Two Young Mormon Missionaries Survive Extreme Floods, Threats, and Near-Starvation on a 1,400-Mile Mission Journey

In the summer and fall of 1843, 20-year-old Oliver B. Huntington and his companion Elder Henry B. Jacobs traveled on foot nearly 1,400 miles from Nauvoo to western New York and back, without purse or scrip — in circumstances of remarkable hardship that Huntington consistently attributed to divine sustaining.

The journey included:

- Walking through the worst flooding in Indiana's recorded history, with the old settlers saying 'they never saw such a flood in that country' — bridges washed out for 60+ miles, roads covered with flood debris, corn fields buried under a foot of dirt

- Walking 35+ miles per day on blistered feet so severe that Oliver made moccasins from old hats

- Traveling for days without food, blood gushing from his nose from exhaustion

- Being threatened by angry men, thrown out of houses, and left stranded mid-journey by companions

- Being nearly abandoned by his wagon company on the return trip

Throughout it all, Huntington wrote: 'I had a friend who will stand by those who trust in him' and 'I realized that God was speeding us on our journey by those means and that he was as able to preserve us on water as on land.'

They baptized multiple converts, organized the Brant Branch in western New York, and returned safely to Nauvoo on October 11, 1843 — four months and ten days after departure. Huntington wrote: 'To see myself safe at home once more, I could hardly believe my own tale.'