Autobiography Volume 1 circa 1842-1865
On the while with the Camp of Israel building up Winter Quarters
on the west side of Missouri River then Indian Country, I passed through one of the most painful
& serious misfortunes of any of my lifife. I took my Ax and went 2 1/2 miles onto the Bluffs to cut
some shingle timber to cover my cabins. I was accompanied by two other men and while falling the third
tree I steped back of it some 8 feet whare I thought I was entirely out of Danger but when the tree
fell their was a kocrook in the tree which struck a knowl and shot and ways back of the stump and
bounded & the but of the tree struck me in the breast & knocked me several feet in the air against
a standing Oak and the falling tree followed me in its bound & caught me against the standing tree and
I came down between the two trees one falling & the other standing but before reaching the ground I was
cleared from between them & struct upon my feet it badly bruised my ^left^ thigh the whole length of it
& my hip. Also my left arm It also broke my breast bone into & 3 ribs on my left side it also bruised my
lungs vitals & left side in a shocking manner. After the accident I sat upon a log untill Mr John Garrison
went a quarter of a mile & got my horse, notwithstanding wI was so badly hurt I had to mount my hourse
& ride two & a half miles over an exceding rough road & had to dismount twice in consequence of mirey
places my breast & vitals was so badly torn to peaces that each step of the horse went through me like an
arrow I continued on horseback untill I arived at Turkey Creek on the North Side of Winter quarters
I then became exhausted & was taken off & carried in a chair to my house I was met in a thee street
by Presidents Brigham Young, Heber C. Kimball W. Richards ^& others^ who assisted in carrying me to my waggon
& family before laying me upon my bed they laid hands upon me & rebuked my pain & distress in
