Benjamin Brown's Healings: A Cancer, a Crushed Skull, and a Lake Fever
Published August 26, 2026 at 5:49 AM
Contributed by
Todd Morgan
Beaumont, CA, 92223
Benjamin Brown, an early Latter-day Saint convert in western New York, recorded numerous miraculous events in his 1853 pamphlet ‘Testimonies for the Truth.’ Not long after he was ordained an elder under the hands of Jared Carter, he was called to lay hands on Sister Crowell, afflicted with a cancer that had eaten into her skull — her life despaired of by herself and all her neighbors. He anointed her head with oil and prayed; within half an hour, by her own testimony, all the pain — ‘like a thousand gimlets boring into her brain’ — left her, and by the following Sunday the wound was entirely healed.
That winter a still more dramatic case came under his care: his companion Jesse Crosby was crushed to the earth by a dead branch falling sixty feet, which broke in a portion of his skull. The doctor pronounced his case desperate; when Brown arrived — at the bedside of a boy who had not spoken and barely showed signs of life — he cleared the room of scoffers and administered to him in the name of the Lord. Jesse fell into a peaceful sleep, and in less than four days was back in the woods hauling timber, the wound entirely healed up. He later served missions to England and Nova Scotia.
Brown himself testified that during a bout of lake fever, as two elders laid their hands on his head, ‘I felt the disease remove from my body, commencing at the pit of my stomach, moving gradually upward towards the hand of the elders, and I was made perfectly whole’ — and the same day he was out milking his cows. ‘Such things as these are testimonies for the truth!’ he concluded.
In Their Own Words
“I was called to lay hands on a sister named Crowell, in Chautauque County, New York, who was afflicted with a cancer. Her life was despaired of by herself and all her neighbors, when she sent to me, and I was told to come that night if I wished to see her alive! … I anointed her head with oil, and prayed the Lord in her behalf, and, being obliged, left immediately to attend to my hay. The next time I saw her was the following Sunday, when I met her at the meeting. She pulled off her cap, and showed me her head. It was entirely healed, and the flesh was as sound as ever. She said that within half an hour after my administering to her, she felt all the pain, which had previously been intense, and, to use her expression, ‘like a thousand gimlets boring into her brain,’ leave her entirely, and the wound healed up rapidly. … [Of Jesse Crosby, whose skull was crushed by a falling limb:] I, like Peter of old, cleared the house of all but Jesse’s relatives, and administered to him in the name of the Lord. Jesse then recovered sufficiently to speak, after which he fell into a peaceful sleep, and, before morning, was altogether better. In less than four days … he was again at work in the woods, hauling timber, the wound being entirely healed up. … [Of his own healing from lake fever:] two elders of the Church … laid their hands upon me. Whilst their hands were yet upon my head, I felt the disease remove from my body, commencing at the pit of my stomach, moving gradually upward towards the hand of the elders, and I was made perfectly whole. The same day, I was out at work milking my cows. … Such things as these are ‘testimonies for the truth!’”
— Benjamin Brown, Testimonies for the Truth (1853); public text at doctrineandcovenantscentral.org/history/benjamin-brown
Sources & References
Benjamin Brown, Testimonies for the Truth: A Record of Manifestations of the Power of God (Liverpool: S. W. Richards, 1853); public text at https://doctrineandcovenantscentral.org/history/benjamin-brown/. The healings occurred in western New York in the early 1830s (Brown was baptized in 1832 and ordained an elder by Jared Carter); see the chronology in the same public text. A transcript is also available in the Church History Biographical Database (https://history.churchofjesuschrist.org/chd/).
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