactured. He laid the corner-stone of a woolen factory at Moan Copy on the first day of May, and it, with its surroundings, was dedicated to the Lord. The walls will be built of stone; plenty of good rock can be obtained within a few rods of the building. The walls were being rapidly erected when I left. If the factory proves successful in its operation, it will be a great blessing to both the Saints and Lamanites.

In company with John W. Young and several other brethren, I left Moan Copy on the 17th of April, to visit the San Francisco Mountain country. We camped at night upon the Little Colorado River, and found the stream rather low. On the 18th we visited the Black Falls, where both the bed of the river and shore were composed of black volcanic rock. A short distance above, the river could easily be taken out, without any dam, to irrigate a good deal of land, supposed to be suitable for cultivation, and the surrounding country is very suitable for an extensive herd ground. On the 19th we nooned at the Grand Falls, the main fall we judged to be about one hundred feet. On the night of the 20th we camped at Turkey Tanks, which are composed of hard volcanic rock; the one we watered at is about one hundred feet by twenty-five wide, and ten feet deep; the water formed from rain and snow, was clear, cold and good; another tank, twice the size was about three hundred yards below. Our barometer gave the altitude six thousand nine hundred feet. The country abounds with deer, antelope, and turkey which drink at these tanks. We saw twenty antelope and heard the turkeys gobble before we were out of bed. We entered on the east side of that noble pine forest, which surrounds the San Francisco Mountain, and spent the night of the 21st at the Flagstaff Springs, eight miles south of San Francisco Springs. We found three men at the Flagstaff Springs, building and farming; they were raising good wheat, potatoes, early corn, squashes, and vegetables without irrigation, their altitude {516} being seven thousand five hundred and seventy-five feet. On the morning of the 22nd, we drove eight miles to San Francisco Springs, which have been purchased by John W. Young, who has erected two buildings and done a good deal of fencing; his house and springs stand at the north end of one of the finest parks, either natural or artificial, I ever saw; it contains about 4,000 acres, without stick, stone, or bush, with a soil as black and rich as the Missouri bottoms. It is shielded on the north, east, and west by the San Francisco mountains and hills, and open to the south, and is surrounded on every side by that immense forest of giant pine timber. I look upon this as one of the finest bodies of pine timber in America. There is no underbrush and the trees stand from 6 inches to 4 feet in diameter, and from 50 to 150 feet in height, and a good deal of it from 20 to 40 feet to the first limb. The whole face of the earth, both forest and parks, is covered with a heavy body of good nutritious bunch grass, even to the very top of the highest volcanic cones, that we ascended to the height of 10,000 feet, and there seems to be range enough to support tens of thousands of horses, cattle, and sheep. We rode our mules on to the top of a cone some 2,000 feet above the park, where we had a view of all the surrounding country, as far as the eye could extend, and we saw the same immense forest interspersed with parks from 100 to 10,000 acres. The altitude of San Francisco spring is 8,040 feet; still the men eight miles south, who had spent several winters there, said they had but little snow and that the stock kept fat all the year round. All this country abounds with game. Brother Young's men had commenced plowing to put in wheat and spring crops. We had to travel, as the road ran in a circle nearly all around the mountain, about 120 miles from Moan Copy, when, if a road could be located on the north side of the mountain to the Little Colorado River, Moan Copy could be reached in half the distance.

I left Moan Copy on the 14th instant to visit Sunset. On my arrival at the Little Colorado River, I found a great change had taken place; the drouth had almost entirely dried up the river for 50 miles; no water running at Black or Grand Falls, only a little found in pockets sufficient to water our horses, some herders having removed their stock from the Black Falls, not getting water for them to drink. Brother August Wilcken accompanied {517} me to Grand Falls, at which place he turned west to the San Francisco mountains. I continued on south until I arrived at Sunset on the evening of the 17th instant, where I was welcomed by Brother Lot Smith and many Saints. I here found plenty of water in the Little Colorado River to irrigate all the cultivated lands and to run to the grist mill. I was agreeably disappointed in the general appearance of the country surrounding Sunset and Brigham City. I could not have formed a correct idea of the country from any description I had ever heard of it. I found these two settlements standing on the borders of the Little Colorado River, surrounded by a large open country, which was covered with the very best of grass for many miles upon every hand. Ten thousand head of horses and cattle could keep fat without going many miles from the settlements, and there is a belt of good thrifty forest of cottonwood timber, a mile wide, for 50 miles up and down the Little Colorado River, and sufficient dry wood strewn along the bottom to supply the settlements with fuel for many years, without cutting any green timber. The cottonwood groves are sufficiently dense to give herds of deer hiding grounds all the year round. On Sunday the 18th, I met the Saints of both settlements, in the dining hall of Sunset, (some 55 feet in length) which was completely filled. I spoke to them during the forenoon and afternoon some two hours and a half; a good spirit prevailed.

The people of these settlements all live in the United Order, and eat at one family table. I stopped with Brother Lot Smith who is president of the Stake. I took my meals with him at the family table, the center table being 45 feet in length and the side table 50 feet, making three rows of persons. Each man has his place at the table with his family with him, the same as though he were with his family in his own house. Prayer is always offered at the table morning and evening before eating, and blessing is then asked. And this is practiced in all places connected with these settlements, at the sheep herd, saw mill and dairies. There seemed to be universal satisfaction among both male and female with this order of things. I conversed with several of the sisters. They preferred it to cooking at home. All fared alike, the president, priest, and people. If any were sick they were nourished. If any man was called on a mission he had no anxiety about his family, knowing they would fare as well as the rest. If any man {518} died his family would have a support as long as they lived with the people, and I must say that I felt in spirit that these settlements, in connection with Orderville, were living in the United Order as near as any people could in mortality, until a better way shall be revealed. I could see many advantages they had above those who were living, each man for himself. They were out of the reach of temptation to quarrel with their neighbors over water ditches, or over their neighbor's stock getting into their crops. They were all interested alike in the use of the water, or the preservation of their crops. All is theirs, stock and crop, as though one man owned the whole, and instead of eating up or wasting their substance, they are daily getting rich and are enabled to assist other settlements to bread and means. The presidents and leaders are as hard laboring men as any in the settlements, and, until I can learn a better way, I feel to say with every sentiment of my heart to Orderville, Sunset, Brigham City, Pleasant Valley, and every other settlement living in the Order, go ahead and God bless you; and, as President Young instructed the Saints who came to form these settlements, to get as near the United Order as they could; and as President Taylor and the Apostles advocate the same principle, I hope that all the priesthood will sustain, by their prayers, faith and influence, those who are striving to live in this United Order, until something more perfect shall be revealed unto us. It appears to me that the further we withdraw from this union into individuality of gardens, lots, orchards, cows, pigs, and chickens, the further we withdraw from the United Order, and the more we open the door for selfishness, temptation, and fault-finding with each other, the same as before we attempted to unite, and would open a door to give each man an excuse to spend his time in attending to his individual affairs, instead of laboring for the general good of all.

The Sunset settlement consists of 25 families, 24 men, 30 women, 66 children; total 120 souls. They have 13 men at work on the farm; they have put in 200 acres of wheat, 100 of corn, 15 of cane, 15 acres of lucern, and 5 of other vegetables, besides 25 acres of wheat for the Lamanites. They have 65 brood mares, 30 yearlings, 21 young colts, and 15 horses; also 30 oxen, 160 milk cows, 257 dry stock, not including this year's calves; also 1,200 sheep, and 500 lambs.

{519} Brigham City consists of 40 families, 38 men, 40 women, 122 children; total souls, 200. They have ten men on the farm, who have put in 155 acres of wheat, 50 of corn, 20 of cane, 10 of lucern, 5 of oats, 5 of potatoes, 18 of orchard, and 15 of other vegetables. They have 25 brood mares, 7 colts, 15 horses; also 200 cows, 150 calves, 70 oxen, 280 young stock; also 700 sheep, and 500 lambs. They have 40 wagons, a blacksmith and wagon maker. These settlements have a good water grist mill, carding machine, steam sawmill, and a good pottery, all in successful operation.

On the 22nd, I visited the sheep herd at McNeil Springs, in the pine and oak forests, 32 miles from Sunset. The house stands upon the bench, but the spring is in a deep gorge, so steep it is difficult for men to bring water up to the house. The water is guided into several large pine troughs, where 1,000 sheep drink daily. The wild cats are so numerous that it is difficult to guard the lambs by night from cats. We visited Pleasant Valley on the 23rd. This is the location of the dairy of the various settlements in the United Order, and is one of the finest valleys in Arizona. It is five miles in length, and three miles in breadth, covered with the best of grass, except a lake of fresh water which covers many acres, where the horses, cows, oxen, deer, antelope, and turkeys come down to drink. I was informed the deer and antelope came into the valley daily to drink, at times as many as a hundred antelope in a drove, and that this lake, both fall and spring, was covered with thousands of ducks and geese, the ducks remaining throughout the year. Orvil E. Bates presides over this settlement and is directing the cheese and butter making department. I took a horse-back ride in the evening with Brother Bates to take a view of the country. We saw 15 deer, 17 antelopes, and 5 gobbler turkeys during the day.

On the 24th, we held a meeting at Pleasant Valley with the Saints. Brother Lot Smith, George Lake, and myself addressed the people. A good spirit prevailed. At the close of the meeting we drove 10 miles to the United Order sawmill. We saw a dozen turkeys on the road. This steam sawmill is one used at Trumbull, and has a capacity of sawing 10,000 feet of lumber daily; stands in the midst of that vast pine and oak forest, some 45 miles south of San Francisco Mountain. I saw groves of white oak {520} from the size of hoop poles to three feet in diameter and 50 feet in height.

On Sunday, 25th, we held a meeting forenoon and afternoon, with the people at the mill. I spoke about one hour and a half, followed by Brothers Lot Smith, L. H. Savage, O. E. Bates, and W. C. McLellan; a good spirit prevailed.

On the 26th, after killing and dressing a large antelope, and taking a portion of the meat with us, we left our friends at the mill and returned to Sunset on the eve of the 27th.

I have had an interview with Brother Lewellyn Harris concerning his administrations among the Lamanites sick with the small-pox. He confirms as truth all that was published in the Deseret News concerning it.

WILFORD WOODRUFF.

On the 24th of June with Lot Smith and others he made a journey to a number of settlements in that district of the country. The 25th found him at Woodruff, a small town on the Little Colorado, that had been named in his honor. The people of the town represented in some manner the persistency that characterized the life of Apostle Woodruff. An existence along the Little Colorado, especially when it depends upon the permanence of dams constructed on its quicksands, is both precarious and difficult.

Elder Woodruff always had the happy faculty of adjusting himself to the conditions of people wherever he was. He was as much at home on the farm as in the pulpit or in the temple. He helped the brethren gather their crops and labored in the fields.

During the latter part of July, Elder Woodruff went to Snowflake where, with President Jesse M. Smith, he took up his labors among the Saints. While there, during the early part of August, he accepted an invitation to go on a deer hunt with Pelone, an Apache chief. On this occasion, though fond of hunting, he was much more interested in preaching the gospel to the chief and other Indians than he was in pursuing the chase. He says that when they were ready, the Indian painted himself with white clay, put on a striped shirt resembling the color of an antelope. The Indian likewise made his limbs take on the same striped appearance. On his head he put artificial horns, thus making himself {521} a decoy to antelope. Pelone and the Indians with him were told about the Book of Mormon and the promises of the Lord respecting their forefathers.

Of these visits Elder Woodruff related a circumstance as follows: "Pelone gave three young Mormon Elders the strongest rebuke I ever heard from an Indian. The boys were smoking and asked Pelone to smoke with them. He looked them sternly in the face and said: 'No, the Great Spirit has told me that if I would not smoke, nor drink whiskey, I should live a long time, but if I did, I should live but a short time.' I then said to the boys, you should take that rebuke to heart, and never again set such an example before an Indian."

Two days later Elder Woodruff had another talk with Pelone and one Pedro. The latter was also an Apache chief, the two being the principal chiefs of the tribe. The former had related to Pedro all that Brother Woodruff had taught him and appeared much interested in the message.

From Snowflake Apostle Woodruff made his way to St. John, from which place with Ammon Tenney he paid a visit to the Zunis and other Indian tribes, an account of which is given in a communication of September 15th, 1879, to President John Taylor, as follows:

SUNSET, APACHE CO., ARIZONA, Sept. 15th, 1879.

President John Taylor and Council:

DEAR BRETHREN:--I arrived on Saturday night, the 13th inst., all well and in good spirits and found Brother Lake, of Brigham City, and Brother Bates, of Pleasant Valley, very sick. They had been to the Verde, baptizing some and administering to the sick. Brother Lake has been looked upon as dangerous, but was some better yesterday.

