By James Amasa Little
Utah Historical Quarterly, 14:1–4 (1946), 26–132
[p.25] Lorenzo Dow Young was born October 19, 1807, in Smyrna, Chenango County, state of New York, the son of John Young and Nabby Howe Young.1 John Young was the son of Joseph and Elizabeth Tredway Young, and Joseph Young was the son of William and Hannah Young, who it is believed came from Europe and took up land in Hopkinton, Middlesex County, Massachusetts. William's will was probated in May, 1647. In it he mentions a daughter Elizabeth, and his son Joseph, as his only son. On the maternal side the ancestry of Lorenzo D. Young has been traced back to Colonel Samuel Howe, of Sudbury, Massachusetts, who was born in October, 1642, a little over twenty years after the Pilgrims landed on Plymouth Rock. Lorenzo in his infancy was a feeble child and his weakness continued into his boyhood.
He remembers his mother as afflicted with consumption for many years, and as a praying, fervent woman. He says of her: "She frequently called me to her bedside and counseled me to be a good man that the Lord might bless my life. On one occasion she told me that if I would not neglect to pray to my Heavenly Father, he would send a guardian angel to protect me in the dangers to which I might be exposed." His pious, faithful friend and mother drooped and died on the 11th of June, 1814, when Lorenzo was only six years and seven months old.
Soon after her death his father broke up house-keeping, and Lorenzo was sent about sixty miles to live with Mr. John P. Green, who had married his elder sister, Rhoda, and who resided near Cayuga Bridge, in Cayuga County, New York. It being a marshy, malarious country, Lorenzo was taken very sick with fever and ague and suffered severely.
In the autumn of 1815 the family removed to Tyrone, Schuyler County. In the meantime Lorenzo's father had taken up land on [p.26] which to make a home about six miles east of an isolated settlement named Painted Post, between which place and Father Young's, John P. Green was the only settler. Between their houses was a dense forest in which wolves were very numerous. At one time several chased Lorenzo to the house of Mr. Green, and he seemed barely to escape with his life.
During the winter of 1815 and 1816, Lorenzo's brothers, John, Joseph, Phineas, and Brigham were chopping timber and clearing land for their father, and as there were no female members of the family, Lorenzo was taken home to cook and assist in the house.
In the autumn of 1816, when about nine years old, Lorenzo had a peculiar dream which he has told as follows:
I thought I stood in an open space of ground and saw a good, well defined road leading, at an angle of forty-five degrees, into the air as far as I could see. I heard a noise similar to that of a carriage in rapid motion, at what seemed the upper end of the road. In a moment it came into sight, drawn by a pair of beautiful white horses. The carriage and harness appeared brilliant with gold, and the horses traveled with the speed of the wind. It was manifested to me that the Savior was in the carriage, and that it was driven by His servant. It stopped near me and the Savior inquired, "Where is your Brother Brigham?" After answering His question He inquired about my other brothers, and concerning my father. His queries being answered satisfactorily, He stated that He wanted us all but especially my brother Brigham. The team then turned about and returned the way it came. So powerful was the impression made on me that I slept no more that night. The idea seized me that some great evil was about to befall us. I then saw no other interpretation to the dream. Subsequent events proved that it foreshadowed our future. It was evidently fulfilled, when my father and all of his family entered into the new and everlasting Covenant. I told my father the dream and my fears. He comforted me with the assurance that he did not think my interpretation correct.
In the winter of 1817–18, Lorenzo went to live with his brother-in-law, James Little, in the town of Aurelius, Cayuga County, New York, to learn the business of gardening and tree raising. He remained there about five years.
In the summer of his twelfth year Lorenzo was put upon a race horse by Mr. Little, and sent on an errand. The horse was too spirited for a boy of his age safely to ride. It became [p.27] frightened and unmanageable, turning so rapidly around that the lad was thrown out of the saddle. As he fell his bare foot slipped through the iron stirrup, where he hung with his head just touching the ground. With his left hand he still grasped the bridle rein firmly on that side. The animal endeavored to kick him, but fortunately did not succeed on account of being too close.
The hold on the bridle rein prevented the horse from running away and caused him to turn around almost in a circle. In danger we often think with great rapidity. Lorenzo comprehended his situation in a moment, but at first could see no way to escape having his brains dashed out,
He was suddenly impressed to get hold of the stirrup with his right hand and make an effort to raise himself up so as to get his foot loose. By a great effort he succeeded in drawing himself up and slipping the stirrup over his foot; he then let go all hold and fell to the ground. The horse went at full speed for home and his stable. Lorenzo got up and found he was not much hurt. His mother's promise flashed into his mind, and he was filled with thankfulness that a kind providence had preserved him from serious harm.
In the autumn of 1822, Lorenzo left Aurelius and went about sixty miles to Hector, Schuyler County, New York. A Methodist revival was in progress in the town, and religious excitement ran so high that it became fashionable to make a profession of religion. So far as he knew, every young person in the neighborhood but himself professed to "receive a saving change of heart," before the close of the revival. As was usual during periods of religious excitement, meetings were held nightly. There it was the custom to request those who were seeking religion to come forward to a seat reserved for the purpose, "to be prayed for."
Young Lorenzo was somewhat affected by the prevailing intense religious feeling, and one evening attended a meeting presided over by Elder Gilmore, the leading minister. Two or three other preachers were also present. When the usual invitation was given for the penitent to come forward to the anxious seat, Lorenzo gave way to the spirit of the occasion and went forward with others. A considerable time was spent in prayer when all except him professed to have received a "change of heart." The meeting was closed, and Elder Gilmore proposed that those who were willing, should retire to a private house with the young man and continue in prayer until he was converted.
As proposed they retired to a neighboring house where the praying continued until two o'clock in the morning. Lorenzo was then asked if he had not received a "change of heart" and when he replied that he had not realized any change, they were disposed to give him up as a reprobate. Elder Gilmore told him he had [p.28] "sinned away the day of grace," and asserted that he would never offer another prayer for him. Although reverential in his nature there was nothing congenial to the youth in sectarian religion.2
The following morning Lorenzo left the scene of this religious excitement, returned to Cayuga County, to a place about three miles from Auburn, and went to work for a Mr. Munroe to learn the trade of a blacksmith. Munroe carried on a considerable business, employed a number of young men, and also several young boys as apprentices. After the labors of the day, Mr. Munroe and the workmen often gathered around the center table in the sitting room to while away the evening in a game of cards, in which Lorenzo was invited to participate.
Lorenzo's father had counseled him to never play a game of cards. "Not," said he, "that there is any particular harm in playing a game of cards, but card-playing has a tendency to lead those who follow it into other vices." He was firm in his determination to keep this counsel though it cost him his situation. Mr. Munroe did not appear disposed to receive any apology for not accepting his invitation; but Lorenzo arose, took up a Bible that was near him, and read during the evening, while the remainder of the company continued to play cards. The most of Mr. Munroe's workmen were inclined to infidelity, and the course taken by Lorenzo that evening brought upon him much annoyance and ridicule.
Although infidel in principle, Mr. Munroe was kind to those around him and manifested that kindness to Lorenzo as well as to others. He placed in his hand several infidel books, among them the writings of Voltaire and Thomas Paine.
For the first time the youth learned that skeptical works could not be read without leaving their impression on the mind, and that a continuation of reading them must eventually lead to confirmed infidelity.
The teachings of his parents had given him considerable faith in God, and to some extent he enjoyed the light of His spirit. He says: "It has since been evident to me that the reading of those infidel books stirred up an antagonism in me between the spirit of God and of skepticism. The struggle between them, in my bosom, continued about a year and was a source of great affliction. It became evident that the Lord through His spirit was trying to save me from error and darkness. I would advise all my young friends and especially those who have had the testimony of the spirit of truth, to never, by any act of theirs, invite the spirit of infidelity unto their hearts lest they fall away into darkness and go down to death."
[p.29]Lorenzo worked for Mr. Munroe for a year and a half when he was severely injured in lifting a saw log and was under the doctor's care for two months or more. He was pronounced incurable; however, he finally recovered but not so as to work at the forge again. He left Mr. Munroe and went on a visit to his brother-in-law, John P. Green, who lived one hundred and fifty miles from Auburn in Watertown, Jefferson County, state of New York. For some time his health continued poor and he became so weak as to keep to his bed most of the time.
As he lay one day where he could see the family in their ordinary occupations, he suddenly heard most beautiful singing, and was not long discovering from whence it came.
Standing side by side on the foot-board of the bedstead on which he lay were two beautiful, seraph-like beings about the size of children seven or eight years old. They were clothed in white and appeared surprisingly pure and heavenly. He was certain of being fully awake, and to him these juvenile appearing personages were realistic. They disappeared, the music ceased, and he turned and asked two of his sisters who were in the room if they had not heard the music. Their reply that they had heard nothing, surprised him.
At Watertown, the 6th of June, 1826, Mr. Young married Miss Persis Goodall, daughter of Joel and Mary (or Molly) Swain Goodall, and soon after moved to Mendon, Monroe County New York.3 There he had a remarkable dream or vision which made a life-long impression upon him. We will let him relate it:
In a moment I was out of my body and fully conscious of the change. I was sensible that I had passed through what we call death. I felt and acted as naturally as I had done in the body, with all my sensations as complete without as with it. At once a heavenly guide was by my side dressed in the purest white. For a short time I remained in the room where lay my body. My sister Fanny, who was living with me, and my wife, were weeping bitterly over my death. I sympathized with and desired to comfort them in their grief. I realized I was under the direction of the man who was by me, and begged of him the privilege of speaking to them. He replied that he could not grant it. My guide, for so I will call him, said "Now let us go." Space seemed annihilated. Apparently we went up and almost instantly were in another world, of the magnitude of which I formed no conception. It was filled with innumerable hosts of beings as naturally human as those among whom I had lived. All sorts of people [p.30] were intermingled, and some of them I recognized as acquaintances in the world I had just left. My guide informed me that they had not yet arrived at their final abiding place. Their surroundings and appearance indicated they were in a state of expectancy, and anxiously awaiting some event of considerable importance to them.
Going on from this place my guide said, "I will now show you the condition of the damned." Pointing with his hand he said, "Look." I looked down a distance which to me appeared incomprehensible, and gazed on a vast region filled with multitudes of intelligences. I saw every thing with the most minute distinctness, and the vast multitudes of people seemed extremely miserable. "These," said my guide, "are they who have rejected the means of salvation that were placed within their reach, and in that way have brought upon themselves the condemnation you behold."
The expression of the countenances of these sufferers was clear and distinct, and conveyed to me a consciousness that no one but themselves were to blame for their forlorn condition. This scene affected me so much that I could not refrain from weeping. Again my guide said, "Now let us go." In a moment we were at the gate of a beautiful city, which was opened, and we passed in. I cannot describe its beauty and grandeur. It was clothed in the purest light I had ever beheld, brilliant but not glaring nor unpleasant.
My guide rather hurried me on through this place to another still higher, but connected with it. It was still more beautiful and glorious than what I had seen, with an extent and magnificence incomprehensible to me. My guide pointed to a mansion of wonderful perfection and beauty, clothed with fire and intense light. It appeared to be a fountain of light from which emanated brilliant scintillations of glory, but I could form no conception of the extent of these emanations.
Said my guide, "That is where God resides." He permitted me to enter this glorious city but a short distance and, without speaking, motioned that we would retrace our steps.
We were soon in the adjoining city, where I met my mother and a sister who died when six or seven years old. These I recognized at once. After mingling with the pure and happy beings of this place a short time, my guide again said, "Let us go." When we were through the gate by which we had entered the city, my guide said, "Now [p.31] we will return." I could distinctly see the world from which we started, but at a vast distance below us. It looked cloudy and dark. I was filled with sadness, I might say horror, at the idea of returning there, for at first, I had hoped to stay in that heavenly place I had so long desired to see. Up to this time the thought had not occurred to me that I should be required to return.
I pleaded with my guide to let me remain. He replied that I must return and take my body, for I was only permitted to visit these heavenly cities before I had filled my mission in yonder world. He promised me if I was faithful to the grace of God which would be imparted to me, if I would bear a faithful testimony to the inhabitants of the earth of a sacrificed and risen Savior and of His atonement for man, in a little time I should be permitted to return and remain. To me the circumstances, the words, and the spirit that accompanied them were real and I was comforted and inspired with faith. I accepted the great mission that was then placed upon me and have never ceased to realize its responsibilities.
