Howard Coray - Preservation Through Loss and Family Sorrow

Throughout his early life, Howard Coray experienced significant losses and sorrows that tested his faith and character. His sister Betsy died and was buried in a graveyard near Burns, Allegany County, New York. Most painfully, while living in Providence, Pennsylvania, his eldest brother John, who was 'the pride of the family, greatly beloved and highly esteemed by all that knew him,' took rather suddenly sick and in a few days, died. These deep losses, combined with his father's roving nature and the family's multiple relocations from New York to Pennsylvania to various locations in the east, shaped Howard into a man of compassion and spiritual maturity. Though these were trials rather than miraculous deliverances in the traditional sense, they were part of the Lord's preparation of Howard Coray's soul for the great work he would be called to do as a scribe and secretary to the Prophet Joseph Smith.