Jacob Gates' Revelation to Join Zion's Camp
Published September 3, 2026 at 8:37 AM
Jacob Gates documented that his participation in the Zion's Camp expedition was prompted by direct revelation. In his personal history, he noted that he and his wife Mary departed from St. Johnsbury, Vermont, on April 11, 1834, "in fulfillment of a Revelation given Feb. 24, 1834 in regard to the redemption of Zion." This journey of over a thousand miles to join Joseph Smith's company was undertaken as a matter of religious duty and spiritual guidance, following the command for the Saints to gather and assist those driven from Jackson County.
In Their Own Words
“On April 11, 1834, I departed Vermont with my young Wife for the land of Zion in fulfillment of a Revelation given Feb. 24, 1834 in regard to the redemption of Zion.”
— Jacob Gates, 'Items of History of the Life and Labors of Jacob Gates,' holograph, Jacob Gates Collection, 1
Sources & References
Jacob Gates, “Items of History of the Life and Labors of Jacob Gates,” holograph, Jacob Gates Collection, Church History Library, 1; quoted verbatim in Andrea G. Radke, “We Also Marched: The Women and Children of Zion’s Camp, 1834,” BYU Studies 39, no. 4 (2000), full public text at https://byustudies.byu.edu/article/we-also-marched-the-women-and-children-of-zions-camp-1834 — research note: Jacob and Mary Snow Gates left St. Johnsbury, Vermont on April 11, 1834 with Mary’s brothers Zerubbabel and Willard Snow, responding to the February 24, 1834 revelation (now D&C 103) calling for the redemption of Zion; Jacob’s own record opens with that revelation as the reason for their departure, an experience he remembered and recorded almost sixty years later.
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