On the 29th of June the Twelve held a conference with the Saints in Boston. They met in Franklin Hall. There were present Brigham Young, Heber C. Kimball, Orson Hyde, Orson Pratt, Wilford Woodruff, William Smith, and Lyman Wight. President Young presided. It occupied two days. The conference was well attended, and every effort was made to present the views of the Prophet and explain the character of the Latter-day Saints. The conference also received instructions in political matters.
July first, by previous appointment, a convention was held in Melodian Hall. Brigham Young of Nauvoo presided. William Smith and Lyman Wight were vice presidents. Wilford Woodruff, Orson Pratt, and A. McAllister of Boston, and N. H. Felt of Salem were secretaries. Resolutions were passed and proceedings of the meeting were published in the "Boston Times" of July 2nd, 1844. An evening session of the convention was held. A number of rowdies made their appearance in the galleries. While President Young was speaking, a woman by the name of Folsom, arose and began to harangue the audience; then a rowdy, supported by a large number of kindred spirits, made such a disturbance that the police came in to quell those creating the confusion. The police, however, were overpowered by the rough element and the meeting was broken up. The convention, however, adjourned until 4 p. m. the following day, to meet at Bunker Hill. Here Heber C. Kimball and George B. Wallace were elected delegates to attend the Baltimore National Convention.
On July 2nd the Twelve met in council and made their plans to support and attend the several conferences in the various states. Elder Woodruff and his old-time friend, Milton Holmes, whom he had not seen for five years, went into Maine. "We left Boston," he says, "at seven p. m. on the 2nd and arrived at Father Carter's home in Scarboro early the next afternoon. I found my wife's father and mother and Brother Fabyan and family all well." A Brother Stoddard had already made the appointment for their conference on the 6th and 7th at Scarboro, in a Presbyterian chapel. About six hundred people assembled. There were present besides himself S. B. Stoddard, Milton Holmes, Elbridge Tufts, and Samuel Parker.
On the 9th, in company with Milton Holmes and Father Carter, Elder Woodruff visited Portland, and dined with his brother-in-law, Ezra Carter. While there he saw for the first time the announcement in the press of the martyrdom of Joseph and Hyrum Smith. It was published in the "Boston Times." In consequence of the shocking news, he repaired at once to Boston, and the day following his arrival there he met with the Saints and gave them counsel and comfort in the hour of their bereavement. "The next day," he says in his journal, "I wrote a letter to the editor of the "Prophet," published in New York, giving a word of exhortation to the Saints abroad to maintain their integrity, and to keep the faith and endurance of the Saints even unto death. The following morning we obtained information from Quincy, giving full account of the horrible affair at Carthage and the great loss which the Church had sustained.
"The governor himself acknowledged the death of Joseph and Hyrum to be a wanton murder. The state of Illinois was in commotion, and Governor Ford made Quincy his headquarters and issued a proclamation to the citizens of the state. The news of the day stated that the Mormon leaders in Nauvoo had done all they could to restrain the disciples of the martyred Prophet from vengeance. Still there was evidently a disposition on the part of the people and the troops to destroy Nauvoo, lest the Mormons should hold a fearful reckoning with the mobocratic element in desperation over the assassination of their Prophet and Patriarch. 'The wicked flee when no man pursueth.'"
On Sunday, the 14th, Elder Woodruff preached twice to the Saints in Boston, he being the only one of the Twelve then in that city. On the morning of the 16th of July he received a letter from Erastus Snow and one from John E. Page, both confirming the report of the martyrdom. The same day he received the first letter he had obtained from his wife since leaving Nauvoo. This letter contained the narration of a dream given to the Prophet Joseph a few days before his death. In the dream there was clearly indicated to him the conspiracy and treachery of William and Wilson Law, and the fact, too, that they would yet cry unto Joseph to deliver them from the grasp of the monster into whose hands they had wilfully placed themselves; and that his power to help them would be like that of Lazarus, to whom the rich man appealed. There was a gulf between them.
On the 17th of July he says, in his journal: "Elder Brigham Young arrived in Boston. I walked with him to No. 57 Temple Street and called upon Sister Vose. Brother Young took the bed and I the armchair, and then we veiled our faces and gave vent to our grief. Until now I had not shed a tear since the death of the Prophet. My soul had been nerved up like steel. After giving vent to our grief in tears we felt more composed. Brother Brigham left the city the same day, but soon returned. Elders Kimball, Hyde, and Orson Pratt also came. We held a council and I was directed to write a letter to the "Prophet," edited in New York, advising the elders who had families in Nauvoo to go immediately to them, and all the elders of the Church to assemble forthwith at Nauvoo for a council. It was signed by order of the quorum of the Twelve, Brigham Young, president, and Wilford Woodruff, clerk. This order of the quorum was subsequently published in the "News," Volume 7, No. 447."
On July 18th, meeting was held in a hall on Washington Street, opposite Boylston Hall. Elder Hyde spoke on the martyrdom of Joseph and Hyrum, and was followed by Brigham Young, who said: "Be of good cheer. The testimony is not in force while the testator liveth; when he dieth, it is enforced. So it is with Joseph. When God sends a man to do a work, all the devils in hell cannot kill him until his work is accomplished. It was thus with Joseph. He prepared all things and gave the keys to men on the earth and said, 'I am soon to be taken from you.'"
Soon after this the Twelve left for Nauvoo. Elder Woodruff started on the 20th, and two days later found himself at his native home in Farmington, Connecticut. "I found my father and stepmother alone, there was not a child with them in their decline of life to watch over them. I had twenty-four hours to stay and I happily improved the time.
"My father was sixty-seven years of age, and I might never see him again in mortality. I felt deeply impressed of late that I had something to do for my parents. As the sable shades of a serene night drew their curtain over the earth and sealed the cares of the day, we went alone to prayer. There were none but congenial spirits there. I rose and with a spirit like that of Joseph of old towards his father Jacob, opened my heart to my father, and he reciprocated my sentiments. I then laid my hands upon his head and ordained Aphek Woodruff a high priest and patriarch after the order of Melchisedek, and sealed him up unto eternal life. I shall never forget the deep satisfaction and heavenly spirit of that night beneath my father's roof. Sleep departed from me, and I was wrapped in the meditations and visions of days gone by and of days to come."