Early in January he set out on a mission to the southern settlements and St. George, which he reached on the 22nd of the month. There, he again took up his labors in the Temple. The people there knew how happy Temple work made him and they turned out in great numbers to render him assistance in the work he had planned to do for his kindred dead.
It was at this time that he paid his first visit to Kanab, going by way of Rockville and Grafton. He calls the Hurricane Hill there the worst hill he ever drove a team up in his life. He and his companions camped for the night on the summit. He slept on the ground. The next morning he encountered a heavy snow-storm which continued until noon. At night they reached Pipe Springs, a little oasis in northern Arizona. This was also the first time he had been in that Territory.
On the return to St. George he resumed his work in the Temple. Of that work he said: "In one year and fourteen days endowments had been received for ten hundred and sixty-two of my dead." On March 20th he returned to Salt Lake City by way of Parowan, Cove Creek, Richfield, Manti, and Nephi.
He wrote a brief account of the April conference. Here, it should be said that matters of general Church interest which were taken down by stenographers ceased to find a place in his journal, and he confines himself more to personal affairs and matters of special interest. In many places, taking it for granted that the facts are known, he made his journal simply a commentary.
About the time of conference that year, there were difficulties between the heirs of President Young and the Church over the estate of the late President. "I will say," he wrote, in his journal, "for and in behalf of the executors of the estate of Brigham Young; namely, George Q. Cannon, Brigham Young, Jr., and Albert Carrington, that they have done all in their power to settle this estate in justice, equity and righteousness." In those trying difficulties Elder Woodruff acted as a peace-maker.
The year 1878 began to witness some of those beautiful outings, designated "The Old Folks' Excursion." The early history of the Church was beginning to crystallize in beauty and importance. To the Latter-day Saints, the men and women who had borne the burden of those early days were veterans of distinction, and the people loved to honor them; besides there is something in the spirit and teachings of Mormonism that calls forth reverence and honor for old age. There is within the Latter-day Saints a marked disposition to manifest gratitude. On the 11th of June, that year, thirteen cars conveyed the aged veterans, men and women, to Ogden, where they were received by a hundred and twenty-five conveyances and taken to Farr's Grove. Since then, these outings have become frequent and general throughout the Church.
Elder Woodruff gives us some data of an Old Folks' Excursion in those days. He says that prizes were distributed for various distinctions. Mrs. Catherine Wilson received one because she was the oldest person present—ninety-six years. William Wilde was likewise honored because he was the next oldest, ninety-five years. Five sisters obtained prizes because they had yoked and unyoked two yoke of cattle and driven them across the plains. Five others received them because they had drawn hand carts to Salt Lake Valley. One woman, Mrs. Ann Moses, was distinguished because she was the mother of twenty-one children. Mrs. Elizabeth Taylor came in also for her honors because she was the mother of fourteen children and six hundred grand, and great grand children. Elder P. Green Taylor, fifty-one years old, got a prize because he had more children than any man present; namely, thirty-six. Nor was Elder Woodruff forgotten on this occasion. He received a prize because he had baptized and had been instrumental in bringing into the Church a great number of souls, something like two thousand. He tells us in his journal that there was a foot-race by William Barnes, eighty-nine; Elias Adams, eighty-six; and Thomas Edmunds, likewise eighty-six years of age. He says Brother Edmunds won.
On the second of September, that year, he said he took part in blessing a number of missionaries and of setting apart Orson Pratt and Joseph F. Smith for a short mission to Missouri to visit the Whitmer families and places of note in the travels of the Church.
The October conference of that year was held in the Tabernacle and at its close there began the organization of a general Zion's Board of Trade, of which the Apostles were made honorary members. Local organizations of the same character were effected in different parts of the Church. The purpose of this organization was to promote the temporal welfare of the people and aid them in acquiring the best markets for their produce by co-operative effort.
On the 25th of that month Elder Woodruff records his visit with Senator McCrary of Kentucky and Mr. Hooper of Mississippi and other prominent gentlemen to the Smelting Works of Mr. L. E. Holden. Upon their return these gentlemen called upon President Taylor.