We returned to my house where I found my body, apparently dressed for burial. With great reluctance I took possession of it to resume the avocations of life and endeavor to fill the mission I had received. I awoke and found myself in bed, where I lay and meditated the remainder of the night on what had been shown me. Call it a dream, a vision, or what I may, it was as real to every sense of my being as anything I have passed through. The memory of this dream is still clear and distinct, after the lapse of over fifty years with their many changes.
From that time, although belonging to no church, the spirit was with me to testify to the sufferings and atonement of the Savior. As I had opportunity I exhorted the people in public and in private to exercise faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, to repent of their sins and live lives of righteousness and good works.
About the 1st of November, 1828, Lorenzo returned to Hector, Schuyler County, where lived quite a number of people of the Campbellite faith.4 Squire Chase, a prominent man in the [p.32] neighborhood, had been a preacher of the sect and informed Lorenzo that his people were cold in their religion and had not held any meetings for several months. A few days after Lorenzo's arrival he went with Mr. Chase about two miles to a Methodist meeting. Up to this time Lorenzo had joined no church, but professed religion, attended meetings, and preached when he had an opportunity. When returning from meeting he remarked to Mr. Chase, "Why cannot we have meetings in our neighborhood as well as go so far to them?" Mr. Chase replied, "We are all dead; we should have meetings but I do not feel like preaching; if you will do the preaching I will appoint a meeting." This he did.
The first two meetings few attended, but on the third one the house was crowded. The interest increased until meetings were held nearly every night in the week. A reformation started among the people and quite a number were converted. Campbellite doctrines had long prevailed in the neighborhood and the converts desired baptism, as that was a prominent principle in the Campbellite faith.5 Mr. Chase urged Lorenzo to perform the ceremony, but he excused himself, not feeling authorized to administer the ordinance, as he had not joined any religious denomination. He finally utterly refused to do it, and Squire Chase sent forty or fifty miles for Elder Brown, a regular Campbellite preacher, who came, baptized about sixty converts and organized a branch of the Campbellite Church out of the fruits of Lorenzo's labors.
This was about the close of the year, and a circumstance occurred of interest as showing the intense religious excitement that prevailed.
For some time before Christmas evening, the young people of the place had expected to have a fashionable ball, but the interest in this had been absorbed by the reformation, and on Christmas evening Lorenzo Young preached to a crowded congregation in the same room where the once anticipated ball was to have been.
At the close of his discourse he remarked to the people the great and blessed change that had occurred, and requested those who were anxious for salvation to come forward to be prayed for. Between twenty and thirty of the young people, many of whom belonged to the first families of the place, came forward, all of whom afterwards made a profession of religion. Elder Brown and Squire Chase quite exhausted their persuasive power to induce Lorenzo to join their church, take a circuit and go to preaching, but the latter emphatically declared that he would not preach the Campbellite Doctrines. If he preached at all it would be the [p.33] whole Bible as he understood it. Elder Brown said he could do so, as he did not think he would preach anything wrong. A spirit worked with him to do all the good he could but not to join any religious denomination, and at this time it prevailed against all temptation. Doubtless the guardian angel, promised him by his mother, watched over his spiritual as well as temporal welfare. He says: "I think at the time of this reformation I had as much of the spirit of the Lord with me as I could well enjoy in my ignorance of the Gospel in its purity. I was full of the testimony of the truth as I understood it."
This reformation in Hector was a means of temptation to Lorenzo as he had diligently labored to lead the people to the truth and Elder Brown had stepped in and reaped the results of his labors. Because he would not join the Campbellite Church and preach for them, he was entirely thrown aside. The adversary reasoned with him thus: "What is the use of all your preaching? It does not amount to anything to you; you had better attend to your own business, and let such nonsense alone." He listened to these suggestions until he grieved the spirit of the Lord. He no longer had the spirit to pray or to exhort the people to lives of righteousness, and was in this condition for several months.
In all this lethargy and darkness Lorenzo knew there was such a thing as joy in the spirit of God; that in the testimony of Jesus there was light and peace, and that he had accepted a mission to bear this testimony while he remained on the earth. Knowing these things he became alarmed at his condition and feared that the Lord had forsaken him. He humbled himself in fasting and prayer and promised the Lord that if he would return his good spirit he would not again reject its suggestions.
Matters continued thus for several weeks. In one of his seasons of prayer and supplication he sensibly felt that he was again visited by the Holy Spirit. This encouraged him in exhorting the people whenever an opportunity presented. He went from home on the Sabbath and held meetings, and was laboring in this way when he first saw the Book of Mormon and heard the Gospel. He says of these events: "This and other experiences have convinced me that when we question the Holy Spirit it is likely to be grieved and leave us to ourselves, when our darkness will be greater then if we had never enjoyed its influences. Perhaps this incident in my life may suggest wisdom to others."
In November, 1829, Lorenzo recalls:
I removed to a place called Hector Hill. In February, 1831, my father, my brothers Joseph and Brigham, and Brother Heber C. Kimball came to my house, bringing [p.34] with them the Book of Mormon.6 They were on their way to visit some Saints in Pennsylvania. I was cautious in religious matters and therefore cautious about receiving the doctrines they preached. I read and compared the Book of Mormon with the Bible, and fasted and prayed that I might come to a knowledge of the truth. The spirit seemed to say, "This is the way; walk ye in it." It was all the testimony I could get at the time, and was not altogether satisfactory.
The following May, Elder Levi Gifford came into the neighborhood and desired to preach. Lorenzo's brother, John Young, belonging to the Methodist Church, had charge of their meeting house, and gave Elder Gifford permission to preach in it. The appointment was circulated for a meeting the evening of the next day, which was Saturday. The circuit preacher, Elder Midbury, arose to his feet and said:
"Brethren, sisters, and friends: I have been a preacher of the Gospel for twenty-two years. I do not know that I have been the means of converting a sinner, or of reclaiming a poor back slider, but this I do know, that the doctrine of more revelation, which the stranger has preached to us tonight is a deception, that Joe Smith is a false prophet, and that the Book of Mormon is from hell."
After talking awhile in this strain he concluded. Lorenzo immediately arose to his feet and asked the privilege of speaking, which was granted. He said:
Elder Midbury in his remarks entirely ignores the possibility of more revelation, and acknowledges that he has been a preacher of the Gospel for twenty-two years, without knowing that he has been the means of converting a sinner or of reclaiming a poor backslider; but still he claims to know that the doctrine he has just heard is false, that Joseph Smith is an impostor, and that the Book of Mormon is from hell. Now how is it possible for him to know these things unless he has received a revelation?
When Lorenzo sat down, a strong man by the name of Thompson, well known in the neighborhood as a belligerent character, stepped up to Elder Gifford and demanded the proofs of the authenticity of the Book of Mormon. Elder Gifford replied, "I have said all I care about saying tonight." "Then," said Mr. [p.35] Thompson, "we will take the privilege of clothing you with a coat of tar and feathers and of riding you out of town on a rail." In the meantime four or five others came to the front.
Acting under the impulse of the moment, true to instincts of his nature to protect the weak against the strong, Lorenzo stepped between Elder Gifford and Mr. Thompson. Looking the latter in the eye he said, "Mr. Thompson, you cannot lay your hand upon this stranger to harm a hair of his head, without you do it over my dead body." Mr. Thompson replied by more threats of violence, which brought Mr. John Young to his feet. With a voice and manner that carried with it unusual power, he commanded Mr. Thompson and party to take their seats, and continued: "Gentlemen, if you offer to lay a hand on Elder Gifford you shall pass through my hands, after which, I think you will not want any more tonight." Mr. Thompson and party quieted down and took their seats.
The Elders have since passed through so many similar experiences that they have ceased to be a novelty. Such powerful antagonism of spirits manifesting themselves in muscle, in a Christian Church, indicated a new era in religious influences.
In the spring of 1831 there was a two-day meeting of the Saints in the state of Pennsylvania, about sixty miles from where Lorenzo Young lived. He attended it and became fully convinced of the divine origin of the Latter-day work. The following summer he settled up his business and started for the Latter-day Zion in the state of Missouri. On his way out of the state of New York, he visited his brother-in-law, Elder John P. Green, in the town of Avon. As it was here that Lorenzo became fully identified with the Saints by obedience to the Gospel, we will relate the circumstances of his visit to Avon, verbally, as he gave it:
As I arrived at Mr. Green's on Saturday, he said "Brother Lorenzo, I am very glad you have come. I have an appointment to preach tomorrow at 1 o'clock, eight miles from here, but I am very unwell and not able to fill it. I want you to do it for me." Lorenzo marveled at the idea of filling the appointment of a Mormon Elder and said, "You want me to preach as a Mormon Elder when I have not even joined the Church?"
Lorenzo continued:
He still desired me to go, with the assurance that all would be right. Evan M. Green, his son, accompanied me with a revelation on the organization of the church which his father directed him to read to the congregation. Arriving at the place appointed, I found the house full and a Baptist preacher in the stand. I introduced myself [p.36] to the minister: he invited the congregation to sing; I prayed and E. M. Green read the revelation. I arose and commenced to speak; the good spirit was with me. I had much freedom and talked about one hour and a quarter. At the close I gave the privilege for anyone to speak who wished. The Baptist minister arose and bore his testimony that what they had heard was true Bible doctrine and could not be questioned.
After the meeting closed five persons gathered around me and wished to be baptized. Knowing I had not received the Ordinance, I put them off, telling them that when Elder Green came to fill the next appointment that had been given out for him, he would baptize them. Among those who at that time requested baptism were the Brothers Joseph and Chandler Holbrook, and Mary Ann Angell, afterwards the wife of Brigham Young.7
The following morning I told Elder Green that as I had believed in the Gospel for some time and preached as a Mormon Elder, I thought it was time that I was baptized. He administered the Ordinances, ordained me an Elder, and I went on my way rejoicing.
In due time Lorenzo arrived at Olean Point, on the Allegheny River, one of the streams that form the headwaters of the Ohio. Several families had gathered there with the view of descending the river in rude, low boats of their own construction. The party consisted of Phineas H. and Lorenzo D. Young, Daniel and Potter Bowen, Lyman Leonard, a brother from Canada, whose name is forgotten, and Joel Sanford, brother-in-law of the Young's by marriage with their youngest sister, Louisa, who afterwards died in Caldwell County, Missouri, soon after the Saints were driven out of Clay County.
The company built three boats and started down the river in the month of November. The water was low and falling. It was the lot of Lorenzo Young with others, nearly every morning, to get into the water and work the boats off of the sandbars on which they were anchored at night. The water was always cold and at times the ice was half an inch thick. This very much aggravated the whooping cough with which Lorenzo Young was afflicted.
After journeying this way for three weeks they arrived at Pittsburgh, at the head of the Ohio River. Three days before [p.37] arriving there Mrs. Persis Young was taken sick, and did not feel as though she could travel farther. The two brothers, Phineas and Lorenzo, concluded to remain awhile in Pittsburgh, as they were nearly destitute of money.
Soon after tying up the boat, it was noised about that they were a party of Mormons on their way to Zion. Some ideas of the Saints in regard to gathering, although often stated erroneously, had obtained quite an extensive circulation in the country. Many people came to see them and at first stared as though beholding a great curiosity. A room was rented and both families moved into it. One boat was retained, and the remainder of the company continued their journey. The way this company traveled would be thought a novel and hard way for Saints to gather in these days of railroads.
Respectable-looking men inquired if there were Mormon preachers in the party. An affirmative answer elicited a wish that they could hold a meeting. The Brothers Young soon learned that Mr. William Harris, of whom they rented their room, had met an Elder of the Church, learned something of the Gospel and had been baptized. Up to that time he had made no open profession of having joined the Saints. There was a large room in the same house where lived Phineas and Lorenzo Young, and Brother Harris offered it to them for holding meetings.
At the first meeting, which was held in the evening, a goodly number gathered into it, and the Elders Young spoke on the revelation of the Gospel. Before closing they gave the privilege for any one to speak who wished. An elderly lady arose and stated that she had been seeking for the truth many years; and had read the Bible through from Genesis to Revelations fourteen times with a prayerful heart that she might come to a knowledge of the truth. She testified that what the Elders had said was the first Gospel discourse she had heard, and almost in the words of the eunuch to Philip, she said, "There is water; what hinders me from being baptized?"
