Healing / Medical Reversal & Remission

Miraculous Healing of Zera Cole's Severed Toe

Published October 15, 2026 at 6:01 AM

1830s · 1834

Missouri

Contributed by

Young Woman's Journal Research

During Zion's Camp, Zera Cole accidentally cut his toe off except for a bit of skin. A surgeon attempted to stitch it but they tore out. Cole was then administered to by the Elders. The next morning, upon removing the bandages, the toe was grown fast and well, showing only the scars of the cut and the torn stitches.

In Their Own Words

“While on the march of Zion's Camp, in the year 1834, I was driving a team. In some way I got my foot under the wagon wheel, and the toe was cut off, all but a little skin. A surgeon who was with the company attempted to sew it on, but the stitches tore out. The toe was then placed in proper shape and position, tied fast and bandaged. With some help I got to the camp of the brethren, where I was administered to by the Elders for the first time in my life. It was evening and I soon went to bed with the bandages all on my foot, and slept soundly all night. After breakfast next morning I would dress my toe and see what should be done to it. To my great astonishment, when the bandages were removed, my toe was well and grown fast as any of them but showed the scars of the cut and every stitch that was torn out.”

— Zera Cole, as recorded by Oliver B. Huntington, The Young Woman's Journal

Sources & References

The Young Woman's Journal, vol. 2 no. 9 (June 1891). L. Tom Perry Special Collections, Harold B. Lee Library, Brigham Young University digital collections. https://contentdm.lib.byu.edu/digital/collection/YWJ/id/9780 (account extracted verbatim from the collection's page-level OCR; research confidence: high) Full first-person account: The Young Woman's Journal, vol. 2 no. 9 (June 1891), p. 410 https://contentdm.lib.byu.edu/digital/collection/YWJ/id/9780

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