O. B. Huntington's mother's incorruptible body
Published October 15, 2026 at 12:08 PM
Contributed by
Young Woman's Journal Research
When the Nauvoo city council ordered the removal of the old burying ground, O. B. Huntington's brother William, as sexton, exhumed their mother, Zina Huntington. Though buried over three years, her body was found to be perfect, plump, and free of decay, sounding like hard wood when tapped, confirming a patriarchal blessing that her flesh should never see corruption.
In his autobiography, Oliver B. Huntington clarifies that the exhumation occurred on December 9, 1843, when the family relocated their mother's remains from the old burying ground to the new one. He notes that Bishop Partridge and Harriet Partridge were also moved at that time.
In Their Own Words
“December 9th, 1843, the whole family joined together took up and removed from the old to the new burying ground, my mother, Bishop Partridge, and Hariet Partridge. One item worthy of notice, my mother was in a state of preservation, her body embalmed equal to a mummy, her size, form, and features were the same as when a living, her flesh as hard seemingly as bone. — Autobiography of Oliver B. Huntington, Doctrine and Covenants Central”
Sources & References
The Young Woman's Journal, vol. 5 no. 7 (April 1894). L. Tom Perry Special Collections, Harold B. Lee Library, Brigham Young University digital collections. https://contentdm.lib.byu.edu/digital/collection/YWJ/id/27574 (account extracted verbatim from the collection's page-level OCR; research confidence: high) Full first-person account: The Young Woman's Journal, vol. 5 no. 7 (April 1894) https://contentdm.lib.byu.edu/digital/collection/YWJ/id/27574 Additional sources (periodical research): Autobiography of Oliver B. Huntington, Doctrine and Covenants Central. https://doctrineandcovenantscentral.org/history/oliver-b-huntington
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