It was distinctly the Indian's country in those days, and the Saints had no one but themselves to look to for protection. The forces of the United States government were then engaged in Mexico. It is interesting at this point to observe that where the city of Omaha now stands the Saints were once busily engaged cultivating the soil and providing means for their expected journey westward, although Winter Quarters was a few miles north from the present site of Omaha. On June 21st, 1848, Elder Woodruff with his family, and several others, eleven in all, started upon his Eastern mission. They first went to Mt. Pisgah where they found a number of the Saints to whom they preached. There would naturally be some misgiving as to the faith and continuity of those who remained some distance in the rear of the Saints, those who were unwilling to follow the lead of President Young and the Twelve would naturally discourage the more timid ones. It was during this journey, and on the 5th of July, that Elder Woodruff records a miraculous escape by one of those spiritual impressions that frequently came across his life. He had tied his mules to an oak-wood tree beside which he was camping. His children were sleeping in the wagon, and he felt impressed to move from his camping-ground, so he moved his children into a house. Only a short time elapsed when a thunder-storm swept over the place in great fury. Of the circumstance he writes: "We had just retired when the storm reached us in great fury, and in a moment the large oak came thundering down to the ground with a terrific crash. Had I not moved my mules, it would probably have killed them. Had I not moved my carriage, it would have {332} been crushed to atoms, and we would have been killed, as the tree fell where my carriage stood. It just missed Brother Kingsley's wagon. I consider my impression an interposition of Providence to save our lives." On the 9th, they arrived at Nauvoo and went through the Temple from basement to steeple, and again gazed on the once beautiful, but now desolate city of Nauvoo. While at the city, in the home of Almon Babbit, Elder Woodruff met a man who had come from Michigan to hear the gospel, and to whom he preached for one hour and then led him down into the waters of the Mississippi. During the same day, in a house built by George A. Smith, and occupied by Elder John Snyder, he confirmed the man whom he had just baptized and ordained him an elder and sent him on his way rejoicing. Before leaving Nauvoo on his eastward journey, he sold his mules, carriage and harness and took steamer down the river to St. Louis. From this point Elder Woodruff boarded a steamer for La Salle, Illinois, and thence to Louisville, where he visited his brother-in-law and sister, Luther and Rhoda Scammon. Here death, for the fourth time, entered his family circle and called to the spirit world an infant of nine months.