The house stood on the bank of the Allegheny River; the night was dark, and it was thought dangerous to try to baptize her, but she could not rest until her wish was gratified. She reminded the Elders of the case of the jailer who was baptized in the self same hour of the night in which he believed. A lantern was obtained and the Elders, followed by the people, went to the bank of the river. The bank was steep but Phineas H. Young held on to Lorenzo while he baptized the woman. They continued to hold meetings and to baptize until over thirty persons had united with the Church. They had authority to preach, baptize and confirm but not sufficient knowledge of the organization of the Church to organize a branch. The following winter of 1831–32, Elder [p.38] Sidney Rigdon passed through Pittsburgh,8 gave them instructions on this subject and they organized a branch and continued their meetings.
After events have passed, there is often seen in them a providence leading to important results. On the way of these brothers from the state of New York to Missouri,9 the only objective point in which they felt any interest, a seeming chance sickness induced them to stop for a season in Pittsburgh, where they found a people ready to receive the truth. They preached the Gospel, built up a branch of the Church, and were evidently led there for the accomplishment of this important work. As will be seen, they subsequently went to Kirtland instead of going on west. But before going there another place was destined to hear the Gospel from them. As before stated, on the arrival of these brothers at Pittsburgh, their finances were low. Phineas Young soon obtained labor, Lorenzo was not so successful. He walked the streets of the town day after day in search of a job, willing to accept anything he could possibly do. Finally he met a man who gave him some encouragement. Said he, "If you are a mechanic I can give you a job." He felt constrained to answer, "Yes," although he could not really lay much claim to the profession. "Well," said the man "I want twelve dozen steamboat trunks made." Lorenzo replied, "I am your man; but I'm traveling, have stopped here on account of sickness in my family, and have no place to work nor tools to work with." The man assured him that he had a shop, tools and everything to work with, and at once took him to his shop. The latter did not really comprehend what a steamboat trunk was but told the man he was from the Eastern States [p.39] where probably they did work differently from what they did in this country, and that he would like him to lay out a trunk for him that he might make no mistake. The employer picked up a suitable board, laid it on a bench and with square and compass soon laid out a trunk. "There," said he, "That is the way I do it. but if it don't suit you, do it as you have a mind to," and he walked out of the shop.
With Lorenzo food and comforts for his family were at stake. He knelt down and asked the Lord to enable him to do the work in an acceptable manner, arose and went at the task with a light heart. He put several trunks together that day. Towards evening his employer came in, examined the work carefully and said, "That is good enough; if you will do them all as well as that, it will do." Lorenzo put together twelve dozen trunks, covered and finished them to his employer's satisfaction, and was paid the money for his labor. He felt thankful for this kindly providence, and from that time found labor to make his family quite comfortable.
In the spring of 1832 it was suggested in the Pittsburgh branch that Lorenzo should take a mission to his native place in the state of New York, and the branch unanimously voted to that effect.
Lorenzo started on his mission about the 1st of April, on horseback. Near the close of the first day he called at a farmhouse and asked the owner if he could stay with him overnight, at the same time informing him that he was a minister of the Gospel. The former replied that he could not well do so as he was not much in the habit of keeping strangers. Lorenzo asked him if he was a professor of religion. Answering in the affirmative, he was asked if he remembered the counsel of the Savior to His disciples, to be careful to entertain strangers, for in so doing they might entertain angels unawares. The former dropped his head, meditated a moment, asked Lorenzo to dismount, invited him into the house and directed one of his sons to take good care of his horse. They were soon engaged in conversation.
As the day closed four or five stalwart sons came in from the labors of the field to whom Lorenzo was introduced as a stranger who wished to share their hospitality for the night. After supper an interesting conversation was kept up for the evening. When the time came for retiring to bed Lorenzo said that when circumstances permitted, he was in the habit of bowing in prayer at the close of the labors of the day, and asked the master of the house if he was willing to call his family together and permit him to pray with them. This was assented to.
The following morning his horse was brought out with oats tied on the saddle for his midday feed, the lady of the house furnished him with a lunch, and he went on his way rejoicing. At the end of the second day's travel he found shelter in a settler's [p.40] cabin. From there, two routes led to Geneseo, one by the main road, the other along a raftsman's trail up the Allegheny River, only practicable for horses and footmen, for a distance of about eighty miles, with only two cabins of settlers. It was a lonesome route but saved some fifty miles of travel. This trail Lorenzo decided to take the following morning. During the evening a stranger arrived at the cabin and with him shared the hospitality of the owner. He entered into conversation with Lorenzo and evidently took him for a raftsman who had been down to Pittsburgh and disposed of his lumber, and from what followed, evidently thought he had money. The stranger inquired if he was going by the trail which he recommended. When answered in the affirmative, he said they had better keep company as the road was very lonely; and as he was on foot he proposed that Lorenzo help him along by occasionally permitting him to ride.
In the morning the stranger started early leaving Lorenzo to follow. In a few miles he overtook the stranger who at once asked the privilege of riding as he had been walking a considerable distance. Lorenzo did not feel to entertain the proposal, and pushed on followed by the curses and threats of the stranger. He rode until well in the evening, and stopped over night at the last cabin on the trail. The following day he arrived at the settlement and left his would-be companion to travel on foot.
Only one incident occurred worth noticing on the remainder of this journey. Lorenzo called at a tavern to feed his horse. In the bar-room were several men. One of these began to talk about "Old Joe Smith," [Joseph Smith, the Prophet] rather addressing his conversation to the landlord. He told many of the absurd stories that were afloat in the community, making him out a money-digger, a sheep and chicken thief and, in fact, almost everything that would degrade a man's character in the estimation of others. Lorenzo endured this with difficulty for a considerable time. The man was much larger and apparently more powerful than himself, and he knew that if he answered in defense of the Prophet there would be trouble. When the Gentile was through, Lorenzo arose to his feet and addressing himself to the man said,"You are a stranger to me, but permit me to give you some advice. Whenever you again attempt to defame a man's character try and have enough truth in it to shade it, at least a little. What you have here said about the man whom you have called 'Old Joe Smith,' is utterly false. There is not enough truth in it even to shadow it." He expected the man would try to knock him down but to his disappointment he said not a word in reply, but walked to the door and out. The last seen of him he was leaving the place. Lorenzo turned to those in the room and said, "The man whom the stranger has called 'Old Joe Smith' is about twenty-three or twenty-four years old, and nothing can be said truthfully against his moral or his religious [p.41] character. What the stranger has said is utterly false." He then turned to the landlord and asked the amount of his bill. He replied that he was welcome to what he had received, gave him his dinner, and invited him to call, if he came that way again, and he would be welcome to the hospitality of his house.
Lorenzo Young spent the summer in preaching the Gospel, had joy in his labors, and was instrumental in bringing many into the Church.
He visited the town of Hector, where through his labors, as before stated, a Campbellite Church had been organized. He preached on the principles of the Gospel in the same house he had occupied on the previous occasion. Again let him relate his singular experiences:
Soon after I commenced to talk, such a spirit of darkness and opposition prevailed in the house that for the first and only time in my life, I was entirely bound. I stood speechless. The congregation looked at me as if wondering what could be the matter. A sensation, such as I had never before felt, came over me. My tongue seemed numb or paralyzed. In a short time I began to speak in an unknown tongue and probably spoke about fifteen minutes. Soon after ceasing, the interpretation came clear and distinct to my mind, and I at once gave it to the congregation. I had no further difficulty and talked about an hour. My old friend, Squire Chase, arose and testified that what he had heard was the truth, and that the power of God had been made manifest. Their hearts were softened by the good Spirit, and he and several others shed tears.10
I had prior engagements to meet a considerable distance from Hector. These would keep me away about two weeks. I regretted the necessity of going and left an appointment for another meeting on my return. I indulged the hope of establishing a branch of the Church there. In my absence Elder Brown, who had organized a Campbellite Church with converts through my labors heard that I was preaching Mormonism, and came there to counteract the results of my labors. He held meetings, visited from house to house, and repeated the extravagant stories and falsehoods about the Prophet Joseph and the Book of Mormon so extensively circulated in those early times. When I returned I found the minds of the [p.42] people filled with prejudice and bitterness. The spirit manifested that more preaching to them would be in vain, and I went away sorrowful. I have not heard that any of the people in that part of Hector township ever received the Gospel.
Father Young had sold out his property in the town of Mendon for several hundred dollars, and used it to supply the wants of the Elders. He afterwards moved 120 miles to Avon. He had served his country as a soldier in three campaigns of the Revolutionary War and at this time was drawing a pension from the government. He desired to go west to see the Prophet and this furnished him means to accompany his son to Pittsburgh. On arriving there the two brothers, Phineas and Lorenzo, purchased a family boat and with their families and their father started down the Ohio River, again with the intention of gathering with the Saints in Missouri.
As before stated in this narrative, Lorenzo's mother died when he was quite young and his father chose for a partner in life a widow, Hannah Brown. She had children by her former marriage and also by Father Young. This very naturally served to divide her family interests. When Father Young wished to to go west he was very desirous that his family should go with him, but as the wife objected when he started for the West, she went to live with one of her sons in Tyrone County, New York, about 150 miles distant. After Father Young had been in Kirtland nearly two years, she wrote to him that if he would come or send and get her she would live with him again. Lorenzo Young with a good team took his father with him and moved her to Kirtland. There she lived in quite comfortable circumstances until the time came for the Saints to evacuate Kirtland; then she objected to going to Missouri and went back to her sons in the state of New York, where she died.
About ten miles above Beardstown the Youngs tied up their boats for the night and circumstances induced them to remain there a few days. They had a horse and buggy which had been driven along the road near the bank of the river. The horse needed shoeing and nearby was a blacksmith shop which Lorenzo obtained the use of for this purpose. In splitting a bar of iron for shoes, the sledgehammer, in the hands of an assistant, parted from the handle, and with full weight fell on to the big toe of Lorenzo's foot, completely crushing it. He went to the boat and pulled off the boot, which was pretty well filled with blood. As near as practicable the toe was made to assume its natural form, dressed as well as circumstances permitted, and Lorenzo walked to the shop and completed shoeing the horse, though in great pain. In the meantime a neighboring farmer had engaged the brothers [p.43] Young to harvest and thresh twelve acres of grain. This was cut and bound without the aid of machinery, and threshed with a flail on a barn floor. On the second day of threshing Phineas H. Young gave out on account of the excessive labor and extreme heat, and turned his attention to shoemaking in the shade of the boat. As they had contracted to do the work and also needed the pay, with his father to prepare food and do a little light work, Lorenzo completed the tedious job. He now says, with the great pain he endured, he remembers it as one of the severest labors he ever performed. The Youngs continued their journey, but on arriving at Beardstown. Persis, the wife of Lorenzo, who had been quite sick for some time, was so ill it caused them to stop at this place indefinitely.
The people came to see them, soon learned they were Mormons, and expressed a wish to hear them preach. The morrow being Sunday, the Elders Young proposed to preach if a house was furnished for the purpose. Mr. Isaac Hill, since bishop for several years of the Second Ward of Salt Lake City, was then a citizen of Beardstown, and through his kindly offices the school house was opened for them. After the first meeting the people desired more teaching and in a few days five persons were baptized, among whom were Mr. Isaac Hill, and Peter Shirts, both since well known to many of the people of Utah.
In a short time Phineas went to Kirtland with Father John Young. As the Saints desired Lorenzo to remain in Beardstown, he concluded to spend the winter there, but afterwards thinking he might more readily obtain work at West Union, five miles from Beardstown, he removed there and with his labor made his family comfortable through the winter. Again, these brothers had been providentially directed to where a few persons were ready to receive the truth.
In March, 1833, Lorenzo Young followed his father and his brother Phineas to Kirtland, Ohio.11 The Kirtland Temple Committee was appointed June 6th, of that year. About that time with his team Lorenzo took Hyrum and Joseph Smith, his brother Brigham and Elder Cahoon to examine a stone quarry to see if the rock was suitable for the walls of the temple. It was decided that it would do, and a part of a load was put on the wagon. All returned to town and the rock was unloaded on the temple ground. [p.44] The Prophet remarked, "We have hauled the first load of rock for the temple." From that time Lorenzo labored on the temple, as occasion required, until its completion.
