Henry G. Boyle's Conversion and Deliverance in Virginia

Henry Green Boyle was born in Tazewell County, Virginia, in 1824 and raised by devoutly religious parents who taught him to prize honesty and prayer. As a young man he joined the Methodists, yet confessed inward dissatisfaction: "I was not satisfied that all was right." His sincere study of the scriptures had convinced him that baptism by immersion and the remission of sins were gospel essentials the Methodists would not grant him.

In 1843 Elder Jedediah M. Grant arrived in Boyle's settlement preaching the restored gospel. Boyle recorded, "He preached what I had been seeking for all the time. I thought he taught nothing but the truth... the more I gave my attention to hearing Mormonism and reading the Bible, the more I was convinced it was true." Despite having heard every lie spoken against the Latter-day Saints, he wrote, "truth is mighty and the Spirit bore testimony to me that these things were true." He was baptized by Samuel Carter on November 20, 1843, in Blue Stone, Tazewell County.

His conversion immediately provoked bitter opposition. His father demanded he abandon the Latter-day Saints or leave the family home. While staying with neighbor Randall Holbrook, Boyle encountered Henry McDowel, a notoriously violent local bully who mocked the Latter-day Saints and threatened to "pitch [Boyle] into the fire" to test whether the promised signs would follow believers. McDowel drew a knife on the prone youth. Boyle seized an oven lid and struck McDowel until he was "laid out lifeless," while Boyle himself was "not hurt a particle." McDowel did not speak for two days and did not recover for six months. Boyle afterward gathered means and traveled to Nauvoo, later serving as the first president of the Southern States Mission.