In my short communication of the 2nd inst., I promised to give a fuller account of my visit to the Isletas, which I will now endeavor to do. I view my visit among the Nephites one of the most interesting missions of my life, although short. I say Nephites because if there are any Nephites on this continent we have found them among the Zunis, Lagumas, and Isletas, for they are a different race of people altogether from the Lamanites. I class {522} the Navajoe, Moquis, and Apaches with the Lamanites, although they are in advance of many Indian tribes of America. I class the Zunis, Lagumas, and Isletas among the Nephites. (See Sec. 3, verse 17, Doc. and Cov.) The Zunis are in advance of the Navajoes, Apaches, or of any other Lamanites. The Lagumas are much above the Zunis, and the Isletas are far above them all in wealth, in beauty, cleanliness, and order of their homes and persons, the adornment of their dwellings, their industry and indefatigable labors, and in their virtue, and in the purity of their national blood. Their bearing and dignity in their intercourse with strangers, and, above all else, the expansion of their minds and their capacity to receive any principle of the Gospel, such as endowments or sealing powers, fully equal the minds of any of the Anglo Saxon race. While I have been standing in the midst of that noble-minded people, teaching them the gospel, I could not make myself believe I was standing in the presence of American Indians or Lamanites, neither was I. The Isletas of which I speak is a village twelve miles below Albuquerque, on the Rio Del Norte, containing 3,000 souls that stand at the head of this class of men that I call the Nephites. They occupy forty villages, containing a population of 32,000, speaking sixteen distinct languages, but nearly all good Spanish scholars. I look upon this as a great field of missionary labor for some forty good, faithful "Mormon" elders, who should be able to speak the Spanish; and I hope next conference will call some of them, at least, into the field. I visited this people, located in their homes in company with Brother Ammon M. Tenney, who had visited most of them before, and I think has done much good in opening doors among them. He had baptized 115 of the Zunis on a former mission. My journey and visit with him was a visit of observation, and I was amply rewarded. In what way, I do not know, but in almost every village I visited, they were looking for me. I can only make a brief outline from my journal of our journey. On the 19th of August, we entered the Zuni village, containing about 3,000 souls. The village stood on a piece of elevated ground; many buildings were three stories high, and the upper stories were entered by ladders at the top. There had been a heavy struggle in this village between the Catholics and Mormon Zunis. The priests had done all they could to lie about the Mormons and had drawn away {523} a few who had been baptized, but others remained firm. I went through the old Catholic cathedral in the village; it looked as though it were 500 years old. It had two bells hanging in the tower and over the pulpit was some of the finest carved work in wood I ever saw, representing Christ, the apostles, and angels. I went all through the village and, for the first time in my life, I had a view of the white Indians called Albinos. Their hair, face, and limbs were nearly as white as milk, much whiter than any Americans. I met with many who had been baptized and they were very glad to see me. They had 2,000 acres of corn, looking well without irrigation. On the day following, we visited their village at their farm called Fish Springs. I was here introduced to Brother Juan Bautista (John Baptist), the first man baptized in the Zuni nation by A. M. Tenney. His son's wife was the most handsome woman I ever saw of the Indian race; had a beautiful child, nearly white. I went through their wheat fields, which they were cutting with sickles. We visited several ruins of the ancient inhabitants; some of the outside walls of stone were standing some eight feet high. On Sunday evening, the 25th, we held a meeting in a village of the Lagumas, called Mosita Negra. We had an interesting talk with the Governor of the place (Jose Carido), and the spiritual advisor (Lorenzo Coreo) and both wanted a meeting. They called the people together, men, women, and children. We opened by singing and prayer, and Brother Tenney spoke to them in Spanish thirty minutes. I spoke a short time. Brother Tenney interpreted and we dismissed, thinking we had kept them long enough. As soon as we dismissed, a Nephite arose, full of the spirit of the Lord, and said: 'Friends, why do you dismiss us and leave us in this way. This is the first time we have heard of our forefathers and the gospel, and the things we have looked for from the traditions of our fathers. If our wives and children are weary, let them go home; we want to hear more. We want you to talk all night, do not leave us so.' This speech raised me to my feet and the next hour was one of the best meetings we had. We all felt inspired, missionaries, Nephite men, women, and children. I spoke and Brother Tenney interpreted. I never felt the want of tongues more than on this occasion. I taught the things of the Kingdom of God and found hearts capable of receiving it. All were deeply interested and the seeds we {524} had sown in the hearts of that people will bring forth fruit. At the close of the meeting, the man who spoke in the meeting came to me and said, 'When you return, drive to my home and all your wants will be supplied,' which we did and held another meeting on the Sunday following. We should have baptized him, the Governor, and many others, I think, but the Governor who had followed us, as did the spiritual advisor, some sixty miles to Isletas, had not returned. The people did not wish to take any steps until their Governor was with them. On the following morning, my carriage was surrounded by the Governor and people that we had talked to the night before. Some of them took breakfast with us and I had to talk to them on the principles of the gospel and their record and signs of the times, until I left; and the leading men of the village followed us sixty miles to Isletas and stopped with us most of the time we were there. On the morning of the 26th of August, we drove through Frisco, crossed the Rio Del Norte, which we found very low, and entered Albuquerque, containing about 3,000 inhabitants, Jews, Gentiles, Americans, and Mexicans. I was introduced to Judge Parks, the U. S. District Judge of that District, from Illinois. I went through the city or town. It is quite a place of business. I went through the Catholic cathedral accompanied by an Italian padre, or priest. He took great pains to show us everything in it, robes of the priests and deacons; some robes woven from pure gold thread that cost $1,000.00. There was much more wealth than I would have looked for in as obscure a place as Albuquerque. We spent the day in the place and left in the evening and camped five miles below on the banks of the river. On the 27th of August, we entered the village of Isletas (Ysleta), being the day before the great annual feast of this people. Brother Ammon M. Tenney had visited this people three years ago and had made friends in the place. We called upon an old patriarch that had received him before. His name was Juan Reylocero (John King). He was glad to receive us. He furnished us with mutton, fruit, and anything we needed. He was one of the leading spirits, was one of the most influential men in the village, and was over eighty years of age; but by his labor and activity he did not appear more than seventy. It should be understood that the Catholic power has had dominion for centuries over most of the American tribes. This is the case with all {525} these tribes, as well as others, and the priests who now occupy their villages are mostly French or Italian. The priests who dwell in Isletas have had a hard contest with the old patriarch, because he had received the Mormons and their religion. He told the priest that he had his own rights and agency and no men should take his rights or religion from him; and they had not spoken to each other for two years. This spirit is manifest through all the tribes when the gospel is preached, and the Lamanites and Nephites throughout all the land are beginning to be weary of the Catholic priests and their religion. The inhabitants of Isletas stand at the head of these 32,000 Nephites; all the other 40 villages come to them for counsel. They have their own laws, police courts, and judgment seat. They are very rich. The man we stopped with possessed 9,000 sheep, 100 brood mares and horses, 100 mules and asses, 500 cows and oxen, a ranch worth $8,000.00, and $25,000 of other wealth. He rents many houses in the city, and he is a sample of many of the Isletas nation. They allow no white man or Mexican to mix with them in their blood; all their marriages are in their own tribe. Our friend (Reylocero) said the Americans had called them wild men. If they were wild, they were honest and virtuous. It was very seldom that a case of seduction of a wife or daughter was known in their tribes. Whenever such a case did occur, the penalty of death was executed and had been for centuries, until civilization was introduced by Americans, who had introduced seduction and corruption wherever they had a chance, and now, if a man were put to death for seduction, the civilization of the day would kill his slayer. In fact they were so much afraid of white men coming in contact with their women, that Brothers Tenney and Robert H. Smith, of the 15th Ward, Salt Lake City, three years ago, came nearly starving to death before they got thoroughly acquainted with them. They were not willing for these brethren to go into the presence of their women; but after the old patriarch had reached full confidence in Brother Tenney, he put his grand-daughter (a very handsome young woman) in his charge, as he was going away for a season, and a young Mexican wished to court her, and the old gentleman did not wish him to marry her. And as the people in that village had full confidence in him, on our arrival we were kindly received and entertained by all we {526} called upon. I look upon the Isletas as the most industrious and hard laboring people of any I ever met (the Latter-day Saints not excepted). This Nephite village has a field of corn ten miles in length and one in width. It lies north and south of their village, and is irrigated. The corn is quite as good as any I ever saw in Utah, and perfectly clean; not a weed could be found in a hundred acres. They have also twenty-one vineyards bordering on their city and 1,000 vines to each vineyard, some of them 60 years of age, all kept perfectly clean and loaded with the finest of fruit, and as heavy a crop as I ever saw in St. George. The vines stand from two to four feet in height and, in the fall of the year, each vine has a mound of earth formed around it, until it is covered out of sight. In the spring it is uncovered and the earth leveled. This is an immense work. They have also many apple, pear, and peach orchards, all ripe as well as the grapes. Isletas is occupied only by the Nephites themselves. There are no Mexicans or white men. The houses generally are made of adobe, cement, or concrete, and plastered. The outside walls are as white as snow, and the floors are made of mortar or plaster, very smooth and many of them very neatly carpeted. We saw some as handsome women and girls as could be found in America, barring their dark complexions. There is one practice that exceeds that of any civilized city on the globe that I ever heard of. No man, woman, or child is allowed to sweep a particle of dirt or dust from their floors into the door yards or streets, under penalty of a fine. It all has to be gathered in cloths or baskets and carried to mounds which are located in different parts of the city. The room we occupied was in the center of the town and the mound formed from the sweepings of the floors in that part of the town measured 150 yards at the base and some thirty feet high, which had probably been 100 years in collecting, for they did not appear to cart it away. I found in Isletas and in other villages of the Nephites the same kind of crockery and stone ware painted in all its brilliant colors that we find in the remains of their ancient cities, or in ruins of the ancient inhabitants. All of their water jugs and main crockery are of this material, for they still hold the art of making and painting it. We visited quite a number of the families in the village and were kindly entertained. Among {527} others, we visited Mrs. Pascual Avieta, a Nephite lady, I should judge 50 years of age, a large portly woman, with a large, fine home. Her floors were neatly carpeted, and settees were covered with Navajoe blankets, worth $15 each. She was neatly dressed. I was introduced to her by Brother Tenney and to her daughters and sons. She received me and treated me with all the cordiality that any refined lady could, and presided over her household with all the dignity and grace of a Martha Washington. When her daughters were introduced to me, after bowing and shaking hands, they very reservedly and modestly retired across the room, sat down upon a settee and listened to what was said in silence. The matron sat down beside me and conversed with great freedom. While the family could speak good Spanish, her son, a fine young man of 20, could speak good English, which was a God send to me, and I thoroughly improved it by preaching the Gospel of Christ and blessings of the Kingdom of God to him, which he gladly received and promised to deliver the same to his father and mother. The matron invited us into her pear, peach, and apple orchard, and grape vineyard where fruit was ripe. We feasted to our satisfaction, and repeated by invitation the same ceremony each day while in Isletas. The feast was on the 27th of August. There were hundreds of Mexicans from all the surrounding country gathered. The Mexican women and girls had their long trails. Most all the drinking, gambling, and fighting, which lasted all night, were done by the Mexicans, while the Isletas were in their homes with doors locked at an early hour. The Governor and leading men of Mosita Negra, where we preached, were with us and did not take part in the Mexican carousal.

Thus, dear brethren, I have given you an outline, merely, of the field of labor which I consider the God of Israel has opened unto us, and which I consider the revelations of God require us to perform. I think there is element sufficient for forty good, faithful elders. There is need for a goodly number of elders who can speak the Spanish language, or who will be able to learn it. I have already sent Brother Taylor a small list of names, including the Indian missionaries that are already in this country, as far as I can remember them, and if there are any in St. George {528} or southern Utah, or northern, who can speak the Spanish, or who will learn it, I would like Brother Taylor to consider them at the October Conference.

I am happy to be able to state that most of the settlements I have visited of the Saints have been blessed with fair crops of grain, notwithstanding the dry season. They were just finishing threshing as I left Snowflake. They will have over 3,000 bushels of grain, mostly wheat, and I am confident they will have over 4,000 bushels of wheat at Sunset.

I have not written anything for publication concerning my journey to Lamanites or Nephites of late, thinking it would not be wisdom to publish anything about our labors among the American Indians under the present state of excitement on Mormonism. I forwarded a list of names in my other communication, as missionaries. I forward a few more in this communication and those I send from here are mostly persons who have given in their names and are willing to engage in the mission. Some incidents occurred on our mission which were interesting to me and showed that the Lord was at work with and for us, to open the way for the introduction of the gospel among this branch of the house of Israel. But I have already lengthened this communication much more than I intended at the commencement. I learned of the release of the Apostles from prison from the "News," which has given joy to all the faithful Saints of the land. The devil is making a hard struggle to stop the building of temples, and the work of God, and the wicked are helping him, but, brethren, God reigns and will stand by you to the end. The lawyers, judges, and the nation are hastening to their doom as fast as time will permit, and they are sure of their fate. That God may bless you and give you the victory, is the earnest prayer of

Your brother in the gospel,

WILFORD WOODRUFF.

Brother Woodruff here in his journal, referring to his epistle in support of Plural Marriage, said: "I am composed and tranquil. I am in the hands of God, so is the United States Government. I rejoice in that epistle and in the testimony which I have borne to all the world. God will back up my testimony and the testimony of the righteous though the heaven and earth shall pass {529} away." During those days in Arizona, away from the turmoil and busy scenes of his former active life he had opportunity to give himself up to the inner workings of the human soul. It was not only an opportunity to rest, but it was an abandonment to the workings of the spirit of God in the wilderness of Arizona, from which he gave out some of the most inspiring utterances of his life.

Nor was his life there without some inconveniences and indeed some hardships. In November of that year he traveled with Lot Smith through the mountains where the snow lay a foot deep. The weather was very cold and the wind was piercing. They cut down pine limbs to make a shield against the cold blast, and made their bed upon the earth. The weather was so cold that night that Elder Smith, fearing his horses might freeze, arose and brought them to a big fire which they kept ablaze most of the night. It was on that journey that he records a visit of President Young and Elder Orson Hyde to him in a dream. He asked President Young if he would not address the Saints, and he answered, No, saying that he had done his talking in the flesh and that work was now left for Elder Woodruff and others to do. From the dream he quotes President Young as saying: "Tell the people to get the spirit of the Lord and keep it with them."

It was also at that time that he employed his leisure moments in reading McCabe's History of the World. He also helped the brethren in the fields, dressed buckskin, and did everything that came in his reach. The last days of 1879 were passed with John W. Young, and other brethren. They visited the different wards, held conferences, and gave encouragement to the people. In a section of country where material advantages were not the best, what the people lacked in worldly advantages they really enjoyed in spiritual blessings.

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48. REMARKABLE EXPERIENCES IN ARIZONA, 1880

In a Shepherd's Tent in Arizona.--A Revelation Given Jan. 26, 1880.--Organization of First Presidency.--Call to Apostleship of Francis M. Lyman and John Henry Smith.

New Year's Day, 1880, found Apostle Woodruff at the home of a Brother Greer at the Little Colorado meadows, Apache County, Arizona. He says he passed much of the day in reading and in meditation upon the past. His mind was also occupied with his present situation, and he was led to contemplate the future. The day following he went to a small uninteresting town about fifteen miles from St. Johns to a meeting. Judge Stinison was present at the meeting to hear Elder Woodruff in his discourse upon the divinity of the great latter-day work. On the 5th he rode to what was known as Perkins' ranch, where he ordained John H. Perkins to the office of a seventy and set him apart for a mission to the Lamanites. At this time Elder Woodruff was strongly impressed with the desirability of opening a mission among the Lamanites, and therefore set apart Elder Greer and Henry W. Despain for that mission.

After his visit along the settlements up the Little Colorado Elder Woodruff returned to Brigham City, and later took up his abode in a shepherd's tent about twenty-five miles from Sunset. Here he wrote letters to President Taylor and others, and was especially thoughtful of Elder George Reynolds, then a prisoner in Lincoln, Nebraska, Elder Reynolds having been convicted of polygamy. It was here in this shepherd's tent that he felt the solemnities of eternity resting upon him and desired to know the mind and will of the Lord concerning the Apostles and the nation, and especially the purpose of the persecution against the Saints of God. On the 26th of January in his journal he says: "I went to bed filled with prayer and meditation. I fell asleep and remained in slumber until about midnight, when I awoke. The Lord then poured out His spirit upon me and opened the vision of my mind so that I could comprehend in a great measure the mind and will of God concerning the nation and concerning the inhabitants {531} of Zion. I saw the wickedness of the nation, its abominations and corruptions and the judgments of God and the destruction that awaited it. Then I also comprehended the great responsibility which rested upon the Quorum of the Apostles. My head became a fountain of tears, and my pillow was wet with the dews of heaven. Sleep departed from me. The Lord revealed unto me the duty of the Apostles and of all the faithful elders of Israel." The revelation was submitted to the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles just prior to the April conference of that year. It was accepted by that body as the word of the Lord, according to Elder Woodruff's journal, under date of April 4th, 1880.

On the morning following the revelation, January 27th, he said: "I arose in the morning after the vision of the night. My heart was filled with joy and gratitude for a manifestation of the spirit of God to me. It was given by the inspiration of the Holy Ghost. I had read a revelation in the Doctrine and Covenants and prayed earnestly to the Lord to manifest to me His mind and will concerning myself and my brethren, the Apostles, and the Lord gave me that revelation in answer to my prayers.

