John Horner Recovers from Lockjaw and Near Death After Losing His Entire Fortune

In the late 1850s, John M. Horner suffered a catastrophic financial collapse during California's money panic. Having freely endorsed notes and loaned money to neighbors without adequate security, the panic wiped out his entire estate — including a home farm of 1,000 acres, a flour mill, San Francisco real estate worth $290,000, an $18,000 steamer, and Mission lands worth $70,000. He lost virtually everything.

During this same period, his only daughter Elizabeth died. Then, as he recalled:

'I was also personally afflicted. Lock-jaw came upon me with a heavy fever, which lasted a long time. My life was despaired of by my physicians, relatives and friends. An unexpected favorable change took place.'

He survived against medical expectations, though his recovery was slow and for weeks he could only move with a crutch. He wrote:

'I gradually regained my strength, after months of mental and physical suffering, and slowly with it came back my ambition, for all of which I am humbly thankful to my Heavenly Father. Not for these only am I thankful, but as in the case of Job, I have been blessed again with reasonable wealth, and an influence beyond my most ambitious hopes; and last, though not least, have been blessed with more sons and daughters.'

He explicitly compared his experience to Job — stripped of property, children, and health, then divinely restored.