Amanda Barns Smith's Miraculous Healing of Alma's Severed Hip
Published October 21, 2026 at 1:09 PM
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Young Woman's Journal Research
During the Haun's Mill massacre, Alma Smith, aged six and a half, had his hip shot away by a mob, leaving the bones inches apart. His mother, Amanda Barns Smith, prayed for divine guidance and was inspired to use a solution of shagbark hickory ash and a slippery elm bark poultice. She kept the child face downward as instructed by inspiration. After six weeks, the boy recovered the ability to walk. A group of St. Louis physicians later examined the boy, confirmed the hip joint was gone and replaced by cartilage, and were unable to explain how he could walk, attributing the healing to Christ.
Amanda Barns Smith's son, Willard Gilbert Smith, witnessed the immediate aftermath of the attack, recounting that he helped carry Alma from the blacksmith shop and examined the severity of the wound, observing that the ball, socket, and bone were indeed missing. In his own reminiscences, Willard noted that in the chaos, he helped gather roots and herbs by torchlight along the stream to assist his mother in creating the necessary poultices for the child's treatment.
In Their Own Words
“Flesh, hip bone, joint and all had been ploughed out. We laid little Alma on a bed in our tent and I examined the wound. It was a ghastly sight. I knew not what to do. Yet was I there, all that long, dreadful night, with my dead and my wounded, and none but God as our physician and help. 'Oh my Heavenly Father,' I cried, 'what shall I do? Thou seest my poor wounded boy and knowest my inexperience. Oh, Heavenly Father, direct me what to do!' And then I was directed as by a voice speaking to me. The ashes of the mountain oak or hickory were to be made into a lye and a poultice of slippery elm bark was to be applied. I had no lye, no hickory ashes, no slippery elm bark. I went out of the tent, and I found a hollow tree filled with the ashes of burnt hickory wood. I gathered them up. I then found a slippery elm tree, and I made a poultice and applied it to the hip. It was the first time the child had slept. I removed the wounded boy to a house, some distance off, the next day, and dressed his hip; the Lord directing me as before. I was reminded that in my husband's trunk there was a bottle of balsam. This I poured into the wound, greatly soothing Alma's pain. 'Alma my child,' I said, 'you believe that the Lord made your hip?' 'Yes, mother.' 'Well, the Lord can make something else there.' 'Do you believe that the Lord can make me a whole hip again?' 'Yes, my son.' 'Well, mother,' he said, 'I believe you think he can.' 'I do,' I said, 'I know he can.' I then made a solemn covenant with the Lord that if He would heal my son, I would rear him to be a good man and he should serve the Lord all the days of his life. I then laid my hands upon him and prayed the Lord to heal him. The Lord heard my prayer. The hip joint was restored and the boy was made whole.”
— Amanda Barnes Smith, as quoted in James E. Faust, 'The Shield of Faith'
Sources & References
The Young Woman's Journal, vol. 29 no. 7 (July 1918). L. Tom Perry Special Collections, Harold B. Lee Library, Brigham Young University digital collections. https://contentdm.lib.byu.edu/digital/collection/YWJ/id/22075 (account extracted verbatim from the collection's page-level OCR; research confidence: high) Additional sources (periodical research): Willard Gilbert Smith, "The Haun's Mill Massacre," Mormon Historical Studies (2007). https://ensignpeakfoundation.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/04/11-MHS_2007_Willard-GIlbert-Smith-Hauns-Mill-Massacre.pdf Amanda Smith's Account of the Healing of Her Son Alma Smith, Ensign (May 2000), 17. https://ensignpeakfoundation.org/hauns-mill Full first-person account: James E. Faust, 'The Shield of Faith,' Ensign, May 2000, 17 https://ensignpeakfoundation.org/hauns-mill
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