Thomas Dobson’s Miraculous Renewal of Hope and Energy through Dance

During the handcart migration, the company, including Thomas Dobson, was suffering from extreme cold, hunger, and fatigue, nearly reaching the point of despair and death. To lift their spirits, younger members of the group cleared space and asked Brother Dobson, who had both feet frozen, to dance. He complied despite his severe suffering and frozen feet, which energized the company to new hope and strength until relief arrived from the Salt Lake Valley.

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

In a reunion of the handcart pioneers in 1907, Dobson recounted what happened next: During the night, he said, he was lying in his tent, his feet frozen and his body racked with pain. He heard a voice tell him to get up and dance. He ignored it. The voice came again. He ignored it. The third time, he got up, went outside and danced a jig on the frozen ground. The next morning, his feet were healed.

In his firsthand account, Ephraim Hanks, who was at the time of the event near Fort Bridger, noted that he was requested by a sister to administer to her son, Thomas Dobson, who was extremely sick and feared to be near death. After administering to him, Hanks reported that Dobson was immediately healed, arose, and danced the hornpipe on the inboard of a wagon. Dobson himself later corroborated this, specifically mentioning that the dance occurred after he heard fiddling from a wedding party in the camp, and that he performed a clog dance, which he had learned in his youth.