President Young, however, was not exalted in his feelings because of these attentions. The welfare of the Saints was a matter of deep concern to him. The Saints were admonished to abandon the use of tea, coffee, and tobacco; to cease to use liquor; and not support those in the country who were the deadly enemies of the Saints—those, who, enriching themselves by their patronage, were sending lies abroad against the people. At Nephi the stake of Zion was organized with Elder Jacob Bigler as president.
On reaching Mt. Pleasant, the enthusiasm of the people exceeded even that at Nephi. "It was the greatest display and the largest procession I ever saw outside of Salt Lake City." At Ephraim there was a torchlight procession. There, President Canute Peterson was selected to preside over the priesthood in that place. He subsequently became president of the Sanpete Stake. At Ephraim Elder Woodruff recorded in his journal the following: "I had an interview this morning with a Danish brother by the name of Soren Christensen, a man seventy-five years of age. He had lived under five reigning kings of Denmark and had served as a soldier under Napoleon. He was a very strong man."
The leaders returned for general conference which convened that fall on the 6th of October. "It was the first time for thirty-two years," said Elder Woodruff, "that all the Quorum of the Twelve had been together. The last time before this was at the home of Elder Heber C. Kimball in Kirtland. They were then contending one against the other, and Brigham Young prayed that all the Quorum might never meet again until it could meet in peace and union. The entire Quorum never met since then until this day." Only three of the original Quorum still remained. They were Brigham Young, Orson Hyde, and Orson Pratt. The Quorum at this time consisted of Orson Hyde, Orson Pratt, John Taylor, Wilford Woodruff, George A. Smith, Ezra T. Benson, Chas. C. Rich, Lorenzo Snow, Franklin D. Richards, George Q. Cannon, and Joseph F. Smith. At this conference George A. Smith was called to the First Presidency of the Church to fill the vacancy occasioned by the death of Heber C. Kimball, and Brigham Young, Jr., was called to fill the place made vacant in the Quorum. He had, however, been previously ordained as an apostle.
On October 26th of that year, Elder Woodruff recorded a circumstance of a misfortune that befell one of his sons. The Indian boy "Keets" whom he had taken to raise, in a fit of surliness left his post of duty at the molasses mill where he was feeding the rollers. No one was left to take the Indian boy's place except Elder Woodruff's little son, Ashael, then only five years old. While the child was feeding the mill, his right hand was drawn between the rollers and badly crushed. The father and mother immediately brought him to the city where the thumb and two of the fingers were amputated by Dr. Ormsby.
December 8th he recorded the death of Daniel Spencer, president of the Salt Lake Stake; and on the 9th, the death of Leonora Cannon Taylor, wife of President John Taylor.
In closing the record of the year 1868, he made a summary of his labors for that year. He traveled one thousand three hundred and four miles, attended one hundred and seventy-six meetings, preached seventy-nine discourses, attended thirty-two prayer meetings with the Presidency and Twelve, twenty-six meetings of his own prayer circle, two general conferences. He labored twenty days in the Endowment House, gave endowments to two thousand and twenty-five persons, married four hundred and nine couples, out of a total of one thousand one hundred and nine for that year. He officiated in other ordinances for eighteen persons, met with the School of the Prophets forty-seven times, baptized one, confirmed one, blessed one child, met in a council with the body of the priesthood three times, met with an Irrigation Company twice, and while in Provo met four times with the City Council. During the year he wrote eighty letters and received sixty. He attended the legislative council forty days. Besides all this, he labored on his farm plowing, planting, reaping, and irrigating. He killed about three hundred bushels of grasshoppers. What a marvel of industry!
CHAPTER 42.
THE YEARS, 1869, '70.