Treasures in Heaven / Fifteenth Book of the Faith Promoting Series, Designed for the Instruction and Encouragement of Young Latter-day Saints

by Unknown

A sister of the Prophet Joseph Smith was a witness of this scene, she having proffered to remain with Mother Lambert for company while her husband was absent, and expressed regret that she didn't have some weapon to shoot the men with while threatening her friend.

In course of time they succeeded in getting ferried over the river and formed a camp on the Iowa side until Father Lambert could fulfill his pledge to help the poor Saints who had no means of conveyance, across the river, where they would be free from the power of the mob.

While engaged in this mission of charity, a party of mobocrats recognized him as one who had been conspicuous in the fight, and, with guns aimed at him, ordered his surrender. Then, while the two largest men of the party took him down into the the river and held him under the water three times in succession until his breath was gone, fourteen others, with their guns cocked and ready for action, threatened to shoot him if he attempted to resist.

Of course, he did not resist, neither did two brethren who were with him at the time—Thomas Harrington and Daniel Hill—for they were unarmed and knew it would be folly to do so. They were silent witnesses of the scene, and neither they nor Father Lambert made any response to the oaths of their persecutors, nor to the threat that if they ventured upon that side of the river again they would be shot on sight. Notwithstanding the threat, however, Father Lambert was in Nauvoo the following day, and continued to go over there until all the poor Saints who cared to be helped across the river had abandoned the city.

On one of these occasions he was detained in Nauvoo, because of the pressing nature of what he had in hand, and Mother Lambert, fearing the mob had caught him and executed their threat, walked the bank of the river all night in the greatest agony of suspense, and inquired anxiously about her husband of every passenger that crossed on the ferry boat, but all in vain. However, he showed up the next morning, with an additional yoke of cattle which he had secured on an account due him.

While encamped on the bank of the river on the Iowa side, a rain storm occurred, which continued without cessation for three days and nights, until the wagons and their contents, as well as the clothing worn, were thoroughly soaked. The sick woman, Mrs. Haines, was placed on a bed under the wagon, that being the most sheltered place available, and there Mother Lambert and others waited upon her as best they could, even holding milk pans over her bed to catch the water as it dripped through the wagon box, until she died—a martyr to the persecution to which the Saints were subjected.

It was while encamped on the bank of this river that the Saints, many of them suffering for want of food as well as otherwise ailing, were visited by a flock of quails, miraculously rendered so tame that some of them alighted on the beds occupied by the sick and were caught by their hands, and others allowed themselves to be killed with sticks. Those persecuted and suffering Saints, the Lambert family among the rest, accepted the birds as sent of the Lord, considering themselves as much the objects of divine favor as were the Israelites of old when fed with manna, and cooked the quail and ate them with the greatest possible relish.

The journey through Iowa was a very difficult one, and not entirely devoid of danger. The country was very sparsely settled, there were no really good roads except occasional stretches of natural prairie, and the numerous streams encountered generally had to be forded because of the absence of bridges. However, they did not travel continuously, a stop of some weeks being made at Bonaparte, and employment obtained by which supplies were earned.

It was while traveling westward from that point that a very serious accident occurred. Mother Lambert was very nervous about riding over bad places, preferring to walk when allowed to do so. The fact that the team animals, which consisted of two yoke of steers and one yoke of cows, were not well broken—in fact, quite wild when they left Nauvoo—rendered her more chary about riding. When approaching Soap Creek, which she had learned was a difficult stream to cross, she alighted from the wagon, and soon afterwards, by some accident, fell in front of the wagon wheel, and, before the team could be stopped, two wheels had passed over the small of her back. In addition to the weight of the wagon itself, its load amounted to fully 3500 pounds, making a combined weight sufficient to crush the life out of a person under ordinary circumstances. Indeed, it was supposed when she was picked up that she was dead. Father Lambert, however, was not willing to admit such a possibility, and called upon as many of his fellow travelers as had any faith to join with him in administering to her. His wife was miraculously spared, and the journey resumed the following day, but she has suffered more or less ever since from the effects of the accident.

Winter Quarters, on the west bank of the Missouri river, where the main body of the Saints had encamped, was reached late in November, and, as soon as Father Lambert had constructed a log house to shelter his family during the winter, he made his way to Missouri and found employment by which he earned supplies, and sent to his wife and children. He and his family were ambitious to journey westward with the pioneers in the spring. They were prevented, however, from doing so by the Indians killing their team animals after they had been brought through the winter in good condition, and shortly before the journey was to be undertaken.