Sarah Ann Higbee and Keziah Higbee's Survival and Childbirth During the Missouri Exodus

During the expulsion of the Saints from Jackson County, Missouri, Sarah Ann Higbee, who had been sick with chills and fever for months, was carried across the river in a condition described as a 'lifeless corpse.' Simultaneously, Keziah Higbee, in labor, lay on the river bank without shelter during a severe, torrential rainstorm. She gave birth to a son under the open sky within twenty minutes of being transported across the river, resulting in her premature death.

Fuller account of this event (in the witness’s own words):

I would here remark that among one of the companies that went to Clay County was a woman named Sarah Ann Higbee, who had been sick of chills and fever for many months, and another of the name of Keziah Higbee, who, under the most delicate circumstances, lay on the bank of the river, without shelter, during one of the most stormy nights I ever witnessed, while torrents of rain poured down during the whole night, and streams of the smallest size were magnified into rivers. The former was carried across the river, apparently a lifeless corpse. The latter was delivered of a fine son on the bank, within twenty minutes after being carried across the river, under the open canopy of heaven; and from which cause I have every reason to believe she died a premature death.