The Miraculous Healing of the Ox 'Old Buck' through Consecrated Oil

“In the spring of 1848, a tremendous effort was made by the Saints to emigrate to the valley on a grand scale. No one was more anxious than Widow Smith; but to accomplish it seemed an impossibility with her family—her sons John and Joseph, mere boys, being her only support. But she determined to make the attempt, and trust in the Lord for the issue. Cows and calves were yoked up, two wagons lashed together, and a team barely sufficient to draw one was hitched on to them. 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. Captain Lott now blustered about, as if the world was about at an end. 'There,' he said, 'I told you you would have to be helped, and that you would be a burden on the company.' But in this he was mistaken, for after praying for the ox and pouring oil upon him, he got up and we drove along, only detaining the company a very short time. We had not gone far when another fell down like the first. But with the same treatment he got up as the other. And this was repeated a third time; by administration the oxen were fully healed. Widow Smith was not disturbed again until the company reached the Rattlesnake bend on the Sweetwater, where an older ox named 'Old Bully' died of old age, but he was not included in the miraculous healings.”

— Joseph F. Smith, Life of Joseph F. Smith