Ten-Year-Old John S. Stucki Saved from Drowning in the Jordan River — A Voice Guides Him from the Bottom (Spring 1861)

“I will now relate a wonderful experience which I had while we were living near the Jordan bridge in the Spring of 1861 when I was ten years of age. Having sometimes seen boys come out to the river to catch fish on Sunday forenoons the same as on week days, and seeing some boys fishing one Sunday, I got a hook and line ready, but felt that perhaps I ought not to try it on Sunday. The thought came to me that those boys must be of good Latter-day Saint parents and if their parents allowed their boys to catch fish on Sunday it would not be more sinful for me than it was for them to try it for a while. I threw my line into the water and while standing on a high bank. The bank caved in with me and let me down into the deep river. I did not know the least thing about swimming and the water took me along till I sank to the bottom. I thought that was the end of my life. Then I thought that it would still be possible for God to save my life; so in my thought I prayed to God to save me. Just then a voice said to me, “Grab hold of that sticky clay in the bottom and crawl out.” At the same time I found that I could cling to the clay and so I crawled toward the shore. I happened to crawl right toward where my mother was standing on the bank with a large, long stick to reach down to me. She walked along the bank and, keeping my head above the water, led me down to the bridge where I could climb out, over a rough rock wall. Oh, how thankful I am to my kind Heavenly Father for having heard my humble secret prayers, and protected me from great danger and death in so many dangerous times and places.”

— John S. Stucki, journal