Artemus Millet — Miraculous Conversion: Brigham Young Sent 200 Miles on Faith to Find an Unknown Man

The conversion of Artemus Millet (1790–1874) is one of the most remarkable conversion stories of the early Restoration — a miraculous chain of providential events involving a prophetic mission, a healing, and absolute obedience by everyone involved.

**Background: A Skilled Mason Without the Gospel**

Artemus Millet was a master stonemason and builder who had spent his life working around Lake Champlain, Oswego, and Long Island. By the early 1830s he had settled in Loughborough, Frontenac County, Upper Canada (now Ontario), where he was prosperous, respected, and spiritually searching. In his own words, he 'took cold which settled in my breast' in 1831, suffering a severe chest illness for many months. He did not recover until August of that year — and he recorded that the recovery came in connection with his receiving 'a witness of the latter day work in a manifestation of the healing power.' This healing of his chest illness was his first miraculous contact with the power of the restored gospel — before he had even met an LDS missionary.

**The Prophetic Mission: Joseph Smith Sends Brigham Young to Find a Stranger**

In early 1832 (some records place it January 1833), Joseph Smith called Brigham Young on what must have seemed an almost impossible mission: travel to Canada, find a man named Artemus Millet — a man Joseph had never met — baptize him, and tell him to come to Kirtland to build the temple and bring $1,000 with him.

Brigham Young, who had recently been baptized himself (April 14, 1832), set out in obedience. He found Artemus Millet exactly where the Prophet said he would be, in Loughborough, Canada. He baptized Artemus and delivered the message precisely.

**The Response: Selling Everything and Obeying**

Artemus did not hesitate. He had never met Joseph Smith. He had no reason to trust this young missionary except faith. He sold his farm and property in Canada, gathered his family, assembled the $1,000 as commanded, and moved his entire household to Kirtland, Ohio.

He arrived in April 1834 and was immediately appointed superintendent of construction for the Kirtland Temple — the most important building project in the early Church.

**The Perfect Fulfillment**

Artemus Millet served faithfully throughout the construction. He survived cholera (healed by Joseph Smith), multiple construction injuries including broken ribs, a broken arm, a broken leg, and a mashed foot — and lived to see the Kirtland Temple dedicated in March 1836. He was later called to the Cotton Mission in southern Utah, where he became a stonemason, blacksmith, and community builder in St. George.

The entire sequence — from Joseph Smith's prophetic identification of a man he had never met in a foreign country, to Brigham Young's obedient journey, to Artemus's complete surrender of his property and livelihood on the word of a stranger — stands as one of the great convergence miracles of the Restoration era.

Fuller account of this event (as retold in Keith A. Erekson and Lloyd D. Newell, 'The Conversion of Artemus Millet and His Call to Kirtland,' BYU Studies 41, no. 2 (2002): 77–115.):

The earliest account comes from the papers of Artemus’s son Joseph, who wrote after 1860: 'Father was living in Upper Canada, Loughborough, Frontenac County. He was a man of means, owned a good farm, and was a master mason by trade. He had heard of the Mormons and had a desire to hear them preach. He prayed to the Lord that if the work was true, He would send someone to him. The Prophet Joseph Smith, in Kirtland, Ohio, had a vision and saw a man in Canada who was a master mason and who would be a great help in building the Temple. He told Brigham Young to go to Canada and find this man. Brigham Young went to Canada, and as he was traveling along the road, he saw a man working in a field. He stopped and asked him if he knew where a man by the name of Artemus Millet lived. The man said, "I am the man." Brigham Young then told him his mission. Father believed the message, was baptized, and sold his property, and with his family and one thousand dollars in gold, he moved to Kirtland, Ohio, and superintended the building of the Kirtland Temple.'