Elizabeth Campbell Edwards Healed by the Laying on of Hands
Published March 25, 2026 at 2:37 AM
Contributed by
Todd Morgan
Beaumont, CA, 92223
After Esaias Edwards married Elizabeth Campbell on August 27, 1831, she suffered a severe fever for about six weeks but recovered. Years later, as Latter-day Saint refugees driven from Missouri crossed the Mississippi at Quincy and spread through Adams County, Illinois, Esaias took in or rented land to refugees, including Alexander (Brother) Williams, an elder of the Church. Edwards, who had studied the Bible and especially desired to witness healing by the laying on of elders’ hands, found that Elizabeth was then suffering from a serious illness for which medicine had provided no remedy. After united prayer, Williams said that if Elizabeth would covenant to obey the gospel, she would be healed. She agreed, and Williams laid his hands upon her, rebuking the disease in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. Her pains immediately left, and she was filled with the Spirit of God. After recovering enough strength to walk, Elizabeth was baptized with Esaias in a nearby creek in early 1839. The account places the episode amid the refugees’ arrival and settlement in Adams County during the winter and spring of 1838–39, while Edwards’s memoir dates it to spring 1837, apparently an error. The healing contributed to Esaias and Elizabeth’s conversion to the restored Church.
In Their Own Words
“About this time my wife was taken very sick with a strange disease in which I could find no remedy in the way of medicine. She was confined to her bed and suffered much. I felt very anxious about her and I had been reading the Bible and I had a great desire to see the power of God manifested as it was in the days of the apostles. I had heard of the Latter Day Saints and that they believed in the gifts of the spirit and that they laid hands on the sick and they were healed. Alexander Williams remarked that it was manifested to him that if Mrs. Edwards would covenant to obey the gospel that it was her privilege to be healed by the laying on of the hands of the elders. I went immediately to see Alexander Williams and told him that I desired him to come and administer to my wife that she might be healed of her sickness. He come home with me and we kneeled down and prayed and then we arose and he layed his hands upon her head and rebuked the disease in the name of Jesus Christ. Her pains immediately left her and she was filled with the spirit of God. She rejoiced and acknowledged that she had been healed from her pains by the power of God through the instrumentality of the laying on of hands and faith and prayer. She soon gained strength and was able to walk about the house and in a short time she was able to walk to the creek and was baptized by Alexander Williams and I was baptized at the same time.”
— Esaias Edwards, Autobiography (1811–1847)
Sources & References
Esaias Edwards, Autobiography (typescript), public text: https://doctrineandcovenantscentral.org/history/esaias-edwards/ Esaias Edwards, Autobiography (1811–1847), Typescript, HBLL, public full text: https://www.josephsmithsermons.org/Early-Saints/EEdwards.html Edwards family records on FamilySearch https://www.josephsmithsermons.org/Early-Saints/EEdwards.html Full first-person account: Esaias Edwards, Autobiography (1811–1847), Typescript, HBLL https://www.josephsmithsermons.org/Early-Saints/EEdwards.html
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