As soon as Howard's wounds were healed, so he could sit a horse, he came to my home, at Draper, and got a team to help the Spencer family, with their summer's work. At that period there were no houses, on the road from the Cottonwood to Draper, on the dry creek bench, Howard met General Lyon with a company of U. S. Dragoons. They were enroute to Bear River, with the announced purpose of protecting the Morrisites in their anticipated move to California. When he met the troop he stopped them, and asked if Sergeant Pike was with them. They answered, "No, but what do you want?" The reply was, "I am owing him a little, and I thought if he were here, I would pay the debt." What a blessing that Pike was not there! Had he been, Spencer would have killed him, without any thought for his own safety. As a man he was the soul of honor, kind and gentle, and slow to anger, but when aroused, he was fearless as a lion. His friends affirm that after the assault at Rush Valley, his mind was unbalanced. I have no comment to offer on that. I do know, however, he was void of the sense of fear, and that he felt, in the Pike difficulty, that he was assaulted because he was a Mormon, and his love for and loyalty to the Mormon people stamped in his heart a determination to pay the debt in kind, let the consequences to himself be what they would. His love for law and order, held him in check, until he saw the farce played, when Pike was brought into the Provost court, with his gun buckled on his side, escorted by his armed comrades, heard the colored pleadings of Pikes counsel, and the prompt decision of the judge, evidencing to unbiased men, that in that court, there was no justice for a Mormon. With that feeling uppermost in his mind, he walked quietly out of the court room, and when Pike came out, he paid the debt, by shooting him. In the confusion that followed Spencer escaped. Years after, I met him on the Sevier, traveling alone, unarmed, and unguarded, going to Salt Lake City, to stand his trial, and I believe the jury's verdict, that acquitted him, met the approval of just men and angels. The following letter shows the spirit and methods used by the Mormon missionaries to help the poor to emigrate: "Elder John R. Young. My dear brother: I need scarcely say I was pleased to hear from you. Can old acquaintance be forgot? Your experience in the British mission is that of scores of Elders who have labored there of late years. "You no doubt say truly that in some respects the Bristol conference is the Molokai of the British mission; but it is not the only one. Our experience of today there, is not what it might have been twenty years ago. We are now gleaning the field after the harvest is gathered.