On the 17th of February, 1834, those holding the Priesthood were called together for the purpose of organizing a High Council, and Lorenzo Young was one of the number. Of this circumstance he says:
On that occasion I committed a grave error, and desire to leave a record of it for a lesson to others. The Prophet requested me to take a seat with the brethren who had been selected for this Council. Instead of doing so I arose and plead my inability to fill so responsible a position, manifesting I think, considerable earnestness in the matter. He then said he really desired I should take the place; but as I still excused myself he appointed another to fill it. I think that was the reason he never again called me to fill any important position in the Priesthood. I have since learned to go where I am called, and not set up my judgment against that of those who are called to guide in this kingdom.
The 8th of March, 1835, Lorenzo Young was set apart in Kirtland as a missionary to the Lamanites.12
When the temple was enclosed, in a meeting of the brethren called to consult about its completion, the Prophet Joseph Smith desired that a hard finish be put on its outside walls. None of the masons who had worked on the building knew how to do it. Looking around on those present his eyes rested on Lorenzo and he said, "Brother Lorenzo, I want you to take hold and put this hard finish on the walls. Will you do it?" Lorenzo replied, "Yes, I will try."
The following day with horse and buggy he went to Cleveland, twenty-two miles, determined if possible to find a man who understood the business. He had been there but a short time inquiring after such a man, when he met a young man, Artemus Millet, who said he understood the business, had just completed a job and wanted another. Lorenzo at once engaged him, put him and his tools into the buggy and returned to Kirtland.
The materials and fixtures were soon on hand to make the mortar, and work was commenced on the 2nd of November, 1835. Before the mortar was dry, Lorenzo, with a suitable tool made by [p.45] himself, marked off the walls into blocks in imitation of regular stone work, and at the proper time commenced penciling. It was the last of November and the weather daily grew colder. A Brother Stillman assisted him a day or two, but said he could not stand the cold and quit the work. Lorenzo persevered day after day, determined if possible to complete the task. When badly chilled he went into his house to get warm and again returned to the work.
The task was completed on the 8th of January, 1836, but Lorenzo was sick the last two days. He had caught a bad cold accompanied with a very severe cough, and in a few days was confined to his bed. His disease was pronounced "quick consumption," and he sank rapidly. When for two weeks he had been unable to walk, Dr. Williams, one of the brethren, came to see him. Considering his case a bad one he returned the next day and brought with him Dr. Seely, an old practicing physician, and another doctor whose name is forgotten.
They examined the patient and Dr. Seely asserted that he had not as much lungs as would fill a tea saucer. He appeared a somewhat rough, irreligious man. With what he probably considered a good natured fling at the belief of the Saints in miracles, he said to Father Young, "Unless the Lord makes your son a pair of lungs there is no hope for him." Again we will let the subject of our narrative tell his experience, when his life seemed to hang only by a thread:
I was so low and nervous that I could scarcely bear any noise in the room. The next morning after the visit of the doctors, my father came to the door of the room to see how I was, and I recall his gazing earnestly at me with tears in his eyes. As I afterwards learned he went from there to the Prophet Joseph and said to him: "My son, Lorenzo, is dying; can there not be something done for him?" The Prophet studied a few moments and replied, "Yes; of necessity I must go away to fill an appointment which I cannot put off. But you go and get my brother Hyrum, and with him get together twelve or fifteen good faithful brethren; go to the house of Brother Lorenzo and all join in prayer; one by mouth and the others repeat after him in unison. After prayer divide into quorums of three. Let the first quorum who administer anoint Brother Young with oil, then lay hands on him, one being mouth, and the other two repeating in unison with him. When all the quorums have, in succession, laid their hands on Brother Young and prayed for him, begin again with the first quorum by anointing, continuing the administration in this way until you receive a testimony that he will be restored."
[p.46] My father came with fifteen of the brethren and these instructions were strictly followed. The administrations were continued until it came the turn of the first quorum the third time. Brother Hyrum Smith led. The spirit rested mightily upon him and he was full of blessing and prophecy. He said that I should regain my health, live to go with the Saints into the bosom of the Rocky Mountains to build up a place there, and that my cellar should overflow with wine and fatness.
At that time I had not heard about the Saints going to the Rocky Mountains; possibly Brother Smith had. After he was through the administration he seemed surprised at some things he had said, and wondered at the manifestations of the spirit. I coughed no more and rapidly recovered. I had been pronounced by the best physicians in the country past all human aid. I am now a living witness of the power of God through the administrations of the Elders.13
On the 7th of March, 1835, a meeting of the Church was called in Kirtland for the purpose of blessing those who had labored or furnished means to build the House of the Lord. Lorenzo Young was one of the number, and was blessed in the name of the Lord.
He continued to live in Kirtland to labor for the support of his family and to go on missions. After receiving his blessings in the House of the Lord in the spring of 1836, he was sent by the Prophet Joseph to the western part of Ohio. He preached in a number of towns and baptized several persons.
This was a short mission, and soon after his return to Kirtland the Prophet called Lorenzo to go on a mission to the states of New York and Pennsylvania. He continued on this mission until late in the autumn, and organized a branch of the Church in the township of Hector, but several miles from where he had, by his preaching, enabled the Campbellites to organize a church. A Brother Smalley was sent into Pennsylvania with him and after two or three meetings left Lorenzo to labor alone during the season.
In the summer of 1836 Lorenzo had occasion to go to Pittsburgh, 150 miles away, on business. He had a little daughter not quite four years of age, named Lucy Ann. The first night, when [p.47] twenty-five miles from home, he dreamed her clothes caught on fire and burned her to death. So realistic was the dream it seemed the portrayal of a terrible reality. There was no more sleep for him that night. Early in the morning he drove his horse into the road with his face towards home, when some unfriendly intelligence suggested that he was not in the habit of going back after starting to accomplish a purpose.
This appealed to his pride, a weak point in humanity. He reasoned also that if he went home he would probably find his family all right—in fact that a dream was not worth much attention from a sensible person. These suggestions had so much weight with him that he turned his horse's head towards Pittsburgh, and continued his journey.
After an absence of ten or twelve days he started for home; again he put up at a hotel twenty-five miles from Kirtland. When sitting down to supper the landlady, learning where he was going, inquired if he had heard of the terrible misfortune of Mr. Young's girl being burnt to death? He was not personally known, and the landlady unwittingly gave him the first information of the affliction at home. He at once ordered his horse harnessed, and arrived home about one o'clock in the morning. Then he sensed the truthfulness of his dream, for in it he had been shown the details of the misfortune as they had transpired.
In the summer of 1837 there was much persecution in Kirtland, and many of the Saints left there for Missouri, among them Lorenzo D. Young. He sold off his property, fitted up his teams, and in the autumn, in company with Brother Isaac Decker, started for the Western Zion. On account of sickness in his family he laid by at Dublin, Indiana. In the meantime he started back on the road with his team to assist brethren who might be on the road from Kirtland. After traveling a few miles the first day he unexpectedly met his brother Brigham, who was also fleeing from persecution. Said he, "Brother Joseph Smith is on the way and you had better go back with me; wait until he comes up and go along with us." Lorenzo remained in Dublin until the Prophet and others came along, and in February, continued his journey to Missouri. On the way, in jumping from his wagon he fell and split the cap of one of his knees on a sharp stone. The injury was both painful and dangerous, and he suffered much in riding over rough roads on a loaded wagon. At Terre Haute, Indiana, his leg was examined by a surgeon, who said that if it got well it would always be stiff, but he did not believe the doctor, and had faith that he should again have the use of it. With 400 miles of travel he suffered much, but got the use of his leg the following summer, as he believed, through the administration of the Elders.
The company crossed the Mississippi River on the ice at Quincy, Illinois, and were the last to cross in that way that season. [p.48] When near the west side of the river the ice was so weak that the horses were taken from the wagons and planks were laid down on which to run the latter ashore.
In March, 1838, Brothers Young and Decker arrived in Daviess County, Missouri.14 The former purchased a farm from a Missourian, put in crops, built a house, purchased stock, planted an orchard and prepared for a permanent home. Mr. Decker rented a farm but the remainder of the company went on to Far West, twenty-two miles farther. Lorenzo and his friend Isaac Decker labored diligently during the summer, generally holding meetings on the Sabbath. Matters remained quiet around them until election day, 1838, the memorable 6th of August. The Missourians determined that the Mormons should not vote, but the latter asserted their rights, and a fight took place at the polls in the town of Gallatin, as related in Church History. Lorenzo, not feeling like attending election, did not go. This fight greatly excited the Missourians and was the beginning of serious trouble to the Saints in Daviess County.
Lorenzo lived eighteen miles from Adam-ondi-Ahman, and soon after the election he left his family on his place and accompanied by Brother Decker went there on military duty as a guard for about two weeks. After completing their term of military service the two started for home with but one horse, which they rode by turns. As they passed through the town of Gallatin, eight miles from home, Lorenzo was walking and Mr. Decker was ahead of him on the horse. About twenty rods from the road, and near a whiskey saloon, was stationed a company of Missourians. As the former was passing nearly opposite to them a party of men stopped in front of him and their leader ordered him also to stop. He was armed with a sword but the party, numbering twenty-two, were [p.49] mostly armed with rifles. Nothing was said to Brother Decker, who halted and was sitting on his horse a short distance off watching the proceedings.
The sergeant in charge of the party asked Lorenzo where he had been, where he was going, and if he was a Mormon, with many other questions, which were answered truthfully. After Lorenzo had answered one of his questions, with a profane epithet, he called him a liar. After this Lorenzo answered no more questions. The sergeant was about half drunk as were probably some of his men. He became much irritated at the silence of his prisoner and was very profane and abusive. Said he, "You have probably been robbing and burning in this section and ought to be killed. Anyhow I will make you open your mouth." He directed his men to form a half circle, a little distance from Lorenzo, evidently to concentrate the fire, and then ordered, "Make ready." In describing this scene Lorenzo says:
Every rifle was drawn on me. I prayed in my heart and felt much assurance that they would not be permitted to kill me. My life trembled in the balance, awaiting the leader's order to fire or recover arms. The latter order came. He then asked excitedly, "Now will you talk?" But I remained silent.
This performance was repeated; he was filled with wrath and commanded his men the third time, "Make ready, aim." It looked as though my time had surely come; but at this critical moment, a man in military garb armed with a sword, came running from the camp near the saloon. When near enough to be heard, he cried out, "Hold on!" The men lowered their guns, and again there was a respite for me. As he approached he demanded, like one having authority, "What are you doing?" The officer who had been abusing me replied, with an oath, "I am going to kill this Mormon." The superior officer ordered him to take his men to camp. As he did not move readily his superior drew his sword stepped in front of him and declared with an oath if he did not move at once he would take his head from his shoulders. His tone and manner indicated that he meant business, and the sergeant moved off with his men.
The officer who released me declared that the other was drunk and did not know what he was doing. He asked me many questions similar to those the other officer had asked, but in a gentlemanly manner, and I answered them frankly and truly. His heart softened and he bade me go on my way, adding, "Mr. Young, if you are ever in trouble in this war, and can do so, send for me and you shall not be hurt unless it is over my dead body." I made [p.50] a memorandum of his name, military title, etc., but regret to say that in my many moves have lost it. Again was the prophetic promise of my mother fulfilled, and my life lengthened out for some wise purpose.
In a day or two after Lorenzo arrived home, Mr. Richard Welding, of whom he had bought his farm, came to him, accompanied by three or four others and warned him to leave the country at once. Lorenzo asked, "Why must I leave? Have I not bought my land and paid for it? Have I not attended to my own business?" To which Welding replied, "Mr. Young, we do not want you to leave. You are a good citizen, and if you will only be man enough to renounce Joe Smith and your religion, we want you to remain with us; and I will protect you in your rights. The Mormons must all leave the county, and if you do not renounce them you must go too." No attention was paid to this warning, and three or four days after the occurrence a man rode up in front of Lorenzo's house when he happened to be away, called Mrs. Young to the door and again gave warning that Mr. Young and family must leave. By the mother's side stood her little boy, Joseph W. One of the men, using an oath, ordered the latter to go into the house or he would blow his brains out. The lad stepped back without his mother noticing what he was doing, took his father's rifle which was standing in the room, and before he had attracted her attention, was leveling it on the threatener. She quietly told him not to fire as they would certainly be killed if he did. He obeyed but manifested considerable belligerency for one of his age.
