Child Run Over by Loaded Wagon Healed Through Priesthood Administration on the Kirtland March

During the great Kirtland Camp migration of 1837 — a company of approximately 515 Saints in some seventy wagons making their way from Kirtland, Ohio to Far West, Missouri — a dramatic healing occurred en route.

Aroet Lucious Hale recorded in his journal: 'Brother Martin H. Peck had a child between 7 and 8 years old run over by a loaded wagon, the wheels passing over both his legs. The child was anointed with oil and administered to. The camp was only detained about one and a half hours.'

The implication is clear: the administration was effective and the child was sufficiently recovered that the entire camp — seventy wagons and over five hundred Saints — was held back only an hour and a half before continuing their journey. A child whose both legs had been crushed under a loaded wagon's wheels would ordinarily have faced death or permanent disability. The brevity of the delay suggests a remarkable recovery.

Fuller account of this event (in the witness’s own words):

I will relate a few incidents that happened on our way to Missouri. My father was arrested with others and held for trial. He was supposed to be one of the directors of the Kirtland Bank. He had his trial. The third day, they overtook the camp. Brother Martin H. Peck had a child between 7 and 8 years old run over by a loaded wagon, the wheels passing over both his legs. The child was anointed with oil and administered to. The camp was only detained about one and a half hours.