March 13I was pressed in spirit to go to QuincyIllinois and visit the the saints who had fled their from theirpersecuters in MissouriI immediately
^March 13^ I took my wife ^Family^ & child into my waggon andstarted on the 12th March and arived
^March 13 I took my family and started for Quincy where I arived^ in Quincy on the 16. I dined with Emma Smith at Judge Clevelands I then
went on the bank of the river near Quincy and saw ^a great^ many of the Saints
old and young man wom & children lying in the mud and water in a hard rain
storm with^out^ scarcely any tent or covering which ^suffering^ was the fruits ^caused by^ of the unhallowed
persecution of the State of Missouri the sight filled my eyes with tears
while my heart was made glad at the cheerfulness of the Saints in the
midst of ther ^affliction^ dreary position. Sunday 17. I had an interview with Elder
^President^ Brigham Young and John Taylor we held a meeting with the saints $50 and a number
of teams was raised to bring out the remainder of the people from Missouri. I made a statement of the procedings of the Springfield Conference when the Church voted that Jonathan Dunham be reproved for calling a conference at Springfield and for cherishing the wrong spirit which Brewster possessed. President Brigham Young councilled that the Twelve as soon as possibleimmediatelymove their families to ^to locate their families in^ Quincy ^for the time being^ so they could be together in council I left Quincy on the 20th arived in Springfield on the 23rd Held a meeting with the Saints reproved Elder Dunham for his course in maintaining Brewster in his wrong spirit. He confessed asked forgiveness & was forgivenI collected a donationof ^I returned to Rochester for my effects while at Springfield I collected $70 for the relief of the
Saints in Quincy ^which I sent to them^ A messenger took it to the Brethren in that place.I arived in Rochester on the 24th. On April 3rd while riding upon the running gears of a waggon, setting upon the foreward bolster, the bolt came out of the copling pole which left the hind wheels I was imme- diately shot up between the bolster and tongue with the coupling pole turned over upon the horses backs the horses became frightened and ran onto an open prairie with me draging my head and shoulders upon the ground after draging me in this position for several minutes I managed to dr guide them so as to run into the corner of a high staked worm fence where I landed with myself ^&^ horses in apile, and escaped through the mercy of God with ownly a few bruises without any broken bones.I settled my businessand ^I^ returned to Quincy on the 8 April where I left my family and went to Far west with the Twelve and
attended the conference on the Temple Block on the 26 April 1839 where I was ordained
as one of the Twelve Apostles on the corner stone of the Temple under the hands of the Twelve
^Elder^ Brigham Young being mouth. Elder G. A. Smith was also ordained ^at the same time^ to the same office. We
returned to Quincy on the 2nd day of May. On the 3rd in company with five of the
Twelve I went to Mr Cleevelands and had a happy interviewed with ^President^ Joseph Smiththe Prophet who had just escaped out of the hands of his persecuters in Missouri it was the
"Autobiography 1857-1858 Draft 1," p. 33, The Wilford Woodruff Papers, accessed May 19, 2022, https://wilfordwoodruffpapers.org/documents/ea6c5c86-e1df-4020-84a1-663b01bceeb3/page/506ec06b-9707-4b9c-a2e5-8b6e35a07a75