"On January 28th I was again given a vision. It concerned the destiny of our nation and of Zion. My pillow was again wet by a fountain of tears as I beheld the judgments of God upon the wicked. I was strongly impressed that the Apostles and elders should warn the inhabitants of the earth."

On his return to the settlements from the mountains, February 1st, he writes: "I have passed eleven days in the mountains in the midst of driving snow, making my bed upon the ground in a shepherd's tent. I ate my bread and meat twice a day with thanksgiving. I drank the cold snow water and indeed have had the best of health, although when I left Sunset I had a severe cold on my lungs. I also passed several days in the saddle, from eight to ten hours a day, when the cold north wind was blowing in my face. I shall soon be seventy-three years of age."

Between the 20th and 27th of February with John W. Young he visited much of the mountain country where in places it was necessary to let the wagons down over the rocks with ropes on account of the rugged character of that region. On the 28th and 29th he attended the Stake Conference.

March the 1st was Elder Woodruff's birthday. The Saints of {532} Sunset and Brigham City honored him with their presence. About one hundred guests sat down to his birthday dinner. The Saints of that region were greatly devoted to Apostle Woodruff, and some named their children after him. His sojourn in Arizona during those months of exile disclosed more than anything else in later years of his life the spirit that actuated the man. Far removed from the busy life which the leaders of the Church were leading at the time, his mind was touched by the visions of God, and it was a time of spiritual enjoyment.

On the 3rd of March, in company with Lot Smith, he left for St. George, which he reached on the 18th. On his way, at Kanab, Elder Woodruff mentions the fact that Elder David K. Udall of that place was wanted to be bishop of St. Johns, Arizona, a position which Elder Udall subsequently filled, and later he became the president of the stake, a position he now holds. During his stay at St. George he refers to the many happy hours he passed in connection with Erastus Snow, James G. Bleak, Moses F. Farnsworth, John D. T. McAllister and others. On the 24th of March, in company with Erastus Snow, he left St. George and reached Salt Lake City, after holding meetings en route, on the 2nd of April. On the 4th and 5th of the month meetings were held by the Council in the Assembly Hall preparatory to the conference which began on the 6th of April.

The April conference of 1880 was one of the most important in the history of the Church. Fifty years had passed since its organization. President Taylor felt inspired to make it a year of jubilee to the Latter-day Saints. The people were, therefore, forgiven their debts to the Church to the extent of eight hundred thousand dollars, money chiefly due to the emigration fund. Unpaid tithing was also forgiven to the amount of seventy-six thousand eight hundred and ninety-nine dollars. Hundreds of cows and thousands of sheep were given to the widows and other worthy poor. The discourses at the conference were especially effective in bringing comfort and consolation to the Latter-day Saints who were in financial need. On the 27th of May following, Elder Woodruff wrote his last will and testament, as he felt that at any time he might be called to the great beyond; yet he lived subsequently eighteen years.

On the 24th of July following he wrote: "We had the greatest {533} celebration to-day in commemoration of the entrance of the pioneers into this valley that we ever held in Utah. A procession two miles long was arranged. It passed through the streets of the City as an object lesson in Church history. It is recorded in full in the Deseret News of July 26th."

On the 6th of October the fall conference was held. It was the third time in the history of the Church that the Presidency had been organized. President John Taylor, George Q. Cannon and Joseph F. Smith were ordained to that position. The vacancies in the quorum thus created were filled by the appointment of Francis M. Lyman, president of the Tooele Stake, and John Henry Smith, bishop of the Seventeenth Ward. On that occasion the voting was done by the different quorums and the scene was most impressive upon all present. Elder Woodruff was called at this time to be the President of the Twelve Apostles. The ordination of the new Apostles, however, in consequence of Elder Lyman's absence, was postponed until October 27th, that year. It had been the practice theretofore for the President of the Church to ordain when there was only one Apostle to be ordained. When two, the second was ordained by the first counselor, and the third, where there were three, by the second counselor. Apostle John Henry Smith, speaking of the circumstance, said: "I had secretly asked the Lord that President Woodruff might ordain me, and that if he did so I would accept it as a special testimony that my call to the apostleship came from the Lord."

His prayer was answered. Elder Woodruff records the fact that at the close of that year, December 28th, he was inspired to write a prayer to be presented before the Lord in keeping with the revelation given him in the wilderness of Arizona. The prayer was approved by President Taylor and was recorded in the journal of Apostle Woodruff and presented to the Lord in accordance with divine command. It was answered by the blessing and protection of God's people. The close of the year brought the Saints nearer to those eventful chapters that began in the year 1882.

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49. YEARS OF GREAT AGITATION, 1881, 1882

Leonard Hardy's Birthday Party.--Prophecy Concerning Joseph F. Smith.--Death of Orson Pratt.--Visit to St. George.--The Edmunds Law.--Oscar Wilde.--Conditions at St. Johns, Arizona.--Call of President George Teasdale, Heber J. Grant and Seymour B. Young.--Death of Captain William H. Hooper.

In the beginning of the year 1881 Elder Woodruff found it possible to enjoy the quietude of his home, free from the threats and undisturbed by the agitation of his enemies. He appreciated the liberties he now enjoyed, and so far as his own life was concerned, he characterized the New Year not by personal resolutions, but by prayer. He had no will of his own to carry out, but wanted to be in a position to do God's will. There is something about the prayers of Elder Wodruff that was on his part an intense interest in the welfare and happiness of others. He is always zealous for God and the Church; and those who were true to their calling had a special claim upon his friendship and love.

January 1st was the anniversary of Bishop Leonard W. Hardy's birth. The venerable leader had a well-earned reputation for integrity to God and to his fellow-men. In the sunset of life his family came to appreciate more and more the arduous labors of an honored sire, the anniversary of whose birth they now celebrated by a surprise party. Elder Woodruff was present and joined in the congratulations of the family and friends. Such occasions always made him reminiscent. In learning so thoroughly the history of the Church, he had also learned the history of those who were its representative men. He also knew, too, when their spirit was in harmony with the spirit of the great latter-day work.

As long as Elder Woodruff stood at the head of the Young Men's Mutual Improvement Associations he devoted himself specially to their interest. Like all those who are full of enthusiasm and have hope constantly enkindled within their hearts, he was naturally young in spirit. On January 16th that year he attended a conference of the young men in Ogden City, where he explained to them the importance of divine authority, and showed the meaning {535} of those keys which unlock the door of salvation to the human family. Those keys, he explained, had been in the keeping of God's trusted servants from the most ancient times; by them different dispensations were opened. He exhorted the young men to study the Scriptures. They were of all books the most important to the welfare and happiness of mankind. He also recommended to them the study of ancient history, wherein they might see the hand dealings of God with the human family.

On the 19th of January, 1881, the President and the Twelve, the Patriarch, Bishop Hunter, L. John Nuttall, the President's secretary, met in solemn council and prayer by which they represented to the Lord the needs of His people. They implored His protection against the enemy, whose growing power was an increasing menace to the peace of the Church. This meeting was in obedience to the Lord's command, given in the revelation to Elder Woodruff in the wilderness of Arizona. "It was truly a solemn occasion," writes Elder Woodruff, in his journal.

On the 21st he went to Ogden, where he took part in a social party, gotten up in honor of Eliza R. Snow, it being the anniversary of her birth.

The Quarterly Conference there, convened on the 22nd and 23rd, and it was on this occasion, after an address to the people by Joseph F. Smith, that Elder Woodruff arose and prophesied that the man to whom they had just listened would yet become the President of the Church in all the world. In his journal he asks that the prophecy be made a note of, and that it be made a matter of special record when its fulfillment was realized, which was October 17th, 1901, more than twenty and a half years after the prophecy was uttered, and more than thirty years from the time he made the same prediction in Nephi.

"NEPHI, March 22nd, 1909.

"About the year 1869, two Apostles visited Nephi and held meeting there. They were Wilford Woodruff and Joseph F. Smith. On Sunday morning they attended Sunday School, which was held in the old Social Hall. Elder Woodruff interested the children by speaking of incidents in the life of the Prophet Joseph Smith and of his labors. He then turned to Elder Joseph F. Smith and asked him to arise to his feet. Elder Smith complied. {536} 'Look at him, children,' Wilford Woodruff said, 'for he resembles the Prophet Joseph more than any man living. He will become the President of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. I want you, every one of you, to remember what I have told you this morning.' After this Brother Woodruff called on Elder Smith to speak. The latter said he could remember the Prophet, although he was then very young. He remembered sitting upon his knees. I was present on this occasion.

"Respectfully,

"LANGLEY A. BAILEY."

Early in the month of February we find him in Smithfield, where he was building a new home for his family. His journal shows considerable impatience over the delay in the work on his house. He was himself a man of action. Whatever he had to do, he went at with all his might. His presence, however, had the desired effect, and it was not long before his home was completed and his wife and children thereby made more comfortable.

On his return to Salt Lake he manifested great interest in the condition of Orson Pratt and Charles C. Rich, who were both in a critical condition physically. On the 20th, feeling that Elder Pratt's mission in this life was nearly ended, and to the end that his last days might close in peace, he gave him a blessing of comfort that he might be resigned to the will and purposes of God concerning life and death.

It was a practice with Wilford Woodruff whenever he gave an important blessing, to record it in his journal. In blessing Elder Pratt, he says: "It has been your lot to dwell as an Apostle in the flesh and stand in the Church and Kingdom of God longer than any other man in this generation. It has been your lot to cross the ocean to proclaim the words of salvation more than any other man. Let your heart be comforted. Let your soul be full of joy, for the Heavenly hosts are watching over you."

Before the close of February, Elder Woodruff started again for St. George. His associations there were always to his mind those of the most heavenly character. There was, perhaps, no place in the Church ever settled by a choicer class of men than those who were called to St. George. The men and women of that place possessed spiritual natures that were in harmony with the {537} life and aspirations of Elder Woodruff. St. George has, therefore, in his journal, a very prominent place. On the anniversary of his birth, in St. George that year, he says: "I have passed my birthdays in this Temple in the years 1870, 71, 72, and 74. My seventy-third birthday I passed in Sunset, Arizona. This is one of the most glorious days of my life. This morning there appeared at the Temple two hundred and thirty-nine persons for endowments. Many of these had come to assist him in his Temple work. He also records the fact that for his dead there had been performed two thousand seven hundred and forty-nine baptisms, two thousand and thirty-seven had been endowed, and seven hundred and five couples sealed.

On March 22nd he returned to Salt Lake. After the spring Conference of that year Elder Woodruff was prostrated by a sickness which lasted most of the month of April. On May 1st, however he attended the Quarterly Conference in Logan and held meetings in Smithfield, Franklin, and other places. The summer months of that year he was occupied in visiting the leading stakes of Zion, both north and south of Salt Lake City.

On the 2nd of July he expressed his horror at the shocking news of the assassination of President Garfield. Respecting the celebration of the Fourth of July that year he writes, that as a people they do not consider it proper to be celebrating while the President of the United States lies in the agonies of death, brought about by the hand of an assassin.

On the 16th he records the death of Joseph Young, aged eighty-seven years, three months and nine days. Joseph Young was at the time of his death senior president of the Seventies, and had been from the first organization of the first council to the end of his life.

October 3rd he records the death that day of Apostle Orson Pratt. At the funeral Elder Woodruff spoke at some length on the life of Elder Pratt, and read the revelation given through Joseph Smith to Orson Pratt in 1830. "Brother Orson Pratt has lived in the Church longer than any other man, perhaps he has lived in it longer than any former man could ever live in the Church. He has crossed the Atlantic Ocean sixteen times and has traveled more miles than any other man in the Church. He has preached more sermons; he has brought many thousands to a {538} knowledge of the truth. He had this revelation given to him which I have read in your hearing. He has lifted up his voice long and loud. He has done a great work and I cannot mourn his death. I cannot mourn over the death of inspired men who have died in the faith. Any man or woman who has kept the Celestial Law of God on the earth and has died in the faith will open his or her eyes to a scene of glory and blessings and eternal life that men cannot obtain from any other principle."

After the October conference, Elder Woodruff accompanied President Taylor and party to all the stakes in the southern part of the Territory. They were absent three weeks. That visit gave to the Saints new courage and awakened a stronger desire to attend to their duties. Elder Woodruff was present the early part of January, when the Gardo House was opened and a reception given on that occasion by President John Taylor, who shook hands with something like two thousand people. On the 8th he was also in the Assembly Hall when the Temple Block was dedicated.

In the early part of 1882 the Saints began to feel the effects of the agitation abroad against them, and Congress was beset by the enemies of the Church, who importuned that body to pass the most drastic measures against the Mormons. Throughout the United States the most vicious and absurd stories were circulated. The President and the Twelve made special efforts to get the facts before the country, and especially before the Congress of the United States. The spirit, however, of anti-Mormonism had worked itself into a state of frenzy. Ministers of the United States held frequent meetings in all parts of the country.

Under date of February 15th, 1882, Elder Woodruff says: "There has never been a time since the organization of this Church when such a universal howl was raised against us. The whole land is flooded with lies against the people of God. The government seems determined on the destruction of the faithful Latter-day Saints."

In the midst, however, of the political excitement, Elder Woodruff took comfort in that spiritual nature with which God had so richly endowed him. Nor was he forgotten by his faithful co-workers in St. George. On March the first there came to him the following telegram: "President Woodruff: Temple {539} workers of St. George greet and congratulate you on this your natal day, praying peace, length of days, continued usefulness, and the increasing power of the heavens to rest upon you." His reply reads: "Thanks for the greeting of my friends. May our friendship and union increase and continue throughout time and eternity." Such exchanges of friendship and such assurances of love meant much to him. He was a man of a most friendly nature and those friendships of life which his integrity won, he never lost.

The month of March, 1882, was an important landmark in the history of God's people. After years of constant agitation, and after the circulation of the most pernicious falsehoods, and after a campaign by the ministers of the country against the Latter-day Saints, Congress passed a law most drastic in its terms, and doubly so in the manner of its execution. From that period dates what has been properly styled, the Crusade.

On the 14th of March, 1882, the Edmunds Bill passed the House of Representatives by a vote of one hundred and ninety to forty-two. Elder Woodruff records in his journal, to their credit, the names of those who voted against the bill, and the states which they represented. Of the bill itself he writes: "It is entirely a breach of the Constitution of the United States; condemns men before trial or conviction by court or jury; takes away the right of trial by a jury of their peers; makes an ex post facto law and a bill of attainder; takes away from the Latter-day Saints, because of their religious convictions, the franchise, and deprives them from sitting on juries because of their opinions; but if the nation can stand it, we can. It is taking a stand against God, against Christ and His kingdom, and against His people."

