Chapter 9.
My First Mission.—Uncle Brigham's Counsel.—Parley P. Pratt, Teacher and Orator.—My First View of the Ocean.—San Francisco.—Tracting the City.—Scrap with a Hotel Keeper.—Labor as a Cook in the Home of Mr. McClain.—The Man Who Murdered Parley P. Pratt.
In 1854, at the April Conference in Salt Lake City, I was appointed a mission to the Sandwich Islands. I was then in my sixteenth year, and with my overcoat on I weighed, on Father Neff's mill scales, just ninety-six pounds. On the 4th of May I started on my mission; George Speirs, Simpson M. Molen, Washington B. Rogers, and I having fitted up a four-horse team with which we traveled across the desert to San Bernardino. In our company were Joseph F. Smith, then in his fifteenth year, John T. Caine, Edward Partridge, William W. Cluff, Ward E. Pack, Silas, and Silas S. Smith, and some others.
Parley P. Pratt was president of the company.
We traveled as far as Cedar City in President Brigham Young's company, among whom were my brother Joseph W., and my Uncle Joseph, and my father. At Cedar City I was ordained a Seventy by my brother Joseph W. Before the company started westward, Uncle Brigham, in bidding me goodby said:
"Johnny, I will give you a little advice. Be humble. Live near the Lord. Keep yourself pure from sin. Do not tell the people that you are unlearned; it will only weaken their faith. Avoid public discussions. I have noticed that they engender feelings of bitterness and seldom do good. Never tell all that you know at once; keep back something to talk about the next time. Be careful to say nothing but what you can prove."
President Kimball said, "Your name is no longer Johnny, but Rooter; for you shall root up iniquity where-ever you find it." Uncle Joseph Young said, "Be of good cheer. Great trees from little acorns grow, and you will grow to be a man yet." My father and brother Joseph added their blessing; and with a swelling heart, I turned to face the world, as a Mormon missionary boy.
Cedar City was our southern frontier settlement. From there to San Bernardino the country was almost an unknown desert. At Rio Virgin, Muddy, Las Vegas Springs, and Mohave were small bands of hostile, thieving Indians; but a watchful pacific policy carried us safely through.
While walking on those deserts, I formed an attachment for Apostle Parley P. Pratt that has never died. In conversation he was pure and intelligent; and he excelled as a faith-promoting teacher, while as an orator he had, to me, no superior in the Church.
Upon arrival at San Bernardino, we were warmly welcomed by Presidents Amasa M. Lyman and Charles C. Rich, and also by the colony of Saints. We rested there for three weeks. I made my home with Elder Addison Pratt. Sister Pratt and her amiable daughters were very kind to me.
As soon as we had disposed of our outfits, we moved on; the Saints kindly furnishing teams to haul us eighty miles to San Pedro, where I first saw the blue ocean, and sensed for the first time the rotundity of the earth by looking upon that vast expanse of oval water. Here we took passage on a sailing vessel for San Francisco, entering the bay in the night. I remember, when I came on deck in the morning, how amazed I was at the sight of the great forest of masts, and city built along the beach on piles, or stretching sparsely over the sand ridges.
In a few days President Pratt called a council, and the missionaries gave all their money to help buy the ship Rosalind, with the understanding that she would carry us free to our fields of labor. The idea was, that she would be an "Order-of-Enoch" ship, devoted to Zion's cause. I was young and thoughtless, hence I can say but little about the matter. It was, however, an unfortunate investment, for the hired captain ran away with the ship, and we lost our passage money. After our hopes had thus winged their flight to lands unknown, we missionaries went out among the farmers hunting work to earn money to take us to the islands. As I was too small for a harvest hand, President Pratt set me to tracting the city. I went from house to house leaving tracts, and offering to sell Church books. At that time there was a bitter feeling towards our people, and I met with much ill treatment.
One day I met a man by the name of Crump, recently from Michigan. As he passed through Salt Lake valley enroute to the gold mines, he had rested a few days at father's; and now he was cook at a large hotel. He asked me to come in and rest until he had served dinner. I sat at a table in the kitchen by an open window, reading.
Presently the proprietor came in and looked at my basket. I arose and invited him to buy a Book of Mormon. With an oath he grabbed the basket and started to throw it into the furnace. I held on, and began pleading with him, when he suddenly let go of the basket, and grappling me, swore he would throw me out of the window. I clinched with him and threw him on his back, and held him until the boarders came in and pulled me off.
The rough, big-hearted men were so amused, that I had to go into the dining hall and eat dinner with them. Then they bought all my books; and for the first and only time I went back to the office with an empty basket and a well-filled purse. Brother Pratt was so pleased with my bit of experience, that he released me from tracting. My first sacrifice had been accepted.
While making my home in San Francisco, I had been kindly cared for by a Sister Evans, a widow lady. I also made the acquaintance of Sister Eleanor McLain, an intelligent, energetic, but over-zealous woman, who had recently been baptized by Elder William McBride.
The morning after my release from tracting, I took my carpet bag, walked down to the ferry, and paid a dollar for a ticket to Oakland, intending to hunt work among the farmers. As the boat was on the eve of pushing off, I saw Elder McBride hurrying down the street waving his hat. I stepped on shore, when he told me that I must come back at once, as Parley had a mission for me. Upon reaching the office I was told by Brother Pratt that McLain was making arrangements to send his wife to the insane asylum because she had joined the Church, and my mission was to prevent his doing so. He then placed his hands upon my head, and blessing me, said that McLain should never harm a hair of my head. The spirit and power of that blessing gave me more than natural strength and courage; and I at once commenced my labor.
It occurred to me that if I could get to talk to McLain and his wife, I could bring about a reconciliation. After repeated calls, I persuaded him to hire me as cook in the family. Every day for a month, I dusted his room, made up his bed, handled the revolver with which he was going to kill the Mormon Elder who should dare to call at his home. During evenings I would read aloud selections from the Bible, and pray with the family; and as David played upon his harp to sooth Saul in his angry moods, so God gave to me, child though I was, power to soothe that wicked man, and drive the evil spirit from his abode.
At the end of a month, having been told by someone that I was a Mormon Elder, he rushed into the house like a madman, and in a fearful voice shouted: "Were you not a child, I would kill you."
I reminded him that he claimed to be a minister of the Gospel. (He was acting temporarily in that capacity in the Unitarian Church). He quieted down enough to get his Bible, and said he would prove to me that there was not to be any more revelation, and that laying on of hands for the gift of the Holy Ghost was blasphemy. But his hands trembled, and he could not find the passages.
I read to him the words of Peter on the day of Pentecost, "For the promise is unto you, and unto your children, and to all that are afar off, even as many as the Lord, our God, shall call." He then sprang from the table, went into an adjoining room, came back and, giving me forty dollars in gold, my month's wages, dismissed me.
I had thus filled my second mission,—had turned the shaft of madness from Sister McLain, had earned my passage money, and Parley's blessing on my head had been realized.