Philo Dibble Shot in the Abdomen at Jackson County — Miraculously Healed by Newel Knight's Priesthood Blessing (November 1833)
Published March 25, 2026 at 2:44 AM
Contributed by
Todd Morgan
Beaumont, CA, 92223
In November 1833, violent persecution erupted against the Latter-day Saints in Jackson County, Missouri. A mob attacked the settlement at the Big Blue River, and in the battle three Saints were killed and many were wounded.
Philo Dibble was shot in the abdomen — a musket-ball wound that was considered virtually fatal. A surgeon who examined him declared that no one could survive such a wound, given the risk of blood loss and infection in an era before modern medicine.
The Saints fled to Clay County for safety. Despite the danger — Brother Dibble's home was surrounded by a mob — Newel Knight went to visit him. Knight gave Brother Dibble a priesthood blessing and then left.
The very next day, Newel Knight met Philo Dibble ten miles from the house where he had seen him the day before. Dibble had walked those ten miles himself. Philo told Brother Knight that as soon as he had received the priesthood blessing, the pain seemed "to move as before a power driving it, until in a few minutes it was gone."
Philo Dibble miraculously recovered completely from an abdominal gunshot wound that should have claimed his life. He later crossed the plains to Utah and lived to share his testimony of the Restoration. His healing is one of the most dramatic priesthood-blessing miracles in early Church history, documented in the History of the Church and the Autobiography of Parley P. Pratt.
(Reference: Donna Hill, Joseph Smith: The First Mormon, p. 133, situates this event within the Jackson County persecutions of 1833.)
In Their Own Words
“We all responded and met the mob in battle, in which I was wounded with an ounce ball and two buck shot, all entering my body just at the right side of my navel. ... I bled inwardly until my body was filled with blood, and remained in this condition until the next day at five p. m. I was then examined by a surgeon who was in the Black Hawk War, and who said that he had seen a great many men wounded, but never saw one wounded as I was that ever lived. He pronounced me a dead man. David Whitmer, however, sent me word that I should live and not die, but I could see no possible chance to recover. After the surgeon had left me, Brother Newel Knight came to see me, and sat down on the side of my bed. He laid his right hand on my head, but never spoke. I felt the Spirit resting upon me at the crown of my head before his hand touched me, and I knew immediately that I was going to be healed. It seemed to form like a ring under the skin, and followed down my body. When the ring came to the wound, another ring formed around the first bullet hole, also the second and third. Then a ring formed on each shoulder and on each hip, and followed down to the ends of my fingers and toes and left me. I immediately arose and discharged three quarts of blood or more, with some pieces of my clothes that had been driven into my body by the bullets. ... From that time not a drop of blood came from me and I never afterwards felt the slightest pain or inconvenience from my wounds, except that I was somewhat weak from the loss of blood. The next day I walked around the field, and the day following I mounted a horse and rode eight miles, and went three miles on foot.”
— Philo Dibble, “Early Scenes in Church History,” in Four Faith Promoting Classics; public text at josephsmithsermons.org/Early-Saints/PDibble.html
Sources & References
Philo Dibble, “Early Scenes in Church History” (Autobiography, 1806–c. 1843), in Four Faith Promoting Classics (Salt Lake City: Bookcraft, 1968), pp. 74–96; public full text: https://www.josephsmithsermons.org/Early-Saints/PDibble.html History of the Church, 1:431 Autobiography of Parley P. Pratt, 3rd ed. (Salt Lake City: Deseret Book Co., 1938), pp. 99–100
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