Ten days later, the 24th, the bill became a law by the signature of President Arthur. The words of President Woodruff will be debated and contradicted. It will be pointed out that the Supreme Court of the United States, in passing upon the constitutionality of that law, is the final arbiter; and so it is, so far as this nation is concerned; but the Latter-day Saints held then, as they do now, that there is One who holds in His keeping the destinies of nations; One who is raising up a people to Himself, who shall practice virtue and righteousness. Whether the words of Elder {540} Woodruff were prophetic, or merely the expression of disappointment and anger, must be left to Him in whose name, and in whose name only, men have authority to prophesy. One thing is certain: the Latter-day Saints, in a spirit of resignation, have left the conduct of this nation toward them in the hands of God. At the same time, they have no desire to hinder the progress of this nation or thwart any patriotic purpose. On the contrary, they hope for the best, teach loyalty, patriotism, and uphold the Constitution of their country. They feel that men must come sooner or later to recognize the hand of God in His judgments.

When the spring conference convened, on the 6th of April, that year, there was considerable anxiety among the people; for with them there was a general desire to submit themselves to the will of God; and it is a part of their religious training, indeed, their conviction and testimony that there are properly appointed channels through which divine guidance comes to them. The words of their leaders at this conference were received with solemn attention and heartfelt determination. President Taylor spoke with great power and determination, counseled the Saints to keep the commandments of God and honor the constitutional laws of the land. On that occasion a reporter of the New York World and a correspondent of the London Times were present and listened to the proceedings of the conference.

Elder Woodruff was a many-sided man. He never surrendered himself or his interests to one thing exclusively. To him the program of life was made up of all sorts of conditions and experiences. From the affairs of the conference he records in his journal the lecture delivered on the 10th of the month by Oscar Wilde on "Art and Beauty." Elder Woodruff was slow to judge men and then only upon the most impressing convictions. However, of Oscar Wilde he said: "It was a very singular lecture, indeed, and he seemed a very singular man." His subsequent history proved him to be very singular indeed.

On the 13th he met with his council, when it was voted to call twenty young Indians and educate them in the Brigham Young Academy at Provo, that they might be missionaries among their own people. His heart was in the Indian mission,--the great possibilities of that people were so clear to his mind as to make him somewhat impatient concerning their future.

{541} On the 20th he said: "We received a telegram this morning from George Q. Cannon, saying that a vote was taken on his case in the House of Representatives. One hundred and twenty-three votes were cast for his expulsion, and seventy-nine against it. Ninety did not vote at all. His seat in Congress was therefore declared vacant."

Shortly after this he referred to his visit to the quarterly conference in Logan with President Taylor, whom he quotes at that time as follows: "When we go to the spirit world, we go naked, as we came into the world, or if we get any clothing it is as much by our dependence upon others as when we were born into this world. If we get a mansion in our Father's Kingdom we shall also be dependent upon Him for it."

Of Joseph F. Smith's sermon, he quotes: "Can we say that that which is perfect has not come? Are not the revelations and commandments of God perfect? Is not the gospel of Christ, with the priesthood which God has revealed, perfect? Although we ourselves have not arrived at that stage of perfection which it is our privilege to obtain, yet the means of perfection has been given us." At the close of the meeting Elder Woodruff said: "I went to the tower of the Temple in a rain storm and found the work there progressing very nicely."

Elder Woodruff kept in close touch with affairs in Arizona. His recent experiences there had endeared the Saints to him, and the opportunities among the Indians had made that Territory important from the standpoint of Church history. A number of Saints located in St. Johns, which was a Mexican town. In those days the people were surrounded by a class of ruffians known there as cowboys. There was also some friction between the Saints and the Mexicans, and altogether the people of St. Johns were subjected to considerable anxiety because of the contentious spirit around them.

In Elder Woodruff's journal we take the following account of a disturbance, which came to him through private correspondence. The event mentioned occurred June 24th, 1882. "The Mexicans were celebrating St. John's day, when several men rode into town armed with pistols and guns. The Mexicans ordered them to leave town or put away their arms. They refused to do either, when fighting broke out between the two parties. The Mexicans gathered {542} their arms and drove the cowboys into some unfinished houses. Three of the leaders were then taken prisoners, one killed and another wounded. It was on this occasion that Elder Nathan C. Tenney, one of the Saints there, was killed while trying to make peace and stop the fight."

On the 27th of the following September they met in council to consider fully all the vacancies in the Quorum of the Twelve and the First Council of Seventies. It was decided to leave the nominations entirely to the President of the Church, which has been largely the custom from the beginning. A little later Elder Abraham H. Cannon was chosen to fill the vacancy in the First Council of Seventies.

On the 13th of October the First Presidency and the Twelve met to receive the revelation of God to President Taylor, in which the duties of the Priesthood and of the Saints were set forth. In that same revelation appears the call of President George Teasdale of the Juab Stake, and President Heber J. Grant of the Tooele Stake to the vacancies in the Quorum of the Twelve, Elder Seymour B. Young was called to fill the vacancy in the First Council of Seventies and requested to keep the whole law of God as a preparation for his new calling and labors.

Concerning the Patriarchal Order of Marriage, President Taylor said: "If we do not embrace that principle soon, the keys will be turned against us. If we do not keep the same law that our Heavenly Father has kept, we cannot go with Him. A man obeying a lower law is not qualified to preside over those who keep a higher law." In harmony with the remarks of President Taylor Elder Woodruff observed: "The reason why the Church and Kingdom of God cannot advance without the Patriarchal Order of Marriage is that it belongs to this dispensation just as baptism for the dead does, or any law or ordinance that belongs to a dispensation. Without it the Church cannot progress. The leading men of Israel who are presiding over stakes will have to obey the law of Abraham, or they will have to resign."

On the 30th of December Elder Woodruff's journal contains the following: "I dreamed last night that Captain William H. Hooper was dead. I told my family this morning that when I heard from him I should hear that he was dead. Later, Brother {543} Jacques informed me at the Historian's office that the captain died at twenty minutes past eight. I saw Captain Hooper in the spirit world in my dream. I saw a few of the mansions in the Celestial Kingdom of God which were composed of beautiful stones and of materials that were as real as anything on earth, and that the best architects in heaven were employed in the construction of these buildings."

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50. THE CRUSADE OPENS, 1883-1885

Exemplary Deacons.--Adam-ondi-Ahman.--Visit to Colorado.--The Patriarchal Order of Marriage.--Andrew Burt.--Farm Life.--The Crusade Opens.--The Family Celebration of His Birthday.--Call of Jno. W. Taylor.--Call of Wm. B. Preston.--Land Troubles in Arizona.--Dedication of the Logan Temple.--A Visit to Snake River Country, Idaho.--Growth of Children After the Resurrection.--Call of John Morgan.--In Exile.--Conference at Fish Lake.

On the 2nd of January, 1883, President Woodruff and Joseph F. Smith spoke at the funeral of Captain William H. Hooper. He had occupied a prominent place in the history of Utah. Besides representing the people in Congress he was one of a small number of strong financiers, who had much to do with the material development of the Territory. On the 20th of the same month he makes mention of the appointment of L. W. Shurtliff, bishop of Plain City, to succeed David H. Peery as the president of the Weber Stake of Zion, at the same time Elders Chas. F. Middleton, and N. C. Flygare were chosen as counselors.

On the 27th of the same month Elder Woodruff attended a Stake Quarterly Conference at Nephi where George Teasdale had been called to preside. A circumstance took place on Saturday at that conference which was exceptionally gratifying to Elder Woodruff and he desires that it have a place in his journal and history. He said, "As the meeting-house was not large enough to hold all the people, some fifteen deacons gave up their seats. Leaving the meeting-house they obtained axes and went directly to President Teasdale's home where they cut up several cords of wood. They then went to the homes of some half dozen widows in the place where they cut up the wood they found there. They also cut up the wood at the home of one of the deacons who had met with an accident so that he was unable to cut his own wood. They continued in this employment throughout the day. When Brother Teasdale arrived home, to his surprise he found all his wood pile missing, but was much gratified to find it all cut up and in his wood shed. God bless such deacons."

{545} During the early months of 1883 a number of prominent men throughout the Church died. It was always a gratification to Elder Woodruff to record his testimony to the character of men who died devoted to the Church, true to their covenants and faithful to the last. He makes special mention of the death of John Van Cott, Bishop William Bringhurst of Springville, Harrison Burgess, Bishop L. E. Harrington, and David Evans. The latter two, however, died about the last of June.

On the 22nd of February Elder Woodruff was present at the dedication of the Gardo House. The prayer was offered by Franklin D. Richards. This residence had been in process of construction for some time and its use was delayed in consequence of litigations begun by the heirs of President Young against his executors. President Taylor was therefore its first occupant. That he himself might be in position to ward off the persecutions of himself as head of the Church, he left his families in the homes he had built for them and made his sister matron of the new official residence. His care, however, proved unavailing since persecution was aimed specially at him.

During their lifelong experiences in the Church, President A. O. Smoot of Provo, and Elder Woodruff were devoted friends. Their associations had been intimate, and in the trying times of early Church history their relations were the most cordial and brotherly. The home of President Smoot in Provo always gave the fullest hospitality to Elder Woodruff on his visits to that town. On the 12th of May he records the circumstance that President Smoot's wife began immediately to regain her speech, after it had been lost through paralysis, by the special administration of Elder Woodruff and others. At that time his old friend related a peculiar circumstance of history that occurred at Adam-ondi-Ahman. President Smoot said that he and Alanson Ripley, while surveying at that town, which was about 22 miles from Jackson County, Missouri, came across a stone wall in the midst of a dense forest of underbrush. The wall was 30 feet long, 3 feet thick, and 4 feet high. It was laid in mortar or cement. When Joseph Smith visited the place and examined the wall he said it was the remains of an altar built by Father Adam and upon which he offered sacrifices after he was driven from the Garden of Eden. He said that the Garden of Eden was located {546} in Jackson County, Missouri. The whole town of Adam-ondi-Ahman was in the midst of a thick and heavy forest of timber and the place was named in honor of Adam's altar. The Prophet explained that it was upon this altar where Adam blessed his sons and his posterity, prior to his death.

On the 5th of June Apostle Woodruff with President Smith, Brigham Young, and President John Morgan, paid a visit to the Saints in San Louis Valley, Colorado. The Saints there were emigrants largely from the Southern States. It was during this visit that Silas S. Smith was sustained as stake president. While traveling on the Denver and Rio Grande Railroad, Elder Woodruff felt and expressed his admiration for the beauty of the scenery. Whenever he contemplated the laws of God or his Creator's marvelous works it intensified his religious devotion and his sense of gratitude. It was to him also a source of satisfaction that much of the work in the construction of the railroad over which he passed was the work of his brethren.

On his return to Salt Lake City the next important circumstance he mentions was the threatened destruction of the great Tabernacle by a spark of fire which had been thrown by an explosion from the old wagon yard just across the road south of the Temple block. On the 21st of June this year the old Council House and Savages Art Callery were burned to the ground. This threatened destruction of the great Tabernacle led to the removal of its old shingled roof and the substitution therefor of an iron one.

Soon after this we find him at a conference in Nephi. As plural marriage was then attacked from all sides, it received special attention from the leaders of the Church who maintained the importance as well as the divinity of the institution. In his discourse at Nephi he quoted himself as having made the following remarks, "The law of the Patriarchal Order of marriage belongs to this dispensation, and after it was revealed to the Prophet Joseph, he was commanded to receive it. If he and the people had rejected it, the Church and Kingdom of God would have advanced no further and God would have taken it from them and given it to another people. It has been said that the Patriarchal Order of marriage has caused more sorrow to the daughters of Eve than any other principle ever revealed from Heaven to men, but this {547} is not true. No divine principle brings trouble to those who faithfully obey it. If they who are in it have troubles it is not the fault of the principle but because of weakness and of the false traditions which surround them. The Lord never gave a law to the children of men which will give to them exaltation and glory except through the observance of that law. The Lord's people who abide that law are entitled to His protection by the oath and covenant which He has made with them. From the day that the apostles and elders published that law to the world with the determination to maintain it, the Lord has fought their battles."

The 24th of that year was celebrated in the Tabernacle with great enthusiasm. Ten thousand people were present. On the anniversary of that day Wilford Woodruff was always reminiscent. As time went on, the earlier impressions of his mind were confirmed in the fulfillment of God's promises which year after year were to his mind more plainly fulfilled. He felt that the observance of that day was a duty which the people owed to their God because of the care He had manifested over them and the wonderful manner in which He had made the desert blossom like the rose.

In his journal of August 27th he mentioned regretfully the death of Andrew Burt who had been killed on the 25th by a mulatto. At Bishop Burt's funeral there were about nine thousand people, and it is said that before the exercises something like fifteen thousand viewed the remains. Captain Burt's splendid integrity, his simple life and unassuming demeanor had won for him a respect quite universal. He was bishop of the 21st ward.

Wilford Woodruff's love for men whose friendship was tried and true and whose devotion to the things of God was above question, was again verified. It made no difference to him what their standing in life was, he saw above the honors of men that which he esteemed true greatness, such greatness as he sincerely believed God recognized.

In reading his journal one learns to esteem more highly the practice of manual labor. He exalted work by the interest he took in the workmanship of his own hands. If he ever felt the temptation to leave his ministry for any length of time it was the temptation which came to him in his love of manual labor. {548} All through his journal he was telling about the things that he did on his farm. He wrote about his horses, his cows, his orchards, his crops, he spoke of them in detail, they all meant much to him. One is constantly reminded in reading his journal of the life and doctrines of Tolstoi, the great Russian author, whose simple life and labors upon his farm with the Russian peasants have won the admiration of millions of admirers.

As the year 1883 was drawing to a close the times became more trying. The hatred of the enemy was greatly intensified. The brethren felt the impending storm coming upon them, there was often a spirit of gloom which it was not easy to cast aside. Elder Woodruff's journal of October 12th that year contained an account of a meeting of the Presidency and Twelve, a meeting of fasting and prayer that the troubles which were coming upon them might be diverted if it were the will of God, and if they were not to be diverted that they might have the strength to bear them and the wisdom and patience and spirit to do the will of the Father. To all these unhappy forebodings was added the sorrow that comes from separation of old friends. On the 19th of that month Bishop Edward Hunter died, and on the 17th of the month following he was joined by Charles C. Rich.

During the year 1883 he traveled, according to the summary which he made in his journal, over six thousand miles, held 213 meetings and preached 144 discourses.

The year 1884 was the beginning in the Church of a great crusade. It was a land-mark in history. What began that year is likely to be told from generation to generation. The hardships that it brought to the Church and the trials which the people underwent were themes for household conversation throughout the entire Church. The Edmunds law of 1882 had been put into effect so far as it related to the imprisonment of the Saints. The enemy were at first occupied in its political phases. As time went on it was seen that the disappointment of the enemy in the political advantages to be derived from the law became more apparent. The law was really a disappointment to them. The Utah commission which it established was filled by appointees from the East and those who were grasping for political power in the Territory found their hopes unrealized. This disappointment led to a spirit of intensified anger and the criminal part of the law began to {549} receive its enforcement in the most drastic, spiteful, and revengeful manner. Everything possible was done to prepare the people for dark days to come. The revelations of God were to the effect that men should set their families in order.

