Wilford Woodruff Reports the Pioneer Company Returns Without Losing a Soul or a Single Hoof of Their Beasts (1847)
Published October 4, 2026 at 6:20 AM
Contributed by
Millennial Star Research
After sustaining a serious injury at Winter Quarters, Wilford Woodruff miraculously recovered and was able to perform hard manual labor within 20 days. He subsequently journeyed over 2,000 miles with the pioneer company to the Salt Lake Valley and back, including making new roads and enduring sickness, exposure, and various dangers, without the loss of a single human soul or, remarkably, any of the livestock belonging to the pioneer camp (except for a few instances where horses were killed due to not hearkening to counsel).
In Their Own Words
“But I was greatly blessed of the Lord, for in 20 days from the time I received my serious injury, I again commenced work of the hardest kind in building and preparing for winter. I continued to labour hard with my hands until the departure of the pioneers camp, in the following spring, without feeling any serious effects from my hurt. I performed my journey with the tents and camp of the pioneers’ over two thousand miles, making the road entirely new over five hundred miles, and performed much hard labour in the valley, and this all accomplished in less than seven months time. And it was clearly visible to every discerning mind that the Lord was with us, for though many of the pioneers were sick when we left winter quarters, yet with all our sickness and exposures of such a journey, buffalo, stampeeds, grisely bear frights, Indian attacks