Acts of Special Providence in Missionary Experience

ACTS OF SPECIAL PROVIDENCE IN MISSIONARY EXPERIENCE. SOME MIRACULOUS INTERPOSITIONS OF PROVIDENCE AGAINST THE ENEMIES OF RIGHTEOUSNESS.

BY ELDER ELIAS KIMBALL, LATE PRESIDENT OF THE SOUTHERN STATES MISSION.

[About January, 1897, a young brother of Salt Lake City, who for some time had interested himself in making a collection of miraculous events that had transpired in the Church from its establishment in 1830 until now, and, by the way, his collection is both a valuable and magnificent one —wrote Elder Elias Kimball, then President of the Southern States Mission, asking him if he could send an account of some miracles happening in the Southern States Mission. From the incidents related by President Kimball we select the following relating to judgments that overtook those guilty of mob violence against the Elders. Editors.]

In January, 1890, the Elders met with much opposition in the Alabama Mission, and were compelled to leave and seal their testimony against those who had a hand in their expulsion. In fact, from 1890 to 1895, in all the South Satan seemed to have been in the field with all his cohorts against the work of God, and it is

only in recent years that his power has been broken to some extent, and the Spirit of God is being poured out on all flesh. In Clarke County, Alabama, shortly before the Elders left, a phenomenon occurred which thwarted the mob in their designs against the Elders, as they were assembled to do violence to the servants of God. Suddenly a brilliant light, brighter than noon-

ACTS OF SPECIAL PROVIDENCE. 535

day, burst upon them from a clear sky, followed by a noise louder than the heaviest peal of thunder. Some dropped to their knees, and all fled in dismay, as it struck terror to their hearts. But it seems this warning was not enough, for after ai short season they started their work with more zeal than before, and the Elders were compelled to leave, not, however, without the judgments of God following. No sooner had the Elders sealed their testimony against their enemies than a spirit of unrest and misfortune followed the mobbers, until they longed for the servants of God to return, while several of them died with curious and painful diseases; some were eaten by maggots while still alive, and it was impossible to keep flies from blowing them, thus fulfilling some of their imprecations with God's vengeance. In 1883 some of the mob organized into a clan, calling themselves, "Hell at the Breach." But the citizens rose against this mob and killed three of their number, two of the James brothers and one Bedsoe, one was shot dead with three balls, another with forty-eight bullets that pierced his body, and the other was riddled with sixty; while others were hunted in the woods like beasts, and got only three meals in ten days. These same mobbers had hunted the Elders, compelling them to flee to the woods for safety, but now God avenged them in the same manner. The remnant of the mob were compelled to leave the country at once, and while making their escape through other counties they pretended to be very pious Christians, though they were discovered to be heavily armed, and would profane like Lucifer when they thought no one near. In different parts of Mississippi mobs were frequent, but we have the accounts of many paying the penalty; some were convicted and sentenced to long terms of imprisonment, others hung and were scourged in different ways. Some died unnatural deaths; one of these was Charles Watters, of Pike County, Mississippi, who had assisted in hunting down the Elders who were compelled to sleep some nights in the woods. Parson Roland Turnage, who preached his soul directly into the presence of God, and also opposed the Elders, indulging in false statements and tirades against the Latter-day Saints, also met a similar fate, and was stricken down with sickness from which he could find no relief.

536 IMPROVEMENT ERA.

Some of the mobbers who afterwards repented, said they had no peace of conscience, but a spirit of torture ever since the expulsion of the Elders, who were expelled from Lauderdale County, Mississippi, in 1887. In Wayne County. Mississippi, three men, whose names are West, Williams and Hedrick, attempted to entrap Elders Gardner and Moss, but instead of carr3dng out their designs, while quarreling among themselves, Williams shot and killed Hedrick. In Lawrence County, Mississippi, in the spring of 1893, one George Aters, who held a minor civil office, ordered Elders Phelps and Doxey out of the country, and cursed and swore at them, threatening to kill them, and said that he would do so if he had a gun, even if God should strike him dead the next minute. In a few weeks after that he had a child born who was a deformed cripple; he met with several accidents himself, and the scourges of God followed him. About July 10, 1892, Elders Moss and Holbrook had a meeting broken up in the southern part of Wayne County, Mississippi, by a mob. The Elders remonstrated with them, telling them they offered the Gospel, and they would leave the matter with them and their God, and left.

A spirit of unrest took possession of the mob, and some repented, but the principal leader, named Smith, continued in his course, and in the autumn of 1893, he was taken sick, and after suffering for several months, he died. His ailment was so curious, and so unyielding to the skill of physicians as to attract universal attention.

In Perry County, Mississippi, about July 10, 1891, Elders Mower and Gardner were taken out of Morriston by five men, named Daniel Carter, James McDonald, Joseph McLaMore, Mart Lockley and Len Kelley, armed with shot guns. They dispatched the Elders off on a through train, in order that they might not get off until out of that part of the country. It rained all the way to the station and Elder Mower succumbed to

the fatigue and exposure, and had to return home. Elder Gardner promised this mob in the name of the Lord that they should never prosper, which promise was afterwards fulfilled; they have never

ACTS OF SPECIAL PROVIDENCE. 537

prospered, and some have been confined in jail as criminals, and other misfortunes befell them. Mr. Carter was in the mercantile business at the time and apparently prospering; but soon had to close out and has not prospered since. Lockley and Kelly became involved in running a "blind tiger" — ^by which is meant an illicit whiskey distillery — and have since had the opportunity of studying the inside architecture of a number of different jails. McDonald, for a time seemed to escape the fate of this prediction; he read several of the Church works, and began to regain the confidence of his neighbors, and on Christmas, 1892, he married a respectale young lady, but she lived only a few months, and he has since been but little better than a vagabond. Young McLaMore since lost all his property, and next lost his health and energy, and seems to be an object of pity. This mob gathered in a reed-brake after their return and bewailed their fate. Mr. Lockley said if he could only see Elder Gardner once more he would give the whole world if he had it. A few months later he had the privilege, and came with tears in his eyes and begged the Elders to forgive him, which they freely did.