Elder Woodruff on his birthday, March 1st, had a family gathering. Of the 46 members of his family, 39 were present. This included his daughters-in-law and grandchildren. As a token of respect on the part of his family, an address to him was read by his little grandson, Elias Smith Woodruff: "To our beloved Grandfather,--we greet you on this your seventy-seventh birthday. We wish you many happy returns of the day, for this and more we ever pray. We all shall strive to walk in your footsteps and listen to your counsel as you are a man of God. We likewise hope to be like you by the help of our Heavenly Father. You have done a vast amount of good, both for the living and the dead. Your days have been many and many call you blessed. You have been in the hands of God, the savior of thousands. Through the blessings of the Lord your life has been preserved in many dangers through which you have been called to pass. You have accomplished a great work and we all with one voice say: 'Peace and blessings be with you to the end of your days.' Please accept this tribute of love and respect. From your little grandson. Written for him by Julia Woodruff." The family little imagined at that time that President Woodruff would continue with them in life yet fourteen years.

The 6th of March he became very much interested in the visit to Salt Lake City of the great singer, Adelina Patti. Her world-renown fame made her a person of great interest. She in turn recognized the important stand occupied by the leaders of the Church, and invited President Taylor and Elder Woodruff to visit her private car which had cost something like sixty thousand dollars. Its conveniences and beautiful apartments greatly interested Elder Woodruff whose powers to observe were always strong.

As the year went on reports of the activity of the enemy and the intense anti-Mormon hatred came to the Presidency of the Church. Miles Romney brought word from St. Johns, Arizona, of the opposition there from both the Mexicans and the whites. The April conference witnessed the call of John W. Taylor to fill {550} the vacancy occasioned by the death of Charles C. Rich. William B. Preston was made the presiding bishop of the Church. That same month word also came from Arizona of the attempt to rob the people there of their lands by means of a purchase of railroad land which the Saints had occupied and cultivated long before the railroad was built and before any grant had been received by the railroad. Presidents Taylor and Cannon were absent at the time, but a telegram signed by President Woodruff and others was sent to General Williamson, Washington, D. C., the general agent of the railroad lands, asking him not to sell the land in question before receiving a letter from them. The method here referred to of robbing the Saints was due to the fact that the enemy was taking advantage of special information of which the Saints were ignorant. The lands granted to the railroad in that part of Arizona were of little value except as they had been made valuable by the labor of the Latter-day Saints. It was a specie of robbery, but those who engaged in it thought, no doubt, that their unscrupulous methods would be condoned by exciting prejudice against the Saints.

The next circumstance of importance was the dedication of the Logan Temple, May 17th, 18th, and 19th. The services were attended by thousands of people and were repeated in order to accommodate all who desired the privilege and were entitled to be present. People were admitted to the services by tickets of recommendation given them by their bishops. On that occasion a circumstance happened analogous to that of Annanias and Sapphira who lied to the Lord and to Peter in the days of the ancient apostles. As the hosts of people were climbing the stairs to the assembly room of the Temple, President Taylor discerned in the multitude one woman unworthy of admission. He did not know her but said to President C. O. Card, "Turn that woman back." "Why?" asked President Card, "She has come with a ticket of recommendation as well as all the others." "I don't know why," replied President Taylor, "only that the spirit of the Lord says, 'Turn that woman back.'" President Card observed the instructions to him and upon special investigation learned that the lady was altogether an improper person, and by connivance with another she had procured the ticket for the price of one dollar. In commenting upon this circumstance later, President {551} Taylor said: "You may deceive the bishop, the president of the stake, the apostles, the president of the Church, but you can't deceive the Lord, Jesus Christ, nor the Holy Spirit, and sooner or later the unworthy, the hypocrites and unrepenting transgressors will be found out and separated from the assembly of the righteous." At that time M. W. Merrill was chosen by revelation to preside over the Logan Temple, a place he held up to the time of his death in February, 1906. The first baptisms were performed there by Elder David H. Cannon of St. George, and the first recipients of them were Franklin D. Richards, and Rachael Grant.

In his journal relating to that occasion, Elder Woodruff wrote: "While attending the dedication of this Temple my mind was carried back to the many hours of prayer I had passed in my early manhood days. I prayed that I might see the Church of Christ established on the earth and that I might see a people raised up who would receive the ancient gospel and contend for the faith once delivered to the Saints. The Lord then promised me that I should live to see that day, to find the people of God and have a name and place within His House, a name that should not be cut off. To-day I rejoice in the fulfillment of that promise, I rejoice in the opportunity of assisting in the dedication of another Temple to His most Holy Name, to God and the Lamb. Praises be to His name for ever more."

On the 29th, in company with Heber J. Grant, he left on an extended tour of the settlements in the Snake River and Teton Valleys. In those days that part of Idaho was in process of settlement by the Saints, under the leadership of Thomas E. Ricks, who met Elders Woodruff and Grant and conveyed them by team from Market Lake to Rexburg. When the brethren on that occasion visited those parts not much had yet been done in bringing that district of country under cultivation. In 1884 there was but one stake of the Church extending from Paradise in Cache Valley on the south, to the Montana line on the north. To-day there are ten stakes, six of which are along the Snake River Valley; namely, Pocatello, Blackfoot, Bingham, Rigby, Fremont, and Yellow Stone. To-day there are also in that region of country three large factories in operation.

Congress adjourned that year without passing special bills {552} that were inimicable to the Latter-day Saints. The anti-Mormons of Utah were like hungry wolves clamoring for prey. They wanted all the offices and were constantly importuning Congress to disfranchise in a body the Latter-day Saints. When congress therefore adjourned without further legislation Wilford Woodruff exclaims in his journal, "Thank the Lord for another breathing spell."

Later he attended the Sevier Stake Quarterly Conference held at Fish Lake. Hundreds of teams had conveyed the people to that place. While administering Sacrament there he said it was the first time it had taken place since the ancient Nephites had had a similar feast in those parts. He manifested on this and other occasions a special interest in the material welfare of the people. He examined their farms and orchards, visited their canals, made a critical examination of their water dams and head gates, and it may perhaps be said of him as truthfully as of any man that ever lived, that he subordinated his own personal interests to the general interest of the Church.

Evil days were soon to fall upon the Church. The failure of Congress that year to pass anti-Mormon legislation intensified the rage of the anti-Mormons. A campaign of slander and falsehood was taken up by the anti-Mormon press of Salt Lake City, and press dispatches to embitter the minds of the people in the East were sent; and in making this campaign it was well understood by those who engineered it that Congressmen might be made to fear their constituency and pass laws their own judgment condemned.

The Tribune published and sent out an alleged "Red Hot Address." It purported to be an inflammatory address by Bishop West of Juab. The purport of the address was the recommended assassination of the Governor of Utah. There was no meeting held in Juab on the occasion referred to, there was no Bishop West, and of course no such address. The lie, however, inflamed the public mind abroad; and to those who love a lie and darkness rather than light, it had the desired effect.

On the 10th of August following in Lewis County, Tennessee, Elders Berry and Gibbs, and two members of the local Church their names being James Riley Hudson, and Martin Condor, were shot and killed by a mob as they were about to begin {553} their Sabbath services. Mrs. Condor, the mother of the murdered boys, was also shot but not killed.

The Church was making history during those days and special care was taken to give an exact record of current events. Hubert H. Bancroft was publishing his history of the Pacific Coast and included Utah among his volumes. Elder Woodruff opened to him the records of Church history that he might give both sides of the question and draw fair and impartial conclusions.

September 3rd he visited Provo where he attended the funeral of Margarette T. Smoot. On that occasion he gave it as his opinion that children would grow and develop after the resurrection and obtain all the blessings of adult persons. The visit to Provo was followed by the October conference, which that year was chiefly noted by the call of John Morgan to be one of the presiding seventies. Elder Morgan had been a missionary in the South for twelve years, and for ten years the distinguished president of the Saints in the South. Elder Morgan was a man of strong character, a conspicuous preacher, and a fearless advocate. He was ordained to his new calling on October 7th, 1884.

The last part of the year 1884 found the storm of persecution growing in intensity. Men and women to escape prison went into exile. Men and women were pursued by a spirit of vindictiveness and hatred perhaps never known in a civilized age. Stories of the Mountain Meadow Massacre, the Bishop West address, and other malicious inventions had done their work. Public opinion in the East had been so aroused as to justify any sort of cruelty that the anti-Mormons in Utah might inflict upon the Saints. All efforts to run down falsehoods by the circulation of truth seemed a hopeless task. Elder Woodruff also found it necessary to go into exile and he said: "I am a wanderer from home because of my religion. It is not the first time I have been a wanderer in the wilderness for the gospel's sake." However, he appeared in public at special occasions for a short season.

On the first of January, 1885, he took part in the dedication of the Brigham Young College, at Logan, but on the 14th he found it necessary to go again into exile with all the Presidency and most of the Twelve Apostles. Stake presidents, bishops of wards, and other leading men were rapidly filling up prisons or {554} concealing themselves among friends. It was not a movement to suppress immorality. Men were not harangued and imprisoned because of lascivious cohabitation as it obtains throughout the Christian world, but because men had accepted from the Lord a principle which would, if universally carried out, give to every woman in the world a husband and a home, the opportunity of honored wifehood and motherhood, conditions desired by every right-feeling and sound-minded woman. Under these persecutions President Woodruff was among the number sought for. After a few days of seclusion in his own home and neighborhood he boarded a south bound train for southern Utah. At Nephi he was joined by George Teasdale, and together they made their way by private conveyance and without publicity to Saint George where they labored for some time in the Temple. He also made a trip down the Virgin River to the Muddy country. During his absence he read Josephus and Cassell's History of England.

On one occasion during those times we find him making calculations from history of what the civil war had cost his country in the loss of human lives, and the expenditure of money. That war he looked upon as a judgment of God upon the country because of the wrong doings of the people. "This shows," he wrote, "in a measure, what it costs a nation to shed the blood of the prophets, apostles, and the Lord's anointed." He sincerely believed that before very many years the judgments of God would follow the persecutions which he was then undergoing.

In July he visited the stakes of the southern part of the Territory, and was at a conference October 18th, and 19th, at Fish Lake. Conference, he wrote, was attended by 1,136 persons. There were 187 vehicles, and 517 animals. While there, he with others, sounded the depths of the lake which measured all the way from three feet near the shore to 168 1/2 feet in the deepest places. He thought the lake was the largest depository of trout in the mountain valleys. It is located about 9,000 feet above the sea level. After going as far north as Manti he returned again to St. George.

In his journal he makes special mention of an effort on the part of the federal officers to create a disturbance on the 4th of July, because certain persons manifested their sorrow for departed liberty by placing the flag at half-mast on certain buildings {555} owned chiefly by Mormons. At the same time threats were made that if the flag were placed at half-mast on the 24th, war would be waged against the Mormons with the utmost bitterness. The flag, however, on that date was placed at half-mast by order of the President of the U. S. in honor of General Grant who died July 23rd. There was no likelihood that any of the leaders would encourage any one to place the flag at half-mast upon the 24th, but the threat of the anti-Mormons was, in the end, all a challenge that brought to the enemy chagrin because of the peculiar circumstance.

As a rule nearly all who were indicted under the law went to prison rather than promise the abandonment of their wives and children. Occasionally a man would enter court and make the required promise to escape punishment. As a rule the practices of such men were not in harmony with the requirements of the gospel and those times gave them an opportunity to demonstrate their unworthiness rather than a lack of courage. Later, such men undertook to draw comfort from the circumstance that the leaders counseled men under indictment to give the demanded promise. They failed, however, to make the distinction between an order for retreat coming from those at the head and the act of desertion while in the ranks.

Indictments in those days were followed as a matter of the course by convictions. Juries were made to order. Judges considered themselves missionaries and the greater their trespass on justice the more they were honored by the anti-Mormon element. Their vindictiveness became an object of honor, and the leaders in the crusade walked the streets of Salt Lake City with feelings of special pride. They were pointed out to the curious and were the objects of adulation of those whose religious hatreds were most intense. Leaders of the persecution were making a record over which they were not only proud but boastful, although in the beginning the feelings of antagonism between the persecutors and the persecuted were most intense. As time went on, feelings of resignation sprang up in the hearts of the Latter-day Saints who more and more became disposed to leave in the hands of God the future of those who despitefully used them. In passing, it may here be remarked that the persecutors of the Latter-day Saints will, in days to come, be left to the Latter-day {556} Saints for the estimation in which they will be held by those to whom their lives will be of no consequence; in other words, those whom they persecuted will in turn become their judges whose verdicts will go down to history.

Elder Woodruff, after returning to the south, took an active part in the daily lives of the people. In Pine Valley he assisted Brother Thompson in repairing his grist mill. He dressed the Burr stones, since by trade he was a miller. However, it had been fifty-five years since he had done such work and in some respects such labor was restful to him and would have been healthful had it not been for the constant strain which those evil days placed him under.

In October he received word that his wife Phoebe was in poor health and he therefore hastened home to Salt Lake City where he arrived on the 5th of November. He remained, however, in seclusion in his home and neighborhood. On the 10th of November she died. He was greatly affected by her death and painfully humiliated by the circumstance under which her funeral was held. He stood concealed in the Historian's Office as he watched the funeral procession pass by on its way to the city of the dead. "I am," said he, "passing through a strange chapter in the history of my life. Persecution is raging against the Latter-day Saints. I hope I may prove true and faithful to the end and that I may join her in the celestial Kingdom of God and have part in the first resurrection."

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51. ELEVATION TO PRESIDENCY OF THE CHURCH, 1889

Arrest of George Q. Cannon.--Governor Murray's Dismissal.--Death of President Taylor.--President Woodruff Appears in the Tabernacle.--Change in Federal Officers.--April, 1889, Wilford Woodruff Became President of the Church.--Visit to California.--M. W. Merrill, A. H. Lund, and Abraham H. Cannon Called to Apostleship.--Senator Morgan Visits President Woodruff.

The highest point of intensity in the crusade against the Latter-day Saints was reached during the year 1886. Although President Woodruff had been in exile previous years he had always enjoyed in some measure the privilege of meeting with the Saints and of exercising himself in the vindication of his calling as an Apostle of the Lord, Jesus Christ. Persecution became most bitter, the whole atmosphere of anti-Mormon association was charged with intense hatred. Hundreds were in prison and in exile and leading men were hunted down with a fury perhaps unsurpassed by the Roman persecutions in the days of the early Christians. During that year he did not appear once in public nor did he preach a single discourse. He passed some time in Ashley Valley and enjoyed such diversion in fishing and hunting as his circumstances would permit. At the opening of the new year he recounted the experiences of the past year and prophecied concerning the year to come. He felt that the Lord would fight the battles of the Saints and that those who were prominent in the persecution would be humiliated. On the 13th of February that year President George Q. Cannon was arrested in Nevada. A few days later he was brought to Salt Lake City in the custody of United States officers. To intensify excitement abroad and to make it appear that the Territory was on the verge of revolt, Governor Murray sent troops to guard the prisoner to Salt Lake City. Upon George Q. Cannon were heaped various indignities and on his arrival in Utah he was placed under forty-five thousand dollar bonds. John Sharp and Feramorz Little went on his bonds for twenty-five thousand, and Francis Armstrong and H. S. Eldredge for twenty thousand. In view of the extreme bitterness then {558} manifested toward him and in view of the fact that offenses might be segregated to imprisonment for life, President Cannon decided to forfeit the bonds. Sharp and Little paid promptly the twenty-five thousand, while Armstrong and Eldredge declined to pay until the question of excessiveness of bail should be determined by the courts. When the case was carried to the supreme court at Washington it was finally dismissed. Later, by action of Congress, the 25,000 dollars was returned.

