John Johnson's Broken Collarbone Healed by David Whitmer Through Priesthood Power (1831)

During the same period of persecution in the fall of 1831, when Joseph Smith and Sidney Rigdon were attacked by a mob in Ohio, John Johnson's home became a site of both violence and miraculous healing.

As Luke Johnson records: "At the same time part of the mob went to the house that Sidney Rigdon occupied, and dragged him out, and besmeared him with tar and feathers. My father, hearing the outcry of the family, went to the door, but finding it held by someone on the outside, he called for his gun, when those who held the door left; he pursued, and was knocked down; his collarbone was broken."

John Johnson had rushed to his door to help defend his family and the Prophet's companions, but was brutally attacked by the mob. His collarbone was completely broken by the force of their assault.

In that moment of crisis, a priesthood holder stepped forward. Luke continues: "he was taken back to the house, and hands laid upon him by David Whitmer and immediately healed."

The healing was instantaneous. Despite the severity of a broken bone—an injury that would normally require weeks or months of immobilization and recovery—John Johnson was miraculously restored by David Whitmer's priesthood blessing.

This miracle occurred in the midst of violent persecution. While the Prophet Joseph Smith was being dragged from his bed, stripped, tarred and feathered, and nearly murdered, God's healing power was also at work protecting and sustaining His servants. John Johnson's rapid healing allowed him to continue his service to the Church and to care for his family during this traumatic time.

These back-to-back miracles in the Johnson household—the healing of his wife's chronic rheumatism, followed by his own miraculous healing of a broken bone—made the Johnson family stalwart testimonies to the reality of priesthood power during the early Restoration.