Memoirs
of
John R. Young
Utah Pioneer
1847
Written by Himself
"Words are the soul's ambassadors who go
Abroad, upon her errands to and fro,
They are the chief expounders of the mind,
And correspondence kept 'twixt all mankind."They place in memory's clasp, truths we have read,
Beautiful words, of both living and dead.
Helping us cherish, and nurse as they grow,
Elysian plants, from thoughts that we sow.
Bringing to memory, and waking to life
The form, and face of a child, or wife,
The choicest treasures to mortals given,
The golden thread that leads to heaven.O, may the thoughts in this book penned,
Prove sweet, and pure, to kindred and friend,
To a child, or grandchild, as the case may be.
Loyal scions, from the ancestral tree;
Whose pulse will quicken, and brain will throb,
As they view the path the grandsire trod."
Appreciation
With pleasure I express thanks to Professor N. L. Nelson, HistorianAndrew Jenson, Elder Walter J. Lewis, Sister W. Lyle Allred, and to myson, Newell K. Young, and to you, my many friends, who have given wordsof encouragement to
THE AUTHOR.
CONTENTS.
Birth.—Childhood Recollections.
Camp on Sugar Creek.—Brigham's Charge to the Exiles.—Death of a NobleWoman.—Free from Mobs
Petition Governors.—William C. Staines.—Captain James Allen
Thomas L. Kane's Description of the City of Nauvoo, and the ExiledMormons
Daniel H. Wells.—Baptism for the Dead.—Lorenzo D. Young'sMission.—Wilford Woodruff.—Saved by Prayer
Brigham's Wise Counsels.—Joseph Toronto.—Joseph Smith, Seer andOrganizer.—Prophecy of August 6, 1842
A Religious Commonwealth.—General Clark's Degree.—Brigham's IndianPolicy.—Its Peaceable Fruits.—The Glory of the Immigrant's First Viewof the Valley
Mormon Stalwarts.—A War on the Plains.—Death of CelestiaKimball.—Two Indian Girls Tortured.—Sally's Death.—Ira Eldredge'sDog and the Wolf.—Delicious Rawhide Soup.—Eat Thistles.—TheDevastating Crickets.—Delivered Wrought by the Sea Gulls
My First Mission.—Uncle Brigham's Counsel.—Parley P. Pratt, Teacherand Orator.—My First View of the Ocean.—San Francisco.—Tracting theCity.—Scrap With a Hotel Keeper.—Labor as a Cook in the Home of Mr.McLean.—The Man who M