Governor Murray was removed from office, and under the restraining influence at Washington, the persecution in Utah became less offensive. Murray's conduct had for some time been unsatisfactory to President Cleveland, especially in view of the misrepresentation of conditions in Utah. When Murray vetoed the general appropriation bill passed by the Territorial Legislature the President of the United States decided to remove him. The President further considered Murray's effort to coerce legislation wholly unjustifiable, and his attempt to appoint officers by proclamation as revolutionary. He also remembered that he had been twice deceived by Murray on the "Mormon Uprising."

While the close of the year did not by any means witness the end of the crusade, the hand of God was visible in defeating certain purposes of the enemy. President Taylor and his associates were vindicated. The course taken by them and the changed attitude of the general government marked the fulfillment of prophecy uttered by President Woodruff at the beginning of the year.

At the close of the year Edward M. Dalton of Parowan was shot and killed by Deputy Marshal Thompson. The feelings of resentment among the people were high. They felt more and more the force of President Taylor's words at the beginning of the crusade when he informed the people that nothing was to be done except to turn up their coat collars and as much as possible turn their back to the storm until it passed over. Outrages were daily increasing and there was an evident determination on the part of the federal officers to stand by one another and manipulate the machinery of government for their own protection as well as for the oppression of the Mormons. However, federal zeal in Utah exceeded so far the bounds of all propriety that the authorities in Washington determined to exercise some restraint over their agents in Utah.

{559} General McCook was transferred to another post. Marshal Ireland and Judge Powers went out of office.

On the 8th of February, 1886, a circumstance transpired by which President Woodruff and Apostle Erastus Snow escaped arrest. President Woodruff thought the circumstance worthy of a place in history. Early in the morning of that day he and Erastus Snow went to the Historian's office in pursuance of an appointment to meet a number of the brethren there. Before he had been long in the building it was surrounded by deputy marshals. He and Elders Snow and Richards had been watching the officers from the windows as they searched the Gardo House. They had also observed the raid made upon the President's office and the tithing office. When the marshals, however, came to the Historian's office, President Woodruff offered a silent, fervent prayer in his heart that the Lord would blind his enemies. He then, in company with Andrew Jenson, went into the street in the midst of nearly twenty officers. They were apparently dazed as he walked before them and he attracted no attention. He crossed the street to the President's office, passed through the east gate, entered a buggy with Seymour B. Young, and was driven to the home of Elder Young's mother. In the evening he made his way to his home in Farmers Ward, then took his departure for a year of exile from his family and associates in office. During the year he traveled about sixteen hundred miles and closed the year in the city of St. George, accompanied by his wife Emma and some of her children.

He found St. George a comparatively safe place, as the people there were almost wholly Latter-day Saints and offered him every opportunity to visit his friends and to enjoy immunity from arrest. The sufferings of those times were enhanced by the constant threats of more drastic legislation and the confiscation of Church property.

While in St. George and on the 4th of February, 1887, he wrote an eight page letter to David Whitmer, one of the witnesses to the Book of Mormon, and bore to the latter a strong testimony to the continuance of the work of God under the administration of Presidents Young and Taylor.

A considerable time before the death of President John Taylor his demise was shown to Wilford Woodruff in a dream. {560} When, therefore, word came to him in St. George from President George Q. Cannon and Elder John Jacques on the 16th of July that President Taylor's condition afforded no hope of recovery he at once set out on the following day for Salt Lake City. He traveled most of the way by team and while at a Brother Bartholomew's in Fayette, Sanpete County, on the 26th, he received the sad news of John Taylor's death which had occurred the day before at about eight p. m. That night he lay awake sorrowing over the mourning that had come to all Israel in the departure of their great leader. Elder Woodruff's mind was greatly troubled by the responsibilities which he felt crowded upon him. In his journal he wrote of President Taylor as follows: "Thus another President of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints has passed away. President John Taylor is twice a martyr. He was shot four times in Carthage Jail when Joseph and Hyrum were slain, and there he mingled his blood with the marytrs; this was in 1844. Now, in 1887, driven into exile by United States officers in consequence of his religion, he lays down his life for the truth. All honor to the name and memory of President John Taylor. 'Leave judgment with me for it is mine and I will repay,' saith the Lord, God."

Continuing, he wrote: "President John Taylor's death places the chief responsibility and care of the Church of Latter-day Saints upon my shoulders, in connection with the Twelve, which now become the presiding authority of the Church. This places me in a very peculiar situation. It is a position I have never looked for, but in the providence of God this new responsibility is thrown upon me. I pray God, my heavenly Father, to give me grace equal to my day. It is a high responsibility for any man and it is a position which requires great wisdom. I never expected to outlive President Taylor, but God has ordained otherwise.

"Bishop Hunter said on several occasions that I would outlive President Taylor and become President of the Church. On these occasions I rebuked the Bishop and asked him not to prophesy of me such a thing. Each time he answered, 'Nevertheless it is true and will come to pass.' It certainly has come to pass. I can only say, Marvelous are Thy ways, O Lord Almighty, for Thou hast truly chosen weak instruments to perform in Thy hand Thy work on the earth. May Thy servant, Wilford, be prepared for {561} whatever is required at his hands by the God of heaven. I ask this blessing of my heavenly Father in the name of Jesus Christ, the Son of the living God, even so, Amen."

Those acquainted with the modesty and humility of President Woodruff can easily understand his feelings of grave concern and deep anxiety at such a time. While he sought no honors for himself and would always "prefer his brethren to him," he was nevertheless quick to maintain himself or any other man in the calling to which the Lord by revelation, or by the order established in the priesthood, placed upon him.

On the 28th of March, 1887, he wrote to one of the brethren in answer to these questions: "Do you know of any reason in case of the death of the President of the Church why the Twelve Apostles should not choose some other person than the president of the Twelve to be the President of the Church," as follows: "I know several reasons why he should not. First, at the death of the President of the Church the Twelve Apostles become the presiding authority of the Church, and the president of the Twelve is really the President of the Church by virtue of his office as much while presiding over the Twelve Apostles as while presiding over his two counselors. In the appointment of Brigham Young and John Taylor to the presidency of the Church it never entered the heart of any one of the Twelve Apostles to claim the right to preside over Brigham Young or John Taylor, as they were all the presidents of the Church, and if they were not fit to preside over the Church they were not fit to preside over the Twelve Apostles. Second, in case of the death of the President of the Church it takes the majority of the Twelve Apostles to appoint the President of the Church, and it is very unreasonable to suppose that the majority of that Quorum could be converted to depart from the course marked out by inspiration and followed by the Apostles at the death of Christ and by the Twelve Apostles at the death of Joseph Smith. I see no reason for discussing this subject until there is some reason for it."

Whether or not this statement of President Woodruff is taken as doctrine, it shows very clearly his sentiment of respect for the line of action which had been taken and his determination not to depart from it as a matter of policy. He felt that man was at best but a weak instrument in the hands of God. As this was {562} God's work the man that lived most humbly and contrite before his Maker was most entitled to divine guidance. He had striven in the humility of his heart to gain divine favor. He had been the recipient of that favor and had done nothing of which he was conscious to forfeit it.

On the 12th of March he recorded the following in his journal: "I dreamed last night that the Latter-day Saints were holding a great conference in the Salt Lake Temple. I saw a great rush to finish the Temple. I was called upon to open the conference, and I was given the keys of the Temple to open it. I saw thousands assembling and I met President Young, who asked me what was the matter with the great multitude at the door. Some one answered that the elders did not want to let the people into the Temple. He exclaimed, 'Oh, oh, oh;' he then leaned over to me and said, 'Let all come into the Temple who seek salvation.' I saw several who were dead, among them my wife, Phoebe. I believe there is some special meaning in this dream." The dream is explained by what happened when the Temple was dedicated.

On the 29th of July the funeral of President Taylor was held in the Tabernacle. As most of the elders were in exile, only a few were in attendance. These were Lorenzo Snow, Franklin D. Richards, Heber J. Grant of the Twelve. Also President Daniel H. Wells, A. O. Smoot, Lorenzo D. Young, Joseph B. Noble, and Angus M. Cannon. One hundred and two carriages followed the remains to their final resting place. There were several bands of music in attendance. The occasion was indeed solemn, mourning was silent and deep; men with bowed heads and in the deepest sorrow wondered at God's providences and prayed for deliverance.

From the President's office Wilford Woodruff watched the procession as it passed. President Woodruff says that to himself he remarked, as he stood in silent gaze, "There goes to his final rest the third President of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints."

Immediately President Woodruff and the Twelve entered upon the duties of the presidency. These duties were numerous and pressing. President Woodruff was not yet free from the probability of arrest and therefore did not appear in public. He signed hundreds of recommends to the Temple as they came to him from day to day. On the 9th, however, of October, at the general semi-annual {563} conference of that year, in company with Lorenzo Snow and Franklin D. Richards, he entered the building at the afternoon session. As the people recognized their venerable President they greeted him with a round of hearty applause which did not cease until he arose and waved his hand in salutation. He addressed the multitude for thirty minutes and then quietly retired before the singing, as he deemed it unwise to expose himself to arrest. During the rest of the year he remained quietly at his home.

The duties of President Woodruff now called his special attention to the general affairs of the Church so that he remained constantly near headquarters. While the presidency of the Church devolved upon the Twelve, President Woodruff now looked to Presidents Cannon and Smith for information and assistance, on account of their familiarity with Church affairs during the presidency of John Taylor.

While the crusade was by no means at an end, its extreme bitterness was gradually vanishing. During the year Judge Zane was succeeded by Judge Elliott Sanford of New York. Mr. Sanford was a man of refinement and of moral courage. He manifested no personal bias and no excessive zeal in the administration of the law. During his tenure of office George Q. Cannon was sentenced to 185 days' imprisonment and a fine of $450.00. Apostle F. M. Lyman and others were also sentenced by him. Judge Judd, another federal appointee, acted in harmony with Judge Sanford in dealing with the Latter-day Saints.

Those days were trying to President Woodruff, especially in view of the waste of property going on through the process of confiscation. Private individuals were enriching themselves at the expense of the Church, and to the discredit of the government. Men unable to provide for more than the daily wants of life suddenly came into possession of moderate private fortunes. The Latter-day Saints beheld the travesty of this gross injustice as men, under the guise of law and as reformers, showed an unrighteous zeal to lay their hands upon Church property.

During the year 1888 Elder Woodruff records the death of a number of prominent men with whom he had been closely associated for many years. Erastus Snow died May 27th at the age of sixty-nine years. On June the 24th Judge Elias Smith passed away, at eighty-three. Horace Eldredge also died on September {564} 6th at the age of seventy-two. Azmon Wodruff died at the advanced age of eighty-six years. President Woodruff was now eighty-two, but still active. He found pleasure in manual labor whenever he could snatch away some time in which to devote himself to his garden and to his field. One day during the summer of 1888, while hoeing corn by the side of a grandson, who was too swift for his grandfather in the corn field, the latter observed in his journal: "Well, this is the first time in my life that any of my children have beaten me hoeing corn or at any other manual labor."

February 21st of that year President George Q. Cannon was liberated from prison. Gradually the leading men began to obtain their freedom and to appear in the public assemblies of the Saints. On Washington's birthday some fifty Hawaiians met at the President's office for a social reunion. The Tabernacle Choir was present and rendered inspiring music. On the Sunday following ten thousand people were gathered in the Tabernacle and were addressed by Presidents Cannon and Woodruff.

On the 1st of March Elder Woodruff's birthday was celebrated. On a cake presented to him by Elder John Gallagher the following sentiment was given and a copy of it taken from President Woodruff's journal. It reads as follows:

"Fourscore years and two have fled in the work for Zion's cause on earth. This day we greet our honored head to show our love and tell his worth. We pray that heaven may long extend your life to testify unmoved, As with your family, in the end find welcome by God approved."

At the April conference of 1889 and on the seventh of the month, Wilford Woodruff was sustained as President of the Church, with George Q. Cannon and Joseph F. Smith as his counselors. "This 7th day of April, 1889," he said, "is one of the most important days in my life, for I was made President of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints by the unanimous vote of ten thousand of them. The vote was first taken by quorums and then by the entire congregation as in the case of President John Taylor. This is the highest office ever conferred upon any man in the {565} flesh. It came to me in the eighty-third year of my life. I pray God to protect me and give me power to magnify my calling to the end of my days. The Lord has watched over me until the present time. I wish to counsel my wives and my children and whoever may read this journal to honor God and keep His commandments to the end of their lives that they may receive eternal life and celestial glory in the presence of God and the Lamb."

About the middle of April President Woodruff, accompanied by his wife, Emma, and President Cannon, Charles H. Wilcken, H. B. Clawson and his daughter, and President Woodruff's daughter, left Salt Lake City on a trip to California. Their purpose was twofold. One, to look after the interest and welfare of the people, and the other to obtain recuperation after a long exile. Here the party met old-time friends who received them cordially and extended to them the hospitality of their homes. Senator Stanford had long been friendly to the Mormon people and their leaders. On this occasion they met a Doctor McDonald, formerly of Nauvoo and a friend to the Latter-day Saints.

They returned to Salt Lake City on the 26th of April, when President Woodruff took up his labors and began a visit to a number of stakes of Zion. At the October conference of that year Elder M. W. Merrill and A. H. Lund and Abraham H. Cannon were chosen to fill the vacancies created in the Quorum of the Twelve.

On the 12th of that month President Woodruff records an interesting interview which he had with Senator Morgan of Alabama. The Senator was passing through Utah and asked President Woodruff, who was then at Provo, to meet him at the station there. The invitation was complied with, and the Senator held the train for an hour while in conversation with Presidents Woodruff and Cannon. Mr. Morgan was very friendly. He was one of those who, in the United States Senate, had taken a strong stand against the Edmunds-Tucker Law. He was pronounced not only in his opposition to the law itself, but against the manner of its enforcement.

On the 21st of October that year President Woodruff again made a tour of the Pacific Coast and to Canada.

Notwithstanding the improved condition of the people with respect to the crusade which began in the most drastic manner in {566} 1884, there were those who urged some compromise that would ensure, as they believed, the favor of the government and the complete cessation of hostilities by the enemies of the Church. Appeals were therefore made to President Woodruff to exercise the authority conferred upon him by revelation and suspend thereby the further extension of plural marriages.

