Divine Power Saves Young Boy from Wagon Accident

While traveling with his father and brother Lucien on the grand prairie in Illinois in November 1825, young Lewis Barney (about 17 years old) experienced a miraculous deliverance. As the wagon went down a long gradual slope toward the Sangamon River, he got out to get on the saddle horse but became tangled in the harness under the wagon tongue. The horses took a fright and started at full speed down the hill. They straddled a tree which stripped them of every particle of harness and broke the wagon tongue and smashed in the end gate of the wagon. Lewis passed through this tree without being literally smashed to pieces, escaping unhurt except for a slight cut on the head. How he passed the tree without being literally crushed has always been a mystery he could never solve in any other way than to give providence the credit of saving his life.