The Healing of Mary Fielding Smith's Oxen on the Plains

During the 1848 pioneer migration to the Salt Lake Valley, Mary Fielding Smith's oxen fell ill midway between the Platte and Sweetwater Rivers, apparently poisoned by saleratus. The company captain declared the animals would die and blamed Mary for being a burden. However, Mary produced a bottle of consecrated oil and asked her brother and James Lawson to administer to the oxen as they would to a sick person. The brethren anointed the oxen's heads and laid hands upon them, rebuking "the power of the destroyer." Immediately, the oxen recovered and resumed pulling in the yoke. This miraculous healing occurred three times to Mary's oxen during the journey, restoring each time with complete recovery.

Fuller account of this event (as retold in Joseph Fielding Smith, Life of Joseph F. Smith (Salt Lake City: Deseret News, 1938), 150–151):

We moved smoothly until we reached a point about midway between the Platte and Sweetwater, when one of our best oxen laid down in the yoke as if poisoned and all supposed he would die. At this Father Lott came up, and seeing the cause of the disturbance he blustered about as if the world were about at an end. “There,” said he, “I told you [that] you would have to be helped and that you would be a burden on the company.” Producing a bottle of consecrated oil, Widow Smith asked her brother and James Lawson if they would please administer to the ox just as they would do to a sick person. . . .Her earnest plea was complied with. These brethren poured oil on the head of the ox and then laid their hands upon it and rebuked the power of the destroyer just as they would have done if the animal had been a human being. Immediately the ox got up and within a very few moments again pulled in the yoke as if nothing had happened. This was not the only time that the power of God was manifested in behalf of the widow and the fatherless. The same thing happened to another of her oxen, and again to a third, and in every instance the animal was healed and enabled to continue the journey.

Candidate texts provide additional context regarding the individuals involved and the specific outcome. Joseph F. Smith identifies the company's captain as Cornelius P. Lott, whose initial insistence that the widow and her family would be a burden remained a source of lasting resentment for Joseph F. Smith. Additionally, the account from the Joseph Smith Foundation notes that while the oxen were healed, an older ox named 'Old Bully' later died of natural causes at Rattlesnake Bend on the Sweetwater, which was not considered a miraculous event or a setback to the journey.