In concluding his journal for the year 1889 he wrote: "This ends the year. The word of the Prophet, Joseph Smith, has been fulfilled wherein he declared that the whole nation would turn against Zion and make war upon the Saints. The nation has never been so full of lies against the Saints as it is today.

{567}

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52. THE MANIFESTO AND EVENTS OF 1890-91

The Political Situation.--Visit to California.--The Manifesto.--Its Effects.--Sugar Industry.--Henry M. Stanley.--Deaths of Prominent Men.--Earthquake in Southern Utah.--Address to Irrigation Congress.--Interpretation of Manifesto.--Remarks at Brigham City on the Manifesto.

The year 1890 saw a continuation of the bitter struggle that had been going on for political supremacy in Salt Lake City. On the 10th of the month President Woodruff witnessed from an upper room in the Deseret National Bank building the People's party in parade. It was conducted in the evening by torch lights and bands of music in such a manner as to make the affair one of the most brilliant ever witnessed in Salt Lake City. He declared that it was the finest display of the character that he had ever seen. The Liberal party made a similar display and succeeded in carrying the election the following month.

The political success of the Liberal party at this time gave strength to its efforts to secure more adverse legislation for Utah. The Cullom Bill was a most drastic measure and had it passed in pursuance of the wishes of the anti-Mormons, the Latter-day Saints would have been shorn practically of their political and material rights. Senator Edmunds, who had been skillful in the adroit measures which he succeeded in carrying against the Latter-day Saints and by which they had suffered so much, was unwilling to go the length of the measures provided for in the Bill.

The imprisonment of Latter-day Saints under the Edmunds act of 1882 was not bringing the results politically that the anti-Mormons hoped for. What they wanted was absolute political control of the Territory. They had used a popular prejudice against polygamy to further their political ends, but there was a great sentiment throughout the nation that as long as violators of the Edmunds Law were being punished, and the law was vigorously enforced further measures were hardly necessary.

March 1st of that year witnessed President Woodruff's {568} eighty-third birthday. His mind was active, and he enjoyed all his faculties to a remarkable extent. As the birthday of his wife Emma also came on March 1st, that day became in his family life an important one and was celebrated in a becoming manner.

However, his advanced age told on his vital powers. The excessive heat of the summer was very debilitating to him and it frequently became necessary throughout the subsequent years of his administration to seek a change of climate or go into retirement where he could find relief from the heavy responsibilities which were difficult to bear at his age of life.

In August, in company with his counselors and Charles H. Wilcken, he made a tour of Arizona, first going by way of the Colorado Stakes of Zion.

On his return he visited Joseppa, a settlement in the western part of Tooele County, which had been organized for the accommodation of the Sandwich Islands Saints who had gathered to a considerable extent in and about Salt Lake City. For the purpose of aiding them a large tract of land had been selected, so that they might enjoy the opportunities of agricultural pursuits. On that occasion Joseph F. Smith, his counselor, acted as interpreter and offered the dedicatory prayer.

In early September President Woodruff went to California where he attended on the 9th of the month a celebration of the pioneers of that state. It was conducted in San Francisco where about twenty thousand men in uniform took part in the procession. The purpose of this visit to California was to transact some business matters relating to the interests of the Church. During the stay of President Woodruff and party they were treated with great courtesy by Colonel Trumbo, Judge Estee, Mr. Livingstone, and other friends of the Mormon people.

On the 19th of the month the Southern Pacific tendered President Woodruff and party a private car by which they were taken to Sacramento for the purpose of visiting the state fair which was in session there at that time. President Woodruff's devotion to agriculture and fruit growing made the wonderful exhibit at his fair a matter of uncommon interest to him. He had also found on the coast a generous sentiment which he greatly appreciated, a sentiment indeed favorable considering the conditions in Utah for the past five years.

{569} During the agitation in Washington for more drastic measures against the Latter-day Saints, Utah's representative at the Capitol had not unfrequently declared that polygamy was a dead issue. There were strong political sentiments in favor of some sort of a compromise, and President Woodruff had been importuned to recede from his former attitude on that important principle.

On the 24th of September he met in council with his counselors and with several of the Twelve and under existing conditions he issued with their consent the manifesto, which reads as follows:

OFFICIAL DECLARATION.

To Whom It May Concern:

Press dispatches having been sent for political purposes from Salt Lake City, which have been widely published, to the effect that the Utah Commission, in their recent report to the Secretary of the Interior, allege that plural marriages are still being solemnized and that forty or more such marriages have been contracted in Utah since last June or during the past year; also that in public discourses the leaders of the Church have taught, encouraged, and urged the continuance of the practice of polygamy;

I, therefore, as President of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, do hereby, in the most solemn manner, declare that these charges are false. We are not teaching polygamy or plural marriage, nor permitting any person to enter into its practice, and I deny that either forty or any other number of plural marriages have, during that period, been solemnized in our temples or in any other place in the Territory.

One case has been reported, in which the parties alleged that the marriage was performed in the Endowment House, in Salt Lake City, in the spring of 1889, but I have not been able to learn who performed the ceremony. Whatever was done in this matter was done without my knowledge. In consequence of this alleged occurrence the Endowment House was, by my instructions, taken down without delay.

Inasmuch as laws have been enacted by congress forbidding plural marriages, which laws have been pronounced constitutional {570} by the court of last resort, I hereby declare my intention to submit to those laws, and to use my influence with the members of the Church over which I preside to have them do likewise.

There is nothing in my teachings to the Church or in those of my associates, during the time specified, which can be reasonably construed to inculcate or encourage polygamy, and when any elder of the Church has used language which appeared to convey any such teaching, he has been promptly reproved. And I now publicly declare that my advice to the Latter-day Saints is to refrain from contracting any marriage forbidden by the law of the land.

WILFORD WOODRUFF,

President of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

In his private journal he made no particular mention of the circumstances leading up to the Manifesto, neither did he make any comment upon it further than to say: "I have been called upon this day to act for the Church."

It was a solemn day to all Israel. The thought of suspending the practice of a principle for which they had already suffered so much, was indeed painful to thousands of the people. The responsibility, however, the Prophet of God placed upon the nation for rejecting a principle which had within it the power to redeem the world from the greatest of social evils and according to Isaiah, to take away the reproach of women who have been unjustly dealt with by ungodly men.

On the 6th of October, 1890, the Manifesto was presented to the Saints assembled at the semi-annual conference, and unanimously adopted. Following its presentation, President Woodruff made these remarks respecting the action he had taken:

"I want to say to all Israel that the step which I have taken in issuing this Manifesto has not been done without earnest prayer before the Lord. I am about to go into the spirit world, like other men of my age. I expect to meet the face of my Heavenly Father--the Father of my spirit; I expect to meet the face of Joseph Smith, of Brigham Young, of John Taylor, and of the Apostles, and for me to have taken a stand in anything which is not pleasing in the sight of God, or before the heavens, I would {571} rather have gone out and been shot. My life is no better than other men's. I am not ignorant of the feelings that have been engendered through the course I have pursued. But I have done my duty, and the nation of which we form a part must be responsible for that which has been done in relation to this principle.

"The Lord has required at our hands many things that we have not done, many things that we were prevented from doing. The Lord required us to build a temple in Jackson County. We were prevented by violence from doing it. He required us to build a temple in Far West, which we have not been able to do. A great many things have been required of us, and we have not been able to do them because of those that surround us in the world.

"It is not wisdom for us to make war upon sixty-five millions of people. It is not wisdom for us to go forth and carry out this principle against the laws of the nation and receive the consequences. That is in the hands of God, and He will govern and control it.

"I want the prayers of the Latter-day Saints. I thank God that I have seen with my eyes this day, that this people have been ready to vote to sustain me in an action that I know, in one sense, has pained their hearts. Brother George Q. Cannon has laid before you our position. The Lord has given us commandments concerning many things, and we have carried them out as far as we could; but when we cannot do it, we are justified. The Lord does not require at our hands things that we cannot do. Our nation is in the hands of God. He holds its destiny. He holds the destinies of all men. I will say to the Latter-day Saints, as an Elder in Israel and as an Apostle of the Lord Jesus Christ, we are approaching some of the most tremendous judgments God ever poured out upon the world. You watch the signs of the times, the signs of the coming of the Son of Man. They are beginning to be made manifest both in heaven and on earth.

"I pray God that He will bless these apostles, prophets, and patriarchs, these seventies, high priests, and elders of Israel, and these Latter-day Saints, who have entered into covenant with our God. You have a great future before you. I ask my Heavenly Father to pour out His spirit upon me, as His servant, that in my advanced age, and during the few days I have to spend here in {572} the flesh, I may be led by the inspiration of the Almighty. I say to Israel, the Lord will never permit me nor any other man who stands as the President of this Church, to lead you astray. It is not in the programme. It is not in the mind of God. If I were to attempt that, the Lord would remove me out of my place, and so He will any other man who attempts to lead the children of men astray from the oracles of God and from their duty. God bless you. Amen."

Upon the subject of the Manifesto he also spoke at a conference in Brigham on the 25th of October.

The effect of the Manifesto upon the more radical anti-Mormon element was one of chagrin and disappointment. It removed their chief pretext for continued agitation.

While the Manifesto was a concession but few ever expected to witness, there were, nevertheless, many who had but little confidence in any continued good effect it would have upon the bitter anti-Mormon element.

For years the sugar industry had been a subject of some investigation, and Arthur Stayner, of Farmington, had made a number of experiments sufficiently satisfactory to justify the venture of its manufacture in Utah on a large scale.

In January, 1891, President Woodruff in his journal wrote: "The President and Twelve met and were in harmony in their conversation upon the manufacture of sugar. The President and Twelve, as the leaders of the people, have to shoulder the responsibility of this question." Men of wealth in the community were afraid of such an enterprise and were especially fearful should it be started it would be crushed at the outset by the great sugar trust.

Upon the question, however, President Woodruff was so pronounced that he felt inspired to say that it was the will of the Lord that the sugar industry should be established among the Saints. The matter of raising money for this great enterprise was, of course, an important question. Elder Heber J. Grant was sent to New York to borrow of wealthy men money for this new enterprise. When he was asked by them what security could be given, he replied that the factory itself and certain bank stocks would be given to secure the loans. "No," replied they, "we don't want that, if Wilford Woodruff, the President and Trustee-in-Trust {573} of your Church will give his name as security it is all we ask." He accordingly signed his name. It was about the first debt he had ever contracted, but he did that for what he considered the good of the people. $300,000 was obtained and the Lehi sugar factory became a living, paying, industry. Since then among the Saints there have been one established in Ogden, two in Cache Valley, one in Garland, one in Oregon, one in Canada, and four in Idaho. The establishment of the sugar factory in Canada was a venture perhaps greater than even the one first built at Lehi. Conditions in that new country did not appear at all favorable, even in the light of all that had been done in Utah. Apostle John W. Taylor, however, gave to this new Canadian industry his enthusiastic and detailed attention. Jesse Knight, who built the factory at Raymond, was wont to say that the enterprise was outside all his interests and the fields of his operation. In building his factory in Canada he had acted solely upon his impressions and against the business advice of many of his friends.

Nothing has done more in this inter-mountain region to promote the financial well being of the people than the sugar industry. It has been the means of distributing very generally its wealth among the people.

The Church at that time felt the severe losses which the confiscation of its property had brought to it and it was not in a condition to lose any money in an unsuccessful enterprise. In his journal President Woodruff said: "We are passing through a great financial difficulty, the Lord alone can help us out."

His birthday that year found him somewhat indisposed, but on the 9th he was able to enjoy the pleasant interview with the great African explorer, Henry M. Stanley. He attended Mr. Stanley's lecture and pronounced it the most interesting one he had ever attended.

The latter part of 1890 and the first part of 1891 marked the death of a number of President Woodruff's old-time friends. Among these were Bishop Millen Atwood, George W. Hill, the Indian interpreter, and on March 25th, 1891, President Daniel H. Wells. The funeral of Daniel H. Wells was held on the 29th. President Woodruff was one of the speakers on that occasion.

The April conference of 1891 was noted for the large number {574} of Twelve Apostles and the First Presidency that could be in attendance. The Manifesto had helped to bring about this new condition and to give a greater liberty to the leading men of the Church than they had for some years enjoyed.

On the 20th of that month Elder Woodruff recorded in his journal the visitation of a slight earthquake to southern Utah. It was sufficiently strong to shake the houses and overthrow some of the chimneys. The general damage, however, was slight. The volcanic evidences in the region of St. George indicate that that section of country in the past had been subject to violent eruptions.

On the 23rd he also recorded a visit of the Reverend Doctor Shehadri, an Indian from Bombay. The gentleman had been a Brahmin, but was now a convert to Christianity. President Woodruff attended the Reverend Gentleman's address in the Assembly Hall.

On the 8th of the following month Salt Lake enjoyed for the third time a visit from a President of the United States.

In his journal President Woodruff said: "President Harrison visited Salt Lake City. There was a great demonstration and a large procession marched to the Park where speeches were made. President Cannon and myself headed the pioneers. We were introduced to President Harrison and shook hands with him."

A few days later he also recorded in his journal the interview with former Governor George W. Emery. "He was governor of this territory when President Grant visited this city. Governor Emery told me that while riding up from the depot with President Grant and while the two were beholding the multitude of Sunday school children who lined the streets, President Grant said to him: 'I have been deceived with regard to these people, the children are as nice and clean as any children I ever saw.' 'Before he left Utah,' said Governor Emery, 'the President said to me: 'See that the Mormon people are fairly treated.' Governor Emery has always treated the Mormon people well."

On the 21st of May, that year, President Woodruff laid the foundation for a new house on his farm, not far from the old homestead he had occupied for years, and on the 5th of June {575} he was made president of Zion's Savings Bank and Trust Company.

That summer Presidents Woodruff and Cannon again visited California for a short time. On this occasion they met Judge Estee and other prominent men.

Matters of political interest were at that time pressing upon the people. After the Manifesto the People's Party dissolved and the members of that party cast their lot with the one or the other of the great national parties.

Judge Estee and Roswell G. Horr, of Michigan, as well as other prominent men, paid a visit to Utah and discussed before the people the issues of the great political parties.

In September the Irrigation Congress met in Utah. On that occasion Presidents Woodruff and Cannon addressed the Congress. Their words made a good impression upon the delegates in attendance. President Woodruff was a New England miller and farmer, and a pioneer in irrigation; he was the man who, in 1847, planted the first potatoes in Salt Lake Valley. His advanced years, his rugged honesty, and freedom from affectation made splendid impression upon those whom he addressed on that occasion as well as upon other strangers who were visiting the City of the Saints. The work of a pioneer came now to be more and more appreciated. Governor Rickards, of Montana, declared in speaking of President Woodruff: "To the pioneer and the soldier who fought for the flag I always take off my hat."

