Wilford Woodruff, Fourth President of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints: History of His Life and Labors, as Recorded in His Daily JournalsWoodruff, Wilford
Religion
Wilford Woodruff, Fourth President of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints: History of His Life and Labors, as Recorded in His Daily Journals
Woodruff, Wilford
Woodruff, Wilford, 1807-1898
On the 10th of September, Apostle Woodruff and the clerks in the
historian's office moved to their new office, which was an imposing
building in those days, and which still stands on South Temple Street
between State and Main Streets. Elder Woodruff was mouth in the
dedication of this building on September 15th, 1856. Elder Woodruff
records this blessing in his journal and exclaims therein: "Wilt thou
bless, O Lord, with thy holy spirit this building, that we may never
profane thy name in this house, or dishonor the holy priesthood, or
bring approach upon thy cause, or grieve thy holy spirit in any way.
Bring to our remembrance all things necessary to be written in the
history of the Church, and cause that papers and documents that are
necessary may be brought to us that we may be enabled to compile a
correct, useful, and proper history."
On the 26th of the same month, the two first hand-cart companies
entered Salt Lake Valley. They were in charge of Edmund Ellsworth
and Daniel Duncan McArthur, the former was the husband of President
Young's oldest daughter. Elder Ellsworth died some years ago, but
Elder McArthur, at this writing, 1909, still lives in St. George in
the 86th year of his age. For some years he was president of the St.
George stake of Zion. These companies of Saints were met at the mouth
of Emigration Canyon to the east of the city and were escorted with
much display and honor to the city. President Young and the general
authorities went out to meet them. Bands of music enlivened the
occasion, and the presence of many Saints gave great distinction to the
scene. They had pushed and pulled their hand-carts from the Missouri
River, over a thousand miles. They had waded the streams, climbed the
mountains, and had made better time than either the ox or the horse
teams.
This new method of crossing the plains had been first suggested
and decided upon in England during the presidency in that mission
of Franklin D. Richards. It was, in a measure, an outburst of the
enthusiastic desire and spirit of the people there {372} to gather with
their religious comrades in the Valleys of the Mountains. The first
companies had fared measurably well, but those who came later, and were
the victims of an unusual and extraordinary winter, suffered greatly.
At this place in Elder Woodruff's journal, he records a dream related
by Daniel H. Wells and the latter's interpretation of it. He saw in
his dream a butcher's cleaver in the heavens, from which he was led to
predict the near approach of war and bloodshed in the nation. The time,
he declared, was nearer than people imagined.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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