About five days after this warning, early in the morning, Lorenzo looked up the road towards Gallatin and saw a man on horseback coming towards his house at full speed. As he rode up he inquired, "Is your name Young?" When answered that it was, he continued, "I have ridden from Gallatin to inform you that in two or three hours there will be a company of twenty men here; they will fasten you and your family in your house and burn it down. For God's sake, if you value your wife and children, do not be here an hour from now. I have come to give you this warning as a friend, and should it be found out that I had done so I might lose my own life." Lorenzo thanked him for his kindness and the man rode off rapidly towards Gallatin. His wife was directed to prepare to leave immediately. Lorenzo attached a team to a light spring wagon, put in a bed, a few cooking utensils, a trunk of clothing, some food for the day; got his wife, his four children, William, Harriet, Joseph, and John into the wagon, fastened up the house, and started for Far West.
Lorenzo expected to return and get his goods, and the next day for that purpose obtained teams and started, but found the road strongly guarded by the enemy, who threatened to kill him [p.51] if he went on. He never obtained anything he left on the place. He started his son, William, then a lad of twelve years, with a team to go to his farm and try to bring away a load of food. Soon after he left Far West the boy was met by a party of Missourians who threatened to whip him to death, but, after consulting together decided that if he would promise to return they would not injure him. This he did, and the second effort to obtain something from the farm to help the family was a failure. These circumstances left the family very destitute, in common with many others of the Saints who had been robbed in like manner. Lorenzo had previously taken a fine pair of oxen and a new milch cow to Far West, thinking that he might possibly wish to remove there; but Clark's army15 drove the oxen into their camp and used them for beef, promising to pay for them, but Lorenzo received only the promise. These events occurred in October, 1838.
We will digress from the usual routine of this narrative to relate some circumstances connected with what had been the supposed organization of "Danites".
In the evening of February 5th, 1890, as Lorenzo and his nephew, LeGrande Young, were conversing, the former remarked that in reading Bancroft's History of Utah, he noticed the erroneous statement that an organization known as "Danites" in the days of Missouri was supposed to have originated with Apostle David W. Patten. LeGrande Young stated that he had often heard the inquiry, "Who and what were these Danites?" and he had never received a satisfactory answer; for his part he would like to hear a solution of the query. Lorenzo stated that he first heard of Dr. Avard, the founder of the "Danites" as known in Missouri, when presiding over a branch of the Church in a township occupying the southeast corner of the state of Ohio. In the days of Kirtland he was sent by the Prophet Joseph on a mission to that part of the state, and was requested to visit the branch over which Dr. Avard presided. Circumstances developed that Avard and Elder Sidney Rigdon were on quite intimate terms, and that the latter was considerably tinctured with the ideas and spirit of the former. Lorenzo Young says:
I returned to Kirtland, and in a short time was requested to attend a council of the First Presidency, which consisted of the Prophet, S. Rigdon, and F. G. Williams. I was requested by Joseph Smith to make a report of my mission, and particularly that part of it connected with Dr. Avard, and the branch of the Church over which [p.52] he presided. The impressions I had received of him were not flattering to his character for honesty and integrity. Without bringing any accusation against him, in a moderate way I expressed my views to the council. Elder Rigdon manifested his displeasure by animadverting rather sharply on my remarks. After he was through expressing his views the Prophet Joseph said, "Brother Young, I wish you to express your views of Dr. Avard without fear or favor." I expressed a wish not to do so, to which he replied that he really desired that I should. I then more fully gave my opinion that Dr. Avard was a dishonest, hypocritical man. I said to Elder Rigdon, "Give Dr. Avard time and he will prove my estimate of his character to be correct."
The Doctor attracted no further attention from me until my arrival in Far West. In the latter part of the summer, I found he was in Far West among the Saints holding secret meetings attended by a few who were especially invited. I was one of the favored few. I found the gathering to be a meeting of a secret organization of which, so far as I could learn by diligent inquiry, he was the originator and over which he presided. At one of these meetings he stated that the title by which the members of the society were known, "Danites," interpreted meant "Destroying Angels," and also that the object of the organization was to take vengeance on their enemies. Avard considered it the duty of the members to pursue them to the death, even to their homes and bedrooms. At different times new members were sworn in by taking the oath of secrecy and affiliations. The teachings and proceedings appeared to he wicked, blood-thirsty, and in direct antagonism to the principles taught by the leaders of the Church and the Elders generally. I felt a curious interest in these proceedings and determined to hold my peace and see what would develop. The culmination finally arrived. At one of the meetings Dr. Avard particularly required that all present who had been attending their meetings, should at once join the society by making the required covenants, and I was especially designated. I asked the privilege of speaking, which was granted. I began to state my objections to joining the society, and was proceeding to state my reasons and in them to expose its wickedness when Dr. Avard peremptorily ordered me to be seated. I objected to sitting down until I had fully expressed my views. He threatened to put the law of the organization in force there and then. I stood directly in front of him and was well prepared for [p.53] the occasion. I told him with all the emphasis of my nature, in voice and manner, that I had as many friends in the house as he had, and if he made a motion to carry out his threat he should not live to get out of the house for I would instantly kill him. He did not try to put his threat into execution, but the meeting broke up. From the meeting I went direct to Brother Brigham and related the whole history of the affair. He said he had long suspicioned that something wrong was going on but had seen no direct development. He added, "I will go at once to Brother Joseph, who has suspicioned that some secret wickedness was being carried on by Dr. Avard." Dr. Avard was at once cited before the authorities of the Church and cut of for his wickedness. He turned a bitter enemy of the Saints.16
At this time enemies were gathering about Far West. Major Seymour Brunson directed Brother A. P. Rockwood and Lorenzo to take their horses, go out two miles north of the town and patrol the country every night. They were ordered if they saw a man or company of men coming towards Far West, to hail them and demand the countersign, and if necessary to make the demand the second time, and if it was not given to fire on those approaching. Arriving on the ground where they were to perform their duties, the two men separated, taking different directions. It was a beautiful moonlight night. Lorenzo was on the edge of a prairie with his eye along the road when he discovered a company of mounted men coming over a swell in the ground. He retired a short distance to some timber and took a position behind the trunk of a large tree, under the shadow of its branches and twenty or thirty yards from the road. As the company came opposite him he demanded the countersign twice, as he had been ordered to do.
As they paid no attention to him he made ready to fire, intending to shoot the leader, when a sudden and forcible impression came over him to hail again. He did so and ordered them to halt. This time the leader recognized his voice and turning towards him asked, "Is that you Brother Lorenzo?" He also recognized the man as Brother Lyman Wight. He was on his way from [p.54] Adam-ondi-Ahman to Far West with a company of men to assist the Saints there. They were rejoiced to meet each other and Lorenzo was very thankful he had not obeyed orders.
Soon after the occurrence he returned to Far West. He had not had his clothes off to lay down for three weeks and on arriving home remarked to Mrs. Young that he hoped to get one good night's sleep. He can best relate what followed:
Perhaps I had slept two hours, when I was awakened by the bass drum sounding the alarm on the public square. I was soon out to see what was the matter. There were five men on the ground, of whom I inquired the cause of the alarm. They informed me that two of the brethren had been taken prisoners by the mob on Crooked River, tried by a court martial that day, and condemned to be shot the coming morning at eight o'clock. A company of men was wanted to go and rescue them. Preparations were hurried and in a short time forty mounted men, under the command of David W. Patten were ready to start.
We kept the road to a ford on Crooked River, twenty miles distant, where we expected to find the mob. As day was breaking we dismounted about a mile from the ford, tied our horses and left Brother Isaac Decker to watch them. We marched down the road some distance when we heard the crack of a rifle. O'Banion [Patrick O'Banion], who was one step in advance of me, fell. I assisted John P. Green, who was captain of my platoon, to carry him to the side of the road. We asked the Lord to preserve his life, laid him down, put a man to care for him, ran on and took our place again. The man who shot Brother O'Banion was a picket guard of the mob, who was secreted by the road-side. Colonel Patten at this time was in the advance at the head of the company. As we neared the river the firing was somewhat lively, and he turned to the left of the road with a part of the command, while Captain P. P. Pratt and others turned to the right. We were ordered to charge, which we did to the bank of the river, when the enemy broke and fled.
I snapped my gun twice at a man in a white blanket coat, and while engaged in repriming, he got out of range. A tall, powerful Missourian sprang from under the bank of the river and with a heavy sword in hand, rushed towards one of the brethren (who afterward proved to be Robert Thompson) crying out, "Run you devils or die!" Brother Thompson was also armed with a sword, but was a small man and poorly calculated to withstand the [p.55] heavy blows of the Missourian. He defended himself well, but his enemy was forcing him back towards a log over which he would doubtless soon have fallen and been slain. I ran to his aid and leveled my gun within two feet of his antagonist, but it again missed fire.
The Missourian turned on me, and Brother Thompson, for some reason, did not come to the rescue as it seems he should have done. I succeeded in parrying the Missourian's blows until he backed me to the bank of the river. A perilous situation, for I could go no further without going off the perpendicular bank, eight or ten feet to the water. In a moment I realized my chances were desperate. At this juncture the Missourian raised his sword, apparently throwing all his strength and energy into the act, as if intending to crush me with one desperate blow. As his arm extended I saw a white hand pass down the back of his head and between his shoulders. For a moment his arm seemed paralyzed, giving me sufficient time to deal him a desperate blow with the breech of my gun, which parted at the handle, sending the butt some distance from me, and bending the barrel (as was afterward ascertained) ten inches. As my enemy fell his sword dropped from his grasp; I seized it and dealt him three desperate blows on the neck. At the same time John P. Green, the captain of my ten, came up and reported that Colonel Patten was killed. In the midst of much excitement I reached him. He lay on the ground badly wounded in the abdomen. Said he, "Get a horse and get me away from here." Our horses were a mile in the rear, but there were a number of the enemy's tethered around unsaddled. Standing near was a Missourian who had been taken prisoner, guarded by two of the brethren. I requested him to bring a saddle. Considering the situation and his condition he answered me very impertinently. Instantly my blood boiled with indignation. I drew the sword I had taken from the Missourian and declared with an emphasis that gave the man to understand that I was in earnest, "You scoundrel, get a saddle at once or I will take your head from your shoulders."
He instantly started for a tent, closely followed by me. He brought a saddle which was put on to a horse. Colonel Patten was raised up to put him into the saddle, but so severely did it hurt him that he begged to be laid down again. Then a pair of the enemy's horses were harnessed to one of their wagons. With two other brethren I went to a tent and gathered up a lot of bedding [p.56] and put it into the wagon for the wounded. I got into the wagon and took Brother Patten, as the brethren handed him up, and laid him in the blankets. He was a man weighing 180 pounds. It afterwards appeared almost miraculous to me that, in the excitement of the occasion, I handled him and others of the wounded so easily.
Besides Colonel Patten there were five other wounded men put into the wagon: James Hendricks, Wm. Seely, a Brother Hodge, and two others whose names are forgotten. The body of Brother Obanion, who was killed, was also put in with the wounded. That of Gideon Carter, for some reason not seen at the time, was left on the ground but was afterwards recovered.
Colonel Patten was a brave man, though the following incident, related by Lorenzo, would indicate rather recklessly so to be a prudent leader: When lying on the ground soon after being wounded, with several of the brethren standing around, he ordered his officers to follow the enemy; follow them to their homes. Captain Pratt, as next in command, called Captain Green and others a little to one side and asked what had better be done under the circumstances. Captain Green said he thought they had better let the enemy go and take care of their dead and wounded. His views were also sustained by Lorenzo, and that was decided upon as the best policy.