President Wilford Woodruff addressed the Irrigation Congress, September 16th, 1891, as follows:

"Gentlemen of the Irrigation Congress: I feel myself very thankful that I have lived in the flesh long enough in this Territory to behold the faces of such a congregation of gentlemen as I see here today. It is not my purpose to occupy your time or attention in arguing, or talking, or conversing particularly upon the subjects, or at least those principles for which you have assembled; but what I will say will be a few words concerning our arrival here, and upon the experience in irrigation. Fifty-one years ago, the 24th of last July, I entered this Valley with one hundred and forty-three emigrants, or in other words, pioneers. We were led by President Young. This country, upon our arrival, was called the Great American Desert, and certainly, as far {576} as we could see, it did not discredit its name in the least. There was no mark of the Anglo-Saxon race, no mark of the white man--everything was barren, dry, and desolate.

"We pitched our camp a little distance to the southeast from here about 11 o'clock in the day. We had a desire to try the soil, to know what it would produce. Of course all this company--nearly the whole of us--were born and raised in the New England States, Vermont, Maine, Massachusetts, Connecticut--had no experience in irrigation. We pitched our camp, put some teams on to our ploughs (we brought our ploughs with us), and undertook to plough the earth, but we found neither wood nor iron was strong enough to make furrows here in this soil. It was like stone. We had to turn water on it. When we came to put our teams upon the ground again they sank down to their bellies in mud. We had to wait until the land dried enough to hold up our teams. We put in our crops and we stayed here one month. During that time President Young laid out this city, as you see it today, in the midst of sagebrush, with not a house within a hundred miles of us. We built a fort around ten acres, three sides of adobe, walls eighteen feet high, and one side with logs out of the canyon. We then returned to the Missouri and some two thousand men came later. President Cannon here was one of the company that came in after us.

"Now what I wish to say is this: You gentlemen come here today; you see the city, you go through the country. Here are a thousand miles, I might say, through these mountains, filled with cities, towns, villages, gardens, and orchards, and the produce of the earth that sustains the people. Without this water, this irrigation for which you have met here today, this country would be as barren as it was in 1847, as we found it. Irrigation is what you have met to discuss. Whatever you decide upon in this matter, and unite upon, will, I am sure, prove a great blessing, not only to Utah, but to every state and Territory where these arid lands are found. We have had to learn by experience, and all that we have obtained in these mountains has been by irrigation. There are portions yet which have not been irrigated, and as one gentleman said here, if you can make two drops of water where there was one, or two spears of grass where there was one, you are a {577} benefactor to mankind. I say, God bless you in your deliberations." (Applause.)

On the 19th of October, 1891, President Woodruff was cited before the Master and Chancery to testify to the scope of the Manifesto in the Escheat cases. The question there involved was the subject of unlawful cohabitation. He had issued the Manifesto and was therefore best qualified to interpret the meaning which it had to his mind, or which was conveyed by his language.

In November he recorded a visit to Utah of Mr. Norton, a member of the British Parliament. He speaks of Mr. Norton's interview with him as a pleasant conversation. On the last day of that month he moved the Church office from the Gardo House to the old President's Office, across the road north. This was done to save the rent which the Church was obliged to pay the government for the use of its own property.

During that year he said he traveled 3,570 miles, attended 22 conferences, signed 3,875 recommends, wrote 303 letters, and received 2,045.

{578}

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53. DEDICATION OF THE SALT LAKE TEMPLE, 1892

New Home.--Visit of President Eliot to Salt Lake City.--Completing the Temple.--Amnesty.--Dedication of the Salt Lake Temple.--Visit to the World's Fair, Chicago.--Liberal Party Disbands.

By the opening of the year 1892 President Woodruff had well in hand, not only the routine duties of his office, but the general administrative needs of the Church. He was in good state of health and grateful for the peaceful conditions which then prevailed. The prosecution for plural marriage had literally ceased, though the Liberals still had control of the city.

He had for some time been interested in the completion of his new home in Waterloo, a home which was to be called the Woodruff Villa. It was a comfortable brick house, though not at all pretentious. While his home surroundings in the past had afforded him the needed comforts of life, they were simple and in harmony with his neighbors' homes, and with his own unpretentious character.

On the 1st of March he reached his eighty-fifth year, and his wife Emma her fifty-fourth. That day was selected for the dedication of the new home, an event to which he looked forward with a large measure of satisfaction.

On March 6th he made a record of the visit of President Eliot to Salt Lake City. President Eliot was accompanied by his wife. During the day President Woodruff dined with them and listened to an address delivered in the Tabernacle by Harvard's eminent President. Of the occasion President Woodruff wrote: "He spoke about forty-five minutes in a beautiful and pleasing manner, and advocated the rights of all people to the free enjoyment of every religious and political guarantee. I made a few remarks and then thanked President Eliot for his liberal views."

It will be remembered that in the course of President Eliot's remarks he compared the pioneer journey of the Mormon people to Salt Lake Valley and the hardships of those early experiences with the Pilgrim Fathers and their early settlement on the New {579} England coast. This was more than the good people of Puritan descent could endure; to compare the Mormon people with the Pilgrim Fathers was a specie of profanity that touched the righteous conscience of many New Englanders in and about Boston. Many of the newspapers of that city cried out in loud lamentation against such sacrilege. A few conservative papers, however, were not so sure about the great disparity between the Pilgrim Fathers and the Mormons, even in the matter of morals. President Eliot, however, made no reply. He was accustomed frequently to arouse the ire of his New England brethren; and conscious that he was on the right side of a question, he was as loath to yield as he was free to tell them the naked truth.

About this time, on the 21st of March, President Woodruff expressed a special interest he felt in the court proceedings that had been inaugurated in Missouri by the Reorganites for the purpose of ousting the Hedrickites from their ownership and control of the Temple Block at Independence, Jackson County. On that day he gave evidence in court relative to Church authority, and the interests of our people in the controversy. In the decision of the Supreme court of the State of Missouri the Hedrickites received a decision favorable to their claims and thus the Temple Block was left in statu quo.

April conference of that year was unusually well attended. It was, perhaps, the largest that had hitherto assembled in the Church. It was at that conference that Jonathan G. Kimball, son of President Heber C. Kimball, was chosen to fill the vacancy created in the First Council of Seventies, made vacant by the death of Henry Herriman. During this conference, on April 6, the capstone of the Salt Lake Temple was laid by President Woodruff, in the presence of a large assembly gathered to witness the ceremony.

On the 11th of the month President Woodruff, with a portion of his family, paid a visit to the Salt Lake Temple. They ascended to the top of the Temple tower, where they deposited some coins in the upper stone, and then inspected every room in the building.

About this time he made a purchase of the history of Hartford, Connecticut, the state in which he was born. During that summer Elder Junius F. Wells obtained for the President portraits {580} of his old home and of his birthplace, also the homes of some of his kindred and ancestors.

In May of that year, although now so well advanced in years, he paid a visit to St. George, holding meetings in the various settlements on the way. One hundred and twenty miles had to be covered by means of private conveyances. The road through Washington County was, perhaps, one of the most difficult to travel in the entire state, but Elder Woodruff always had in his affections a special fondness for St. George, its people, and its Temple. During his absence he suffered from a severe attack of sickness which created some misgivings as to his recovery, but he was immediately healed by the power of God and returned home in safety.

On the 4th day of January, 1893, President Harrison granted amnesty to the Latter-day Saints who were under certain political disabilities in consequence of the Federal statutes prescribing punishment for polygamy. About that time the President's wife lay at the point of death. President Woodruff recorded in his journal the following telegram, received from Bishop H. B. Clawson: "General amnesty will positively be announced this week." President Harrison asked for the forebearance and prayers of the Presidency of the Church in his behalf for himself and wife in their troubles. President Woodruff thought it not a little remarkable that the President of the nation should desire the prayers of the Presidency of the Church. Such a friendly manifestation was indeed to them a touching circumstance, especially in view of the afflictions that they had undergone. The response was heartfelt and devout, but in the providence of God it was not ordained that Mrs. Harrison should recover. When she passed away President Woodruff sent to President Harrison the following telegram of sympathy: "President Benjamin Harrison, Washington, D. C.:--The death of your beloved companion came home to us individually as if it were our own personal loss. We sincerely and deeply sympathize with you, and appeal to the Supreme Being, who holds the destiny of us all in His hands, to bless, comfort, and sustain you in this your hour of great trial and sorrow."

It was during the year 1892 that political excitement throughout the Church ran high and gave rise to many animosities which time had great difficulty in mitigating. There had been a more or less {581} wide spread opinion that the Latter-day Saints were democratic in their party sympathies. Such an idea had naturally been the outgrowth of the favorable consideration given to the Mormon people in the halls of Congress by democratic leaders. That political preferences should be based upon religious sympathies was foreign to the minds of most of the leaders in those days. The Presidency of the Church was, therefore, beset by partisans of both classes in the contentions of those times. The Church Authorities had stated in the most unequivocal manner that men must cast their political lot in response to the dictates of their own conscience. It was not an easy matter, however, to move politically in a fixed direction. Church interests and political interests often ran along cross roads.

In his journal of November 3, 1892, President Woodruff wrote: "I had a visit today from certain prominent politicians who were not members of the Church. They seemed anxious to sew up the mouth of the Presidency so that the latter should have nothing to say in political matters. Presidents Cannon, Smith, and I answered them." President Woodruff further expressed his right as an American citizen to exercise his franchise in the interest of any political party with which he saw fit to ally himself. He was unwilling to concede that there could be any circumstance whatever, politically, in which he might not raise his voice for the protection of the people. He claimed also the right to warn the people against the rule of the unrighteous. The political destinies, however, of the state, he did not regard as bound up in the religious destiny of the Church. He recognized the distinction between the two; nor did he assume an unfriendly attitude toward those who did not see as he saw, politically. However, he thought it both the privilege and the duty of Church men to exercise their political judgment. He never yielded to the argument that because the political influence of a Church leader was likely to be too great he should therefore not be permitted to exercise any political influence whatever.

The year 1893 was specially noted for the dedication of the Salt Lake Temple on the 6th of April, the sixty-third anniversary of the organization of the Church. The early part of the year had been occupied by the Church leaders in the preparations made for that grand event.

{582} The conference opened on the 4th. It was largely attended, and there was an inspired joy in the hearts of the Latter-day Saints who had gathered from all parts of the Church to take part in the dedicatory services. In his journal President Woodruff wrote: "I attended the dedication of the Temple. The spirit and power of God rested upon us. The spirit of prophecy and revelation was upon us, and the hearts of the people were melted and many things were unfolded to our understanding." President Woodruff offered the dedicatory prayer at the first meeting.

On the 7th of the month three meetings were held in the Temple, and the services were continued from that time until the 24th of April, in order that the people from every stake in Zion could attend and participate in the blessings of that occasion President Woodruff attended twenty-one of those meetings, but before the end of these daily services had been reached he was obliged to retire, and was confined to his bed for a number of days, indeed his sickness brought him to the point of death.

In the dedication of the Salt Lake Temple he witnessed the fulfillment of a dream recorded in his journal many years before. In his dream he had received from President Young the keys of the Temple and was told by him to go in and dedicate it to the Lord and to admit all who were seeking salvation. The opportunity, therefore, was given to all who were in the least worthy to attend these services. It is not too much to say that the dedication of that Temple had an important effect on the faith and conduct of a great many Latter-day Saints who had heretofore been indifferent.

There had been a general interest among all classes throughout the City in the completion of the Temple. It had been in process of construction for more than a generation. The day of its completion was, therefore, a land mark in the history of the state. Its architecture was striking and to the non-Mormons the ceremonies and religious devotions of the people, who would go there to worship, were peculiar. Thousands of strangers within the city of the Saints would desire to see the great Mormon Temple. It would thereafter become one of the wonders of the world, an object of curiosity and wonderment to thousands of people who in years to come would gaze upon it. There had been in the early nineties a fraternal interest among all classes. The {583} Gentiles of Salt Lake City were therefore invited to inspect the Temple just prior to its dedication. Many prominent men were conducted through its various rooms and permitted to inspect its internal adornments and admire its rich architectural designs.

Among the remarks made by President Woodruff at that time was that the power of the adversary should be broken, and from that time on, the enemy would have less power over the Saints and meet with greater failures in oppressing them. He also said that from that time a renewed interest in the gospel message would be awakened throughout the world.

Lorenzo Snow was appointed as first President of the new Temple. He selected as his counselors Bishop John R. Winder, and Adolph Madsen.

The Salt Lake Temple now became the most striking and interesting building in the Church. Its spirit, like that of other Temples, has had a far reaching influence upon the lives of those who accepted its sacred teachings. That influence is, of course, incomprehensible to those not of the Mormon faith.

The 28th of August that year was one of peculiar interest to President Woodruff and the people generally. On that day he left with the Tabernacle Choir, which was to take part in a great musical contest in the World's Fair at Chicago. President Woodruff and his counselors were provided with a Pullman car and everything was done to make the journey for him comfortable, as he was in a poor state of health at the time and hardly fitted for such a journey. En route they visited Denver and Kansas City. At the former place the Choir sang in one of the churches.

At Independence, Missouri, they were received by the mayor and other prominent men. On the Temple block the Choir rendered sweet music. President Woodruff wrote in his journal, as follows: "The mayor of Independence had lost one arm in the war, but the one he had left was kindly given to me while I was with him. One striking incident worthy of record is this: I went through Jackson County with Harry Brown in 1834 on a mission to the Southern States. At that time we traveled secretly lest our lives should be taken by mobocrats; now in 1893, the mayor of Independence and hosts of others bid us welcome to the city. How great the contrast, and we ascribe the honor and praise to God, our Heavenly Father."

{584} During their stay, and on September 9th, President Woodruff, as a western pioneer addressed in the festive hall a large assembly. He spoke with vigor and with a clear, strong voice, and was listened to with rapt attention. President Cannon also spoke, and the Salt Lake Choir rendered music for the occasion. President Woodruff reached home on the 17th of September.

In October of that year, Congress passed a bill restoring the property of the Church. This act brought some financial relief and was a source of satisfaction to the Saints generally. Litigation, however, over Church property had been a source of great waste to it. Many who had urged the confiscation of Church property had realized some of their hopes in the dispossession of it as the litigation over the property had been a source of wealth to them, and although their hopes had been realized, their motives had been revealed.

The situation, at this time, was further relieved at the November election by the triumph of a citizen's ticket. The loss of the City to the anti-Mormon element was a source of great disappointment. It did much, however, to check the opposition and bring about a greater measure of peace.

On the 7th of December President Woodruff recorded the visit of Alexander Nickelsen, a dignitary of the Russian government. President Woodruff gave him a photo of himself and two volumes of the history of Utah. On this occasion he wrote: "We are being visited by the great men of the earth. The revelations of God are being fulfilled concerning Zion."

On the 19th of December the Liberal party of Utah dissolved, a circumstance which gave further assurances of peace and good will in the Territory. This action, no doubt, was brought about by the recent action of the House of Representatives in passing a bill for the admission of Utah as a state. The Ministers of Utah, by a decision of the majority, discontinued their opposition to Utah's statehood. In summing up the events of the year 1893, he wrote in his journal: "The greatest event of the year is the dedication of the Salt Lake Temple. Great power was manifest on that occasion. Nearly fifty years ago while in the City of Boston I had a vision of going to the Rocky Mountains to build a Temple there and to dedicate it to the Lord."

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