Before he reached the age of manhood, Parley had in his native State (N.Y.) met with reverses in fortune so serious as to change the purposes of his life. "I resolved," he says, "to bid farewell to the civilized world, where I had met with little else but disappointment, sorrow and unrewarded toil; and where sectarian divisions disgusted, and ignorance perplexed me,--and to spend the remainder of my days in the solitudes of the great West, among the natives of the forest." In October, 1826, he took leave of his friends and started westward, coming at length to a small settlement about thirty miles west of Cleveland, in the State of Ohio. The country was covered with a dense forest, with only here and there a small opening made by the settlers, and the surface of the earth was one vast scene of mud and mire. Alone, in a land of strangers, without home or money, and not yet twenty years of age, he became somewhat discouraged, but concluded to stop for the winter. In the spring he resolved to return to his native State, for there was one at home whom his heart had long loved and from whom he would not have been separated, except by misfortune. But with her, as his wife, he returned to Ohio, the following year, and made a home on the lands which he cleared with his own hands. [1] Eighteen months thereafter Sidney Rigdon came into the neighborhood, as a preacher. With this reformer Parley associated himself in the ministry, and organized a society of disciples. But Parley was not satisfied with even the ancient _gospel form_ without the power. At the commencement of 1830, the very time the Mormon Church was organized, he felt drawn out in an extraordinary manner to search the prophets, and to pray for an understanding of the same. His prayers were soon answered, even beyond his expectations. The prophesies were opened to his view. He began to understand the things which were about to transpire. The restoration of Israel, the coming of Messiah, and the glory that should follow. Being now "moved upon by the Holy Ghost" to travel about preaching the gospel "without purse or scrip," in August, 1830, he closed his worldly business and bid adieu to his wilderness home, which he never saw afterwards. "Arriving at Rochester," he says, "I informed my wife that, notwithstanding our passage being paid through the whole distance, yet I must leave the boat and her to pursue her passage to her friends, while I would stop awhile in this region. Why, I did not know; but so it was plainly manifest by the spirit to me. "I said to her, we part for a season; go and visit our friends in our native place; I will come soon, but how soon I know not; for I have a work to do in this region of country, and what it is, or how long it will take to perform it, I know not; but I will come when it is performed.