A Family Account of a Child’s Near-Death Recovery during John Streator Gleason’s English Mission (1860–1863)

John Streator Gleason, a member of the original 1847 pioneer company, served a mission in England from 1860 to 1863. He worked in the London area and later presided over the Newcastle-upon-Tyne district.

A family biographical sketch, reproduced by Latter Day Light, preserves a brief account of a healing during this mission. It reports that a child in England was near death and credits the child’s recovery to Gleason’s gift of healing. The incident is presented by the family biography as a faith-promoting experience associated with his missionary ministry.

The account is short. It does not identify the child, name the illness, give the precise town or date, describe the administration, or quote either Gleason or the child’s family. The mission dates establish the general period, but not a particular year for the recovery.

This record preserves the reported healing with those limits intact. The source describes a child brought back from the brink of death, not a documented death followed by resurrection. It is a later family account rather than a contemporaneous medical report or a verified first-person narrative.