Letter to Orson Pratt.—Baptism of His Father-in-law, Ezra Carter.—Labors in New England.—Meets Dr. John M. Bernhisel.—Healing the Sick.—Interview with Col. Kane.—Hears Indian Chief.—Release from His Mission.—Return to the Valleys.—Conditions at the Frontier.—Stampede on the Plains.—Brigham Young Appointed Governor.—Salt Lake Temple Planned.—Salt Lake City Given a Charter.—Visit to the Southern Settlements.—Fourth Celebrated at Black Rock.—Celebrating of Twenty-fourth.—Death of His Stepmother.—Judge Brocchus Speaks in Conference.—Beautiful Words of Patriarch John Smith.—A Vote To Discontinue Use of Tea and Coffee.
The beginning of the year 1849 found Wilford Woodruff actively at work in the spread of the gospel. It was a glorious message which he was bearing to the people of the East, and he gave to it all the ardor of his intensely religious nature. Nor was he less concerned about the integrity and devotion of his wife to the faith they had espoused. His family was carefully instructed in the duties and sacraments of the Church. On the 15th of the month he wrote a lengthy letter to President Young and Council in which he reported his travels and labors. He prepared a historical sketch for the historian's office, and wrote to Orson Pratt, who was presiding over the British mission, as follows: "I am 42 years old today, March the 1st, 1849. How peculiar such figures look to a man while counting up his years in this probation. The very sight of them crowds on to his mind a flood of thoughts more than tongue can utter or pen describe. The last sixteen years of my life have been passed endeavoring to preach the gospel and build up the Kingdom of God in association with my brethren. The past is gone, I have no desire to recall it. I would not wish to live my life over again if I could. I feel like looking forward and not backward.
"While the Jews were high-minded and in the height of their power, the Son of God, in lamb-like meekness, bowed to the ordinance of baptism and all other rites of the gospel and commandments of His Father. He was looking forward to a time when He should make His second visit to His brethren after having overcome death and the grave. At the present day, while emperors, princes, kings, lords, nobles, and great men of the world have been making a wonderful effort to maintain their dignity, and appear to good advantage before the world, many of the noblest spirits that ever dwelt in the flesh, like Jesus and the Apostles, have been meekly submitting to the ordinances of the gospel, and like little children have submitted to the authority of the holy priesthood."
During the month of March Elder Woodruff visited Cape Cod, preaching to the Saints and strangers, the latter including sea-captains, sailors, and fishermen. There he also organized a branch of the Church with 21 members. Upon his return home to Cambridgeport, he found his father-in-law, Ezra Carter Sr., awaiting him. On the 22nd of March Father Carter was baptized, his wife having received the gospel before this. Elder Woodruff records these events as the fulfillment of prophecy by Father Jos. Smith, the patriarch, who, in blessing him and his wife years before, promised that their household should receive the gospel and stand with them in the Church. Elder Carter lived to be 96 years of age. His old home, in a beautiful rural district of southern Maine, still stands. It is near the roadside as you go from Saco to Portland.
On the 12th of April he started a company of Saints for Zion. There were 71 all told, 50 of whom were from Philadelphia. From Philadelphia he visited Saints in the neighboring towns. At Hornerstown he baptized three members of the Woolf family. They had been believers for a number of years, having been visited by the Prophet and a number of the Twelve. Leaving Pennsylvania he traveled through New Jersey to New York where he met T. D. Brown, just returning from England. From New York he went on to Cambridgeport to his family.
After journalizing the calamities occurring in St. Louis, New Orleans, California, and other parts of the world, Elder Woodruff started on a visit to Fox Islands where he had introduced the gospel twelve years before, having baptized nearly one hundred people. He passed many weeks on the Islands but with much less success than upon the first mission there. From here he went to New Brunswick, Canada, performing a large part of the journey on foot. One day he walked 35 miles, carrying a heavy load part of the distance.
Arriving at the ferry of Beauburs Island, he crossed in a boat and walked a mile through a pleasant grove to the home of Elder Joseph Russell, who for eleven years had been the owner of the entire island, which is a mile and a half in length, by a half a mile in width. Elder Russell was a ship-builder and had constructed 23 ships with a tonnage of 650 tons each. He was a man of considerable wealth, worth at that time, at a low estimate, $30,000. He was liberal with his means and faithful in the discharge of his duties to the Church. At that place there was a small branch of the Church over which he presided.
On the 28th he went with Elder Russell and son to Bedque. While here he received word that Charles C. Rich, Lorenzo Snow, and Franklin D. Richards had been chosen members of the Twelve Apostles.
On the 5th of August, Elder Woodruff set out upon his return to Cambridgeport, Elder Russell having first contributed $1,500 with which to aid the Church in its newly chosen home. He remained but a short time at home, when he started for Fall River and New Bedford to visit the Saints in those places. On his return from his trip to the South, he met at Cambridgeport, Dr. John M. Bernhisel, who, after giving an account of affairs in the Valleys, informed Elder Woodruff that he had come to Washington as our representative, bearing a petition for a Territorial Government.
Under date of July 25th, 1849, the President of the Church wrote Brother Woodruff a statement of conditions of the Church in the Valleys and expressed their desire to be admitted into the Union as a sovereign state. In that letter the President remarked: "The next time that you encounter the hardships, privations, and toil over the plains and mountains, you will meet with a very different reception from that which you did on your first arrival here. Friends will greet you, the products of the earth will be administered for your comfort. We shall be very happy to see you again."