When the camp was charged and the enemy fled, their road passed over a four mile prairie on the other side of which were two hundred and fifty of the enemy's cavalry. Had Colonel Patten's command pursued, the conclusion is reasonable that they would have been annihilated on this open ground.17
A few miles from the battle ground, the returning expedition was met by the Prophet Joseph Smith with a carriage and a company of horsemen. The wounded were taken to their homes and such care given them as the unfortunate circumstances of the people would allow. Lorenzo says of his deliverance from his enemy: "As soon as I had time to think I felt that the inspiration of my mother's promise had been verified. The appearance of the hand to me was real. I do not see how I could have been saved in the situation I was in without a providential interference."
[p.57] Soon after the return to Far West of the expedition to Crooked River, General Clark's army arrived before the town. In the evening after Joseph and Hyrum Smith and others had been taken, as related in Church history, Hyrum Smith had the privilege of going into Far West to see his family.18 From the spirit manifested by General Clark and his men, he believed that if they succeeded in taking the brethren who were in the Crooked River battle, they would be tried by a court-martial and shot. He and the two brothers Brigham and Lorenzo met on the public square. After counseling over the matter it was decided Lorenzo and others in the same situation, should start that night into the wilderness, north of Far West, for the Des Moines River, in Iowa Territory. Phineas H. Young being a good woodsman was selected to pilot them. The Saints in Far West had been so plundered by their enemies that they had but little supplies to eat or wear. Of this trip Lorenzo says:
I had on a thin pair of pants. My wife took a flannel sheet from the bed and with the assistance of the neighbors hastily made me a pair of drawers. These I afterwards gave to my brother Phineas as he seemed to suffer more with the cold than I did. Our bedding was as scanty as our clothing.
We left Far West that night and took no food with us. About sunrise in the morning we arrived at Adam-ondi-Ahman, twenty-two miles from Far West. We needed breakfast, and we stopped in a clump of hazel brush and sent one of the party to the house of Brother Gardiner Snow to tell him our situation. He said he had not much to eat but would do the best he could. He [p.58] brought us a supply of stewed Missouri pumpkin and milk. Our keen appetites made this seem a very good breakfast.
At Adam-ondi-Ahman we obtained fifty pounds of chopped corn, and with this meager supply of food continued on our journey. From the first it was evident we must economize our food supply.
I was appointed commissary which, in this instance, included the office of cook for the company. When we started there were twenty men, who were to subsist apparently on this fifty pounds of unsifted corn meal during a journey of 350 miles. There was a large tin dish to bake it in. Morning and evening a cake was baked, without salt, before the fire, and a piece was dealt out to each man about an inch thick and four inches square. The second day, as night was approaching, we struck the edge of a prairie which was about four miles across. As our horses were weary we halted for a short rest when a man named Irvine Hodge overtook us. He informed us that General Clark had learned of our departure and sent a troop of sixty cavalry in pursuit; that it was only a few miles behind on our trail, and that the orders were to bring us back dead or alive.
We had thought of encamping on the spot but concluded to cross the prairie. This we accomplished and encamped in the timber. In the night snow commenced falling and appeared to come down in sheets instead of flakes. In the morning it was about a foot and a half deep. A part of the company at first regretted this but others felt that the hand of the Lord was in it. My brother Phineas at once declared that it was the means of our deliverance. We started on, the wind began to blow, drifting the snow so that our tracks were completely covered soon after they were made.
We afterwards learned that our pursuers encamped where we had rested, on the opposite side of the prairie from our night encampment. In the morning they pursued but found it impossible to follow our trail. Thus were we saved by a friendly interposition of the elements.
About this time eight of the brethren became disheartened with the gloomy prospects, and said they would rather face the chances of falling into the hands of their enemies than take chances of perishing with cold and starvation. They started for the settlements below or east of Clark's army, made their way to the Missouri River and escaped to a place of safety.
[p.59] This lengthened out the food supply for those of the company who continued on to Iowa. In a day or two they killed a young deer which was consumed for supper and breakfast. They also obtained a few quarts of honey from a bee tree which helped to satisfy the cravings of hunger.
With twelve days of travel in cold and snow the corn meal was all gone. Some of the brethren ate slippery elm bark but it made others sick. Phineas H. Young took with him on this perilous trip his son Brigham, then a lad of ten years, and they had but one horse between them.
We were fifteen days on our journey from Far West to the Des Moines River; the last three of which we were without food. After the snow fell our horses of necessity subsisted on what was above it. The brush soon made my thin pants ineffectual for covering my legs in the neighborhood of the knees, and the fragments were kept together, as much as possible, with small hickory withes. When for the first time we arrived near a house on the Des Moines River, I remained in the woods while one of my companions, Titus Billings, went to the house and obtained a pair of pants that I might be presentable.
On this trip men and animals appeared to have a wonderful power of enduring cold, hunger and fatigue. I am constrained, after more than fifty years, to acknowledge a special providence in our deliverance.
Having secured his own safety, Lorenzo's great anxiety was about his family, whom he had been compelled to leave among enemies and in a very destitute condition. He made his way to Morgan County, Illinois, where a few of the Saints lived. On arriving there he first learned of the sufferings of his aged father whom he had left in Kirtland, Ohio, in the autumn of 1837.
Probably without learning of the expulsion of the Saints, Father Young had traveled into Missouri until within seventy or eighty miles of Far West, where he was stopped by a mob and accused of being a Mormon. Not wishing to betray himself he said little, but the mob concluded he was a Mormon and proceeded to exchange property with him on their own terms. For a new eastern wagon and harness and a good team, they gave him an old Dearborn wagon, harness to match, a pair of Missouri ponies, and ordered him to leave the country at once.
His grandson, Evan M. Green, had driven his team from Kirtland and continued to drive it until the arrival in Illinois. On his way out of Missouri he arrived at the town of Atlas, on the Missouri River, in an exhausted condition. He remained there [p.60] with a Brother Westerly, who was also a fugitive from Missouri, to rest; but his grandson continued on into Illinois with Father Young's daughter, Fanny. There they met Lorenzo and informed him of the condition of his father, and that he was eighty miles distant. Lorenzo hired a carriage and started immediately to his relief. On arriving at the old log cabin which sheltered his father and the destitute family whose kindly hospitality he had shared, Lorenzo found him pounding parched corn for his supper, and learned that he had had no other food for two weeks. The next morning they started for Morgan County. Lorenzo had rented a house when he first came into the township of Winchester, Morgan County, and there he made his father as comfortable as possible under the circumstances. His father never regained his health but lingered until the following autumn, when he died in Quincy, Illinois, the 12th of October, 1839.
After rescuing his father, Lorenzo traveled on horseback three times through snow and in the extreme cold of winter, ninety miles to Quincy and back, five hundred and forty miles, in an effort to learn the whereabouts of his family at this general crossing place of the Saints into Illinois. This made a winter's travel of over one thousand miles after his flight from Far West. On his third trip to Quincy he froze his feet which caused him much suffering.
Finally, not being able to hear anything of his wife and children, on the last of January he gave a Mr. McClare the fine four-year old horse he had ridden from Far West, to go after his family and move them to Illinois. Mr. McClare started with a light wagon accompanied by Lorenzo as far as a ferry across the Mississippi River, twenty-five or thirty miles below Quincy. The weather had been so severely cold that they expected to cross on the ice, but they found it broken up on the river, and the idea of crossing with a team had to be abandoned. Mr. McClare turned back, but Lorenzo's anxiety to find his family was becoming intense. He offered the ferryman ten dollars in silver if he would put him across the river in a canoe, but considering it almost certain death to make the attempt through the drift ice, the ferryman positively refused to try.
Bitter was the disappointment of the husband and father, and as he stood musing on the gloomy prospects that surrounded him, a little girl, fitly representing an angel of blessing, came to him and asked, "Is not this Mr. Young?" He turned, spoke to her, and inquired who she was. She replied, "I am Brother Park's daughter and my father has sent me to invite you to come to our house, which is close by." Lorenzo accompanied her and soon met an old friend of his family who had been his neighbor in Kirtland, Ohio. He was a welcome guest and was soon seated for supper around the family table. How rapidly the current of [p.61] our lives sometimes changes! There was a rap at the door and Lorenzo's nephew, Evan M. Green, was ushered into the room bringing the glad news that Lorenzo's family had arrived from Far West the evening after he had left home two days before, and was anxiously awaiting his return. Lorenzo says of this culmination of his deliverance from Missouri, "I felt to thank the Lord for what a few hours before was a sore disappointment and cause of great trial to me; that was, that I could not cross the river. It was another kindly providence in my behalf, for had I crossed the river before the news reached me of the deliverance of my family, I should have struggled on to Far West without accomplishing any good, and I might have fallen a victim of my enemies. I found my family as well as could be expected, and only a few days after a tedious, tiresome journey my wife gave birth to a son, whom we named Franklin Wheeler. He was truly persecuted before he was born."
Having followed Lorenzo from Far West until he was again united with his family in a place of safety and peace, we will go back in our narrative and see how his wife and little ones escaped from Missouri to meet him in Illinois. As before stated, the family consisted of his wife and five children, the oldest a lad of twelve years. His wife was a woman of education and refinement, but of weakly constitution. When her husband and twenty others were compelled to flee for their lives, their destitute and helpless families were of necessity left to do the best they could. Winter was coming on with its chilling blasts. It had no terrors for those who had warm houses and plenty of food, but these fugitives from vindictive persecutions had little hope in the dark shadows that overhung their future, except in God's mercy. In the meantime the decree of the governor of the state had gone forth, backed by military force, that they must leave the country or be exterminated.
Soon after Lorenzo had left Far West, several Missourians came to the cabin occupied by his family in search of him. Disappointed in not finding him they shot down the only cow the family had been able to save from the mob, within a few yards of the cabin door. From that time the family had little else than frozen potatoes and corn bread to satisfy the cravings of hunger.
The Saints had been driven from their homes without being permitted to gather their crops. The cold was already sufficiently severe to freeze the ground for several inches. The eldest son, William, assisted by his younger Brother, Joseph, would dig a hole by a hill of potatoes, get a lever under it, and pry up a chunk of earth in which the potatoes were frozen, cut them out and cook them for a change with the corn bread, with possibly an occasional taste of bacon.
Mr. Isaac Decker, an old time friend and neighbor of Lorenzo's, hired a Mr. Bidwell to move his family into Illinois. The [p.62] destitute family, with clothing barely sufficient to cover their nakedness, with a meager supply of food of poor quality, was put into a wagon and started on a journey of 250 miles, accompanied by two other teams, a little after the holidays. There were several inches of snow on the ground. With the chilling winds, the short days, and the long cold nights, there was little, in the general surroundings of these people, to mitigate the usual severity of the season.
Missourians were generally a very hospitable people and, where they were not possessed of the spirit of vindictiveness towards the Saints, they kindly gave them shelter in outhouses and such room as they could afford. At other times they had no other shelter than the clear, blue vault of Heaven with the cold glittering stars that shone on all humanity alike. The forest furnished them an abundance of fuel but the vapor of the atmosphere settled on the branches of the trees in beautiful frostwork, and the ground was frozen hard and covered with snow. These surroundings might have appeared beautiful to people luxuriating in warmth and comfort, but to these thinly clad, poorly fed fugitives, the snow had that sharp crisp sound under their feet that indicated severe cold, the intensity of which they soon felt when, even for a short time, they left the smoke and partial warmth of their campfire. Partial, because while the fire warmed one side of their frail bodies, the cold air was chilling the other.
The oldest son, William, has furnished the following reminiscences of these trying scenes, of which most vivid recollections have survived the lapse of fifty years. The experiences of this family might be paralleled with slight alterations, by those of hundreds of others that will never be recorded by mortal pen. At that time William was young in years but old in bitter experiences. He says of himself at this time:
I had suffered and was then suffering from the afflications of those I loved, more than from my own. I had changed about with my parents, as Latter-day Saints, for several years, but the mobbings and drivings of the Missouri persecutions had made a deeper impression on me than any before experienced, doubtless for the reason that each succeeding year enabled me to better understand my surroundings.
The faith of the Gospel had not yet come home to my young heart. From sympathy I had lived in the spirit of my parents and more especially in that of my mother. I had both seen and heard the Prophet Joseph Smith, but as yet there had been no conception of his glorious mission, nor of the causes that operated to bring about the circumstances in which myself and those I loved were [p.63] involved. The query often arose in my heart, who is Joseph Smith, who my parents and many others appear to be following? Why should they cling to him and his fortunes and for so doing be compelled to leave homes, to suffer semi-starvation, nakedness, and want of all things? No answer to these queries had yet come to me. Only a new revelation could open my understanding, plant faith in my heart, and show me a better path to walk in. Dark shadows were hanging over my young life which were about to disappear before the light of Heavenly inspiration.
