Wilford Woodruff Journal 1: He Warned an Apostate to Repent — the Man Fell Dead at His Feet (1835)
Published April 26, 2026 at 9:39 AM
Contributed by
Todd Morgan
Beaumont, CA, 92223
While on his mission to the Southern States in 1835, Wilford Woodruff recorded one of the most sobering accounts in his journals. He and a companion had traveled a great distance hoping to visit a man named Akeman — a member of the Church — only to discover on arrival that Akeman had apostatized and become deeply hostile to the missionaries.
Akeman not only rejected them but raised a mob against them, threatening Woodruff and his companion with tar, feathers, and worse. Woodruff recorded that a dream had forewarned him of this apostasy before they arrived, yet they continued in faith.
Woodruff later wrote that he solemnly warned Akeman to repent of his actions. The warning was not heeded. A short time after the confrontation, Akeman fell down dead at Woodruff's feet.
Wilford Woodruff then preached Akeman's funeral sermon.
This account, preserved in *Leaves from My Journal* (Chapter V), was one Woodruff cited as evidence of divine justice — that those who raised mobs against the Lord's servants and refused to repent did not go unpunished. He recorded it without embellishment, in the matter-of-fact voice of a man who had seen the hand of God at work in the world and was committed to an honest account of it.
Woodruff's early Southern States missions were filled with such encounters — moments where prophecy, warning, and sudden death intersected in ways that left him with an unshakeable conviction that God was directing the work and that those who opposed it did so at their peril.
In Their Own Words
“I dreamed the night before, that we were required to walk in a straight, narrow path; and while following the path, it led to the door of a house, which was placed in a high wall that we could not get around. As I opened the door to go through, I saw the room was filled with large serpents. I entered, and they all coiled up to jump at me; as they made a spring to bite me, they all fell dead at my feet, turned black, swelled up, burst open, took fire, and were consumed before my eyes. We met with much opposition from Mr. Akeman, and many in the neighborhood. Elder Brown wished to leave the place immediately. I told him I should stay, and see my dream fulfilled. We stayed in the neighborhood twenty-five days, during which time the Lord brought judgment upon those who threatened to mob and kill us; many of them died suddenly, and I was warned three times by the Lord, to go to Mr. Akeman, and bear testimony unto him of the truth of "Mormonism," and the wickedness of his course in opposing it; and the last time I called upon him, he was filled with wrath against me, and when I left his house, he followed me in a rage, apparently with some evil intent. When I had got a few rods from his door, he was nearly treading on my heels, and fell dead at my feet, as though he had been struck with lightning; he swelled, and immediately turned black. This created a great wailing and mourning among his family. Brother Brown and myself assisted in laying him out and burying him. He died February 14, 1835. This singular dispensation of Providence brought solemnity upon the people, and they began to reflect and wished to hear preaching.”
— Wilford Woodruff, Journal, February 14, 1835
Sources & References
Woodruff, Wilford. Leaves from My Journal (1882). Chapter V: 'I Warn Mr. Akeman to Repent—He Falls Down Dead at my Feet—I Preach his Funeral Sermon.' Project Gutenberg. https://www.gutenberg.org/files/46028/46028-h/46028-h.htm. Wilford Woodruff's Journal, Vol. 1, 1833–1840. | Full journal text: http://earlymormonism.com/wilford-woodruff-1807-1898/
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