In , after my return to Winter Quarters from our
pioneer journey, I was appointed by the Presidency of the
Church to take my family and go to Boston, to gather up the
remnant of the Latter-day Saints and lead them to the valleys
of the mountains.
While on my way east I put my carriage into the yard of one of the brethren in Indiana, and Brother Orson Hyde set
his wagon by the side of mine, and not more than two feet
from it.
Dominicus Carter, of Provo, and my wife and four children
were with me. My wife, one child and I went to bed in the
carriage, the rest sleeping in the house.
I had been in bed but a short time when a voice said to me:
“Get up, and move your carriage."
I told my wife I must get up and move my carriage. She
asked: "What for?"
I told her I did not know, only the Spirit told me to do it.
I got up and moved my carriage several rods, and set it by
the side of the house.
As I was returning to bed the same Spirit said to me, ''Go
and move your mules away from that oak tree,” which was
about one hundred yards north of our carriage.
I moved them to a young hickory grove and tied them up.
I then went to bed.
In thirty minutes a whirlwind caught the tree to which my
mules had been fastened, broke it off near the ground, and
carried it one hundred yards, sweeping away two fences in its
course, and laid it prostrate through that yard where my
carriage stood, and the top limbs hit my carriage as it was.
In the morning I measured the trunk of the tree which fell
where my carriage had stood, and I found it to be five feet in
circumference. It came within a foot of Brother Hyde's
wagon, but did not touch it.
Thus, by obeying the revelation of the Spirit of God to me
I saved my life and the lives of my wife and child, as well as
my animals.
In the morning I went on my way rejoicing.
LEAVES FROM MY JOURNAL.
In 1848, after my return to Winter Quarters from our
pioneer journey, I was appointed by the Presidency of the
Church to take my family and go to Boston, to gather up the
remnant of the Latter-day Saints and lead them to the valleys
of the mountains.
While on my way east I put my carriage into the yard of
one of the brethren in Indiana, and Brother Orson Hyde set
his wagon by the side of mine, and not more than two feet
from it.
Dominicus Carter, of Provo, and my wife and four children
were with me. My wife, one child and I went to bed in the
carriage, the rest sleeping in the house.
I had been in bed but a short time when a voice said to me:
“Get up, and move your carriage."
I told my wife I must get up and move my carriage. She
asked: "What for?"
I told her I did not know, only the Spirit told me to do it.
I got up and moved my carriage several rods, and set it by
the side of the house.
As I was returning to bed the same Spirit said to me, ''Go
and move your mules away from that oak tree,” which was
about one hundred yards north of our carriage.
I moved them to a young hickory grove and tied them up.
I then went to bed.
In thirty minutes a whirlwind caught the tree to which my
mules had been fastened, broke it off near the ground, and
carried it one hundred yards, sweeping away two fences in its
course, and laid it prostrate through that yard where my
carriage stood, and the top limbs hit my carriage as it was.
In the morning I measured the trunk of the tree which fell
where my carriage had stood, and I found it to be five feet in
circumference. It came within a foot of Brother Hyde's
wagon, but did not touch it.
Thus, by obeying the revelation of the Spirit of God to me
I saved my life and the lives of my wife and child, as well as
my animals.
"Autobiography 1882 Leaves from My Journal," p. 100, The Wilford Woodruff Papers, accessed December 13, 2024, https://arts.wilfordwoodruffpapers.org/p/qB3