John Henry Smith's Miracle Survival in Provo River

While a boy living in Provo, John Henry Smith and two other boys were in a boat on the Provo River that capsized. John Henry became entangled in driftwood and was held underwater for some time. Bystanders on the shore gave him up for lost, but he was suddenly lifted bodily onto the bank by an unseen power. It was later learned that his father, at that exact time, felt a strong impression of his son's danger and prayed earnestly for him.

This event occurred on 8 June 1862, when John Henry was thirteen years old. His two companions were identified as Thomas and George Brown. At the time of the incident, George A. Smith was forty miles away in Salt Lake City when he received a distinct impression that his son was in danger and prayed for his safety.

Fuller account of this event (as retold in Lawrence R. Flake, Prophets and Apostles of the Last Dispensation (Provo, UT: Religious Studies Center, Brigham Young University, 2001), 265–67.):

On a June day in 1862, apostle George A. Smith, who was in Salt Lake City, received the distinct impression that his thirteen-year-old son, John, was in grave danger. Immediately the worried father prayed to the Lord and pled with him to save the boy. At that moment, forty miles to the south, his son’s two companions, Thomas and George Brown, stood horrified on the banks of the flood-swollen Provo River, looking at a driftwood entanglement under which John Smith was trapped and drowning. All at once an unseen power lifted the boy from the waters and placed him safely on the bank. John Henry Smith had survived the rigors of a trip across the plains when only a few months old. Now once again the Lord had spared his life for an important earthly ministry.