Autobiography 1858 Deseret News
On the , while with the
camp of Israel building up Winter Quarters,
on the west side of the Missouri river, (then
Indian country) I passed through one of the
most painful and serious misfortunes of my
life. I took my axe and went two and a half
miles on to the bluffs to cut some shingle tim-
ber to cover my cabin; I was accompanied by
[Column 4]
two men. While the third tree was falling,
which was an oak, over two feet in diameter,
I stepped behind it some ten feet, and also to
one side the same distance, where I thought I
would be entirely out of danger; but when the
tree fell, there being a crook in the body of it,
which struck a knoll on the ground, the whole
body shot endwise back of the stump and
bounded, and the butt of the tree struck me on
the breast and knocked me several feet into
the air against a standing oak, and the falling
tree followed me in its bound and caught me
against the standing tree, and I came down
between them; before reaching the earth, how-
ever, I was liberated from them, and struck
the ground upon my feet in a badly bruised con-
dition. My left thigh, the whole length of it,
and my hip and left arm were much bruised;
my breast bone and three ribs on my left side
were broken; my lungs, vitals and left side
were also bruised in a shocking manner. After
the accident I sat upon a log until Mr.
John Garrison went a quarter of a mile to get
my horse. Notwithstanding I was so badly
hurt, I mounted my horse, and rode two and a
half miles over a very rough road, dismount-
ing twice in consequence of miry places; my
breast and vitals were so badly torn to pieces,
that at each step of the horse the pain went
through me like an arrow. I continued on
horseback until I arrived at Turkey creek, on
the north side of Winter Quarters. I then be-
came exhausted, and was taken off my horse
and carried to my wagon in a chair. I was
met in the street by Prests. Brigham Young,
H. C. Kimball and W. Richards and others,
who assisted in carrying me to my family.
Before laying me upon my bed, the Presidency
laid hands upon me, rebuked my suffering and
distress in the name of the Lord, and said I
should live and not die. I was then laid upon
my bed in my wagon, and as the Apostles pro-
phesied upon my head, so it came to pass. I
employed no physician on this occasion, but
was administered to by the Elders of Israel
and nursed by my wife. I lay upon my bed
unable to move until my breast bone began to
knit together, which commenced on the ninth
day. I began to walk about in twenty days;
in thirty days from the time I was hurt I again
commenced to do hard labor.
