Cholera scourge fulfilling Joseph Smith’s prophecy at Fishing River / Rush Creek (Zion’s Camp, 1834)

Early in the 1834 Zion’s Camp march Joseph Smith prophesied that a scourge would come upon the camp because of internal contentions and lack of humility. Frederick G. Williams, a member of the First Presidency, recorded that he heard this warning “early in the march” and later witnessed its literal fulfillment when a cholera epidemic broke out at Rush Creek. Milo Andrus likewise documented the outbreak at Fishing River in Clay County, Missouri, noting that the disease appeared “as it had been predicted by the prophet.” Andrus recorded the death of thirteen camp members and reported that the scourge ceased after the Saints obeyed instructions to scatter; he attributed the end of the epidemic to the Lord turning away the “monster.” Both accounts describe the same 1834 cholera outbreak during Zion’s Camp as the fulfillment of Joseph Smith’s prophecy.