I still retain a vivid recollection in one of our encampments. After supper the men of the camp, as suited the wants or caprice of each family, scraped the snow off the frozen ground preparatory to making beds. Contiguous to the camp fire lay a large oak tree, once prominent among surrounding trees, but now laid low through age or the fury of the elements. This afforded a little shelter from the bitter night winds on that side, and it was here that my mother made the bed for herself and children.
In addition to the scanty supply of bedding, it was necessary to put over us such outward garments as we could spare; in this way and by sleeping together, a fair degree of warmth was insured. As another day of toil and privation drew to a close, that devoted mother kneeled down in the chilling air by our scanty bed, in which were deposited her dear children for the night. From the depths of affliction she poured out her soul in prayer to Him who could understand the sorrows of others, for He also had drunk to the dregs the bitter cup.
No human pen can portray the depth of humility, the fountains of devotion that were opened up in that soul; but many of the words and sentiments of my mother at that time sank deep into my heart. The spirit that accompanied them begot faith in me in the Gospel which I trust has thus far moulded my life in accordance with its glorious principles.
The following morning only brought the monotonous toil and privation of many other days. There were the same heartless, chilling elements to battle with; frozen potatoes and corn-dodger to partially satisfy the pangs of hunger, through which nature almost constantly made her need of nourishment manifest. In time the weary journey was accomplished by the arrival of the family in Morgan County, Illinois; but, as we have before stated, Lorenzo was away and in anxious pursuit of them. He and his family had found deliverance, not from poverty and want, but from their enemies.
[p.64] At a conference of the Church held on the Presbyterian camp ground, near Quincy, Illinois, May 4–6, 1839, nineteen Seventies and High Priests were designated to accompany the Twelve on a contemplated mission to England. Among the Seventies was Lorenzo D. Young. He afterwards made every possible preparation to fill this mission, but was positively counseled not to go by the Prophet Joseph Smith.19
Lorenzo remained in Scott and Morgan Counties during 1839 and the season of 1840, occupied in farming but at no time free from sickness in his family, which sometimes brought considerable destitution. He spent the summer of 1841 in Warsaw below Nauvoo, Illinois.20 In the spring of 1842, he moved to Macedonia, Hancock County. It was a Mormon settlement about four miles from the town of Carthage, and was made up of a few who had been compelled by sickness to leave the Kirtland Camp on their way from Ohio to Missouri, of other wanderers who were desirous of living in an organized society of the Saints, and latterly several families of Saints driven out of Missouri had located there; among these were Lorenzo D. Young and family. Much suffering in the Missouri persecutions had weakened their bodies and prepared them to receive the germs of disease that were engendered in the rich prairie soil and marshy bottom lands along the streams of Illinois. Lorenzo purchased a home and did very well until taken down with malarial sickness in the heat of summer.
William, the oldest of Lorenzo's children, was nearly three years older than when he went through the bitter experiences of the Missouri exodus. His sister, Harriet, was about nine years of age. She, like her brother, had ripened rapidly in the school of affliction. They both suffered more from sympathy with others than on their own account. This self-sacrificial element was strong in both parents and it was deeply planted in the natures of their children.
[p.65] The following circumstances are worthy of record as developing great faith in a young heart. On account of much sickness in the family the supply of medicines and comforts had run low. The circumstances that had surrounded William's young life had taught him self-reliance, and he felt that he must do something to relieve the necessities of his loved ones. He conceived the plan of going to Nauvoo, where he believed he would find something to do to earn a little money. It took a few days to ripen thoughts into practical plans. He first revealed his thoughts to his loving mother. Then, of course, the father was taken into their counsels. Many were the objections suggested by paternal solicitude. But finally the determination of William and the force of circumstances overcame, and consent was given him to make an effort.
He was now a lad of fifteen years with a mission, and it seemed to him a very important one. His whole soul was in that mission. It lit up his eye; it made his step more elastic; with his previous experiences it made him almost a man in practical thought.
It was twenty-two miles to Nauvoo, mostly over rolling prairie. Before the morning sun had dissipated the dew he was ready to start. That readiness simply meant the purpose within him, a few mouthfuls of food swallowed for breakfast, and a little for dinner tied up in a small cotton handkerchief.
The ground was cold but his feet had formed slight acquaintance with shoes for a long time, and were so accustomed to hard usage that they made no complaint. His auburn hair projected from holes in the ragged hat, and the locks were moved by the bracing autumn air, but the head did not complain, for it had been kept cool and clear for a long time. With great earnestness portrayed in every movement of the youth, the head was level for a boy's. The imagination constructed no air castles, at least any that since have proved such. His heart was full of the sentiment, "Oh if I can find something to do to help the folks at home."
Exercise in the open air brought appetite, but he could not afford to stop to eat. He consumed the corn cake which he had brought along in his handkerchief without breaking his rapid gait, with a relish that the pampered know nothing of, quenching his thirst from one of the prairie streams that wound among the rolling hills.
It was nearly sunset when he came in sight of Nauvoo. It was a beautiful sunset with fleecy clouds in all the variegated hues of the rainbow, but in those heavenly beauties there was no inspiration for him. He was dealing with the hard realities of life.
In Nauvoo he had many relatives and friends. They had been through the Missouri furnace of affliction, and on their faces were the marks of sickness and destitution. They were still under various kinds of shelter, from the well-worn wagon cover and tent to the newly constructed house. Corn bread was yet a staple [p.66] article of food and often difficult for some to obtain. But the friends of the youth divided their fare with him, for a community of suffering had cultivated communistic ideas of hospitality. The little surplus that one might have was often divided with the more needy.
For three days he traveled around Nauvoo, among friends and strangers, seeking for something to do, even for a pittance, but without success. He then begged a passage on the ferry-boat across the river to Montrose; but there he also sought in vain for employment. Returning to Nauvoo, as a last resort he went to a Mr. W., a saloon keeper, a dealer in death and destruction in the form of strong drink, who had two things, both of which were in the possession of but few persons in Nauvoo at that time—a warm side to his heart and money in his pocket. William, with a feeling akin to desperation, stated his case fairly. His father's family was sick, and he had come all the way from Macedonia willing to do anything to get twenty-five cents to buy medicine. Mr. W. put his hand into his pocket, handed the youth twenty-five cents saying, "Go home now, you have got your money."
William carefully tied up the money in a corner of his cotton pocket handkerchief. It was sacred and not to be used for himself on any consideration. His fortunate beginning seemed at the same time an unfortunate ending, for he knew of no place to apply for more, with any possible chance of success. Could he go home with so little? He was disappointed; he had expected more than that moiety from his great effort. With the cotton handkerchief in which was tied up the twenty-five cents well down in his pocket, he left Nauvoo on the road towards home and went a mile or two to share, for the night, the hospitality of a family relative.
In the morning he felt refreshed with a good night's rest. After breakfast his lady cousin gave him four or five fine apples. These being a luxury he also tied up in the 'kerchief with the twenty-five cents, and started out with the parcel in his hand. At first he was sad at heart. His countenance was not so cheerful, his step not so elastic as when going to Nauvoo. He had not gone far before he queried, "Will my Heavenly Father open the way for me to do something for my afflicted home?" Faith welled up in his heart. An intense desire came over him to pour out his soul in prayer to Him who is all powerful to help the distressed, could he find a place where no mortal would see him. About four miles from Nauvoo, on the top of a hill, the road he was traveling branched into two; one trail going to Warsaw, the other towards his home through Carthage to Macedonia. As the trails cut off they took down opposite sides of the hill. A little distance farther on the road to Carthage, there was a small stream. This when high with heavy rains or melting snow formed eddies and washed out considerable holes on the ground, which were dry. One of these answered his purpose. With uncovered head and swelling heart [p.67] he knelt down and poured out his soul with sobbings, with tears like the child that he was in heart. He arose with cheerfulness. A crushing weight of sorrow had been lifted, and there was light and peace in place of deep shadows that had nearly crushed him. He started towards home with more hope and a lighter step, and had not gone far before he felt impressed to turn back towards Nauvoo. The impression was supplemented by a hand on each shoulder, and he was turned around with his face in that direction.
William obeyed the impulse by beginning to retrace his steps. He had gone but a short distance before some intelligence, by his side, began to reason. While he saw nothing, to him the presence was real. It said, "You had better not go back to Nauvoo. You have tried to work without success and you will do no better if you go back; besides your friends there will begin to think that you have run away from home, and you will not find as much favor as you did before." The arguments were so plausible they attracted his attention. The last one especially seemed weighty, for beneath that ragged jacket beat a heart keenly sensitive to anything that had a taint of dishonor. Although this experience was new to the youth, everything connected with it was so natural that he did not stop to reflect upon the unusual circumstances.
The last monitor had a powerful influence over him and he again turned his face towards home, but still praying in his heart that the Lord would manifest what he should do. He had gone but a short distance when he again felt the pressure of a hand upon each shoulder, and he was again faced towards Nauvoo with rather more emphasis than the first time. Under the influence of the angel of his deliverance he felt, for a time, as though he would certainly go back to Nauvoo; but he had not gone far before his evil genius was again by his side, advancing the most specious arguments why he should go home instead of towards Nauvoo.
Again did the arguments of this evil genius begin to weaken his resolution, and draw him away from the blessing that was in store for him. He was again induced to turn his face towards home but still asking the Lord, in his heart, to know what to do. Surely he had need of help, for he was being acted upon, alternately, by two powerful influences without sensing his peculiar situation. Wondering at his own conduct, he had proceeded a considerable distance when, for the third time, he felt the impress of a hand on each shoulder, but with a firmer grip than before, he was faced about and pushed forward with a force that nearly threw him on his face.
For the first time the conception entered his mind that, perhaps, the angel of blessing was trying to get him to go towards Nauvoo to find the answer to his prayers. With this conception [p.68] in his heart the power of the Evil One was broken. The dark spirit was, doubtless, aware of the change that had come over him for it troubled him no more.
Relieved of perplexity he rapidly returned. As he reached the hill where the Carthage and Warsaw roads came together, a stranger from the Warsaw way, on horseback, met him at the junction. In a brusque but kindly manner he accosted him with, "Good morning, my lad. Do you live around here?" After William's explanation that he lived about eighteen miles from there the gentleman continued, "I am buying up land. Do you know of any for sale about here?" Like an inspiration it came to William that his father had a piece of land that he had said he would like to sell and he replied, "Yes, my father has some land to sell." "Can you tell me how I will find him?" the gentleman queried. "Yes, I will go along with you." The stranger looked at the youth with a little surprise, as though he doubted the propriety of starting out with him for that distance, but they were soon traveling together towards Macedonia.
The burden was again lifted from William's soul. There was light where were dark shadows before. There was an inspiration that comforted him by whispering, "This is the way relief will come." The kind-hearted man rested William by exchanging places with him occasionally, and they made good time to Macedonia. Lorenzo informed the stranger that it was too late in the day to show him the land, but he would do so on the following day.
The stranger looked over the forty acres of land that Lorenzo had offered for sale, was well pleased with its location and appearance, and paid a good price for it in gold.
The sum would not have appeared large to a family who were in good circumstances, but to one measurably destitute from sickness it seemed a fortune. They had learned by some of the severest lessons the practical value of money. This timely relief cheered their hearts and buoyed up their spirits with the hopes of a better future, and those hopes were not disappointed. The frosts of autumn had a beneficial effect on those afflicted with the malarious diseases of the country. Life changed for the better. The faith and energy of the eldest son, William, was the means in the providence of God of bringing great blessing to the family.
In the spring of 1843 Lorenzo D. Young purchased a place about two miles from Macedonia. It proved to be a very unhealthy location. It was here in the summer that his nephew, James A. Little, came out from Nauvoo to live near him and brought his mother, the sister of Lorenzo.21
[p.69] About harvest time Lorenzo and Mrs. Young and their five children on some days were all down, shaking and burning alternately with chills and fever, with only the nephew, James, and oldest son, William, to give them a drink of water. This sickness brought on great destitution which kind neighbors did much to modify, but even with their assistance there was often no other resource than boiled green corn, rather a poor article of diet without other food, and especially for people sick with malarial diseases. William and James were anxious to relieve the necessities of the family and obtain a supply of food for the coming winter. To accomplish this they labored hard when they could be relieved from the immediate care of the sick. To obtain bread they took a field of wheat to gather and thresh on shares, belonging to a Mr. Jotham Maynard. After working a day or two at it William was taken down with chills and fever, and it was necessary that James wait on the sick, as the whole family of Lorenzo was down. The boys were bitterly disappointed at not being able to labor for the relief of the family. So much did William take the situation at heart that he shed tears. With him chills and fever ran into other fevers, and finally into the dropsy. It was probably early in December, 1843, that his father took him to Nauvoo, where he was nursed by his aunt, Fanny Murray,22 in the house of Brigham Young. He continued to fill up with water and Doctors J. M. Bernhisel23 and Frederic G. Williams were called in. They decided that they could only give him temporary relief by tapping. Dr. Bernhisel thought that he could be relieved of twenty gallons of water. However this was not done. It was necessary to keep him in an upright position to delay strangulation. On the last day of 1843, the youth, to all human appearance, must soon pass away. In the morning Brigham Young sent an express to Lorenzo, living about sixteen miles from Nauvoo, that he must come without delay if he would see his son alive. Early in the evening Brigham aroused William from his stupor and asked him how he felt. He expressed himself as resigned to die, in fact that he did not care about living. As Brigham turned to leave the room, after some encouraging words, he remarked, "William, you can live if you wish to." About nine o'clock in the evening Lorenzo arrived. After warming himself a little by the fire, he roused his son. Then William's Aunts Fanny and Mary Ann [Angell], the latter the wife of Brigham, washed and anointed him, after which the father prayed for and [p.70] administered to him. Soon after these administrations Lorenzo took up his son, carried him into another room and laid him, for the first time for many weeks in a natural position on the bed, went to bed himself and both father and son had a good night's rest.
In the morning the superfluous water was gone from the body of the boy. He was found to be the merest skeleton with the relaxed skin laying in folds. From that time he continued to regain his health. As he gained strength he broke out in boils all over his body. This was probably a necessary result of the natural process of returning health, but the affliction was very severe. This was cured by an unusual method of administration among the Saints. A brother in the Church who claimed to heal by faith, came and gently rubbed his body all over with his hand, saying something inaudible to others. In about three days the boils disappeared and the dried remains could be rubbed of with the hand. It was a most remarkable case of healing and well worthy of record as a testimony to others. It afterwards transpired that, at the time the youth was being administered to by his father, the Elders, with his Uncle Brigham, were praying for him in a holy place. Lorenzo at once removed his family to Nauvoo.
The situation of Lorenzo Young and family, we may safely assume, was paralleled by that of many of the fugitives from Ohio and Missouri. In general terms, to say that the people were clothed would be asserting too much, for many of them had barely enough to cover their nakedness. To say that they were fed would be equally inconsistent. They had something to eat, but their food, much of the time, was not tempting to weak stomachs and morbid appetites. Their neighbors were kind but usually in similar circumstances. Those who had around them more of the comforts of life were proportionately taxed by the necessities of their more destitute neighbors. At times for weeks in these afflicted families there was little to relieve the terrible monotony of suffering.
In the spring of 1844, Lorenzo D. Young was appointed to a mission to the state of Ohio by the Prophet Joseph. He left Nauvoo the first day of June accompanied by his son William and Elder Isaac Decker, to journey with teams. It was a year remarkable for unusually high water in the streams of the country. The Mississippi and Missouri Rivers and their tributaries overflowed and flooded the bottom lands contiguous to their banks. Even the small streams of the country were difficult to cross on account of high water and the soft marshy bottom lands. They were ferried a considerable distance over the Illinois River and its flooded bottom, at times passing over fields of corn three or four feet under water. About the 28th of June they arrived at Springfield, the capital of the state of Illinois. There they designed to lay by for the waters to subside. Two or three days after their arrival the news reached them, by Phineas H. Young, of the assassination [p.71] of Joseph and Hyrum Smith in Carthage Jail, on the 27th of June. A consultation was held and it was decided to send one of the party back to Nauvoo to learn the condition of affairs there, and bring word if it was thought advisable for them to return.24 William G. Young was at first selected to go, but finally Elder Isaac Decker was sent, leaving his wife and daughter to go on with Lorenzo. Phineas returned to Exeter, where he resided.
William Young says that at this writing he has a vivid recollection of that 27th of June. About the hour that the Prophets met their death the party was crossing a large prairie, and encountered one of the most terrific thunderstorms he ever witnessed. They felt, with great power, the spirit of darkness and affliction that spread like a funeral pall over the Saints when this sorrowful event occurred, even before the news of it reached them. When the party first arrived in Springfield they drove through the town, crossed the Sangamon River, drove out four miles and shared the hospitality of brother James Ide. He had joined the Church in an early day but was at this time rather in the background. The martyrdom of the Prophet and the conversation of his visiting friends renewed in him the spirit of the Gospel, and he proposed that Lorenzo preach on the coming Sabbath. This was assented to, provided a house could be obtained for the meeting. Brother Ide was a man of considerable influence and obtained a Baptist meeting house for the purpose, gave out an appointment and utilized every means in his power to spread the appointment through the country. There had been much excitement throughout the state with regard to the Mormons. News had just spread through the country like a tornado that the brothers Smith had been killed. In the excitement of the presumed overthrow of the Mormon Church, appeared a Mormon Elder in their midst who was ready to face the issues of the hour and defend the doctrines and rights of his people. It was in keeping with the circumstances that the people should flock from all parts of the country to hear him, that when Lorenzo Young took his seat in the pulpit he should see before him the judge from the bench, the lawyer from the bar, and a fair representation of all classes of citizens. The circumstances made the occasion a very unusual one, and to meet it unflinchingly required a high degree of moral courage. Lorenzo in relating the incident says that when he arose to speak, the congregation seemed made [p.72] up of giants and himself proportionately diminutive, but the Lord did not forsake him in the dark hour. The Holy Ghost opened his mind to the magnitude of the occasion and he was filled with the spirit of testimony and prophecy. He talked an hour and a half to a large congregation who appeared to listen with intense interest. Lorenzo remained there about two weeks, during which he continued to preach the Gospel, baptized several persons, organized a branch of the Church, ordained Mr. Ide an Elder and appointed him to preside. The party continued their journey to Ohio.
Arriving near Waynesville, Lorenzo D. Young rented a house. From there he and his son William went to the town of Chilicothe where they met Elders Joseph Young and Lorenzo Snow. The former had also been sent to Ohio on a mission but had made the journey by water. The three traveled about seventy-five miles and attended a conference of the Saints. From there the two brothers accompanied by William returned by way of Chilicothe to Waynesville, preaching by the way. They organized a branch at Waynesville as the fruits of their labors. Lorenzo traveled and preached the Gospel during the summer, sometimes alone, at other times in company with his brother, Joseph. Many believed and were baptized. They organized two branches of the Church. Mr. Isaac Decker had come out to Ohio during the summer and with his wife and daughter returned to Nauvoo with Lorenzo in the autumn.25
On the way Lorenzo Young met with a very severe accident. In throwing down hay from the loft of a barn where he kept his horses overnight, he fell about eight feet and struck his side across a pole, breaking two or three of his ribs. He was about two hundred miles from home and suffered much pain on the way, from the jolting of the wagon and from not having anyone to assist in taking care of his team, but with the blessing of the Lord, he arrived home safely. His son William remained in Ohio. Soon after his father left, William was ordained an Elder in Waynesville, and set out on a preaching mission with Elder William [p.73] McBride, when only seventeen years old. He returned to Nauvoo in May, 1845. As soon as Lorenzo had sufficiently recovered from his injuries he was sent back to Ohio by the Apostles to gather funds with which to assist in building the temple. He spent the winter of 1844–45 in preaching and gathering funds and returned to Nauvoo in March, 1845.
Lorenzo was soon after appointed one of the building committee of the Nauvoo House.26 In this position he became more or less exhausted from great exertions, and therefore more liable to disease than he otherwise would have been. He went out into a distant part of Hancock County to receive some property that had been donated for building the Nauvoo House; was taken very ill, returned home with difficulty and took to his bed with the lung fever, where he lay for several weeks, becoming emaciated and very weak.
Lorenzo recovered slowly, and when so far convalescent as to be able to sit up and get around a little, his brother Brigham came into his room and read the treaty that the Saints had been compelled to make with the mob, in which they agreed to evacuate Nauvoo.27 Brigham asked him what he thought about it. He replied that he should get well in time to go with them. Brigham queried, "Do you think you can live in the Rocky Mountains?" Lorenzo answered, "Yes, if I can only have health I can live anywhere. With that blessing I could carry dirt to a rock on top of a [p.74] mountain to raise food for myself and family." In fact he, with most of the Saints, was so nearly worn out with often recurring sickness and the persecutions by his enemies, that he was ready for any change that promised immunity from these evils. Lorenzo recovered his health in December, barely in time to prepare for the Exodus. He had invested what he had in real estate and had made some very good turns in business. He was compelled to fit up teams, wagons, etc., with what little means he had outside of that class of property.
Lorenzo fitted up two ox teams and one horse team with wagons and crossed the Mississippi River the 8th of February, 1846, and drove out six miles to the camp on Sugar Creek. The 15th of February Brigham Young arrived in the camp and the following day organized the people preparatory to the journey west, but did not move out immediately. He and Heber C. Kimball again returned to Nauvoo but only remained over night. About this time the weather turned severely cold, and on the 22nd, Bishop Whitney crossed his loaded teams over the Mississippi on the ice. In the organization Lorenzo Young was appointed a Captain of Ten.28 He says of these times of suffering:
In our camp there were hundreds of women and children with no other shelter than a wagon cover or cloth tent, and the weather was extremely cold. On the second day of March we broke camp. I started with my little company of ten wagons, with the camp numbering some 400 wagons. About the same time the weather moderated, and it rained until the mud made traveling almost impossible. Sometimes it required five or six yoke of oxen to move one wagon. With much difficulty it would perhaps be taken a mile, then the team of several pair of oxen would return and bring up another, and another, perform a severe day's labor and possibly travel four or five miles from the encampment of the previous night, with the women and children sitting cramped up in the wagons, for it was so very wet and muddy, they could not walk.
After a week of this kind of labor the camp arrived at Richardson's Point, fifty-five miles from Nauvoo. It remained there a few days and several of the brethren found work, for which they received corn to sustain their teams.
[p.75] Here Lorenzo's nephew, Edwin Little, was taken very sick with the lung fever. He was removed to a house about two miles from camp, but he continued to grow worse and died on the 18th of March, 1846. He was buried in a cold damp grave in a grove of trees a few rods from the road. It was a melancholy day for friends and relatives and especially for his stricken wife, Harriet.
To provide for the inhabitants of a city driven from their homes into a wilderness, exposed to the sweeping storms and bitter cold of winter, with nothing but the slender resources of the camp itself, is a task which but few men could hope to successfully accomplish. Yet the effort was a necessity on the part of the leaders of the "Camps of Israel" on the prairies of Iowa. Besides the food supply for the people, it required daily large quantities of grain to sustain the animals of the camps, and these were necessities of existence—their means of deliverance from the perils that environed them.
April 6, 1846, the sixteenth anniversary of the organization of the Church, found the camps on a branch of Shoal Creek, where they remained over two weeks on account of rain and mud. Nine or ten teams were sent to the settlements for corn. In about three days they returned, the most of them empty. There was but little strength in the old dry grass or in the early, succulent growth, and the animals were weak.
Many reflections crowd around this sixteenth anniversary of the organization of the Church. Its situation was quite in keeping with its wonderful, eventful history. Three times in this short period had its members been forced to evacuate their homes, en masse, and these sweeping exoduses were interspersed with minor drivings and plunderings. In these multiplied toils and sufferings, Lorenzo and family had carried their share of the burdens, and were now acting their part in this grand exodus of the centuries, certainly without a parallel since the deliverance of Israel from Egyptian bondage.
During the night of the 11th of April, 1846, the mud froze hard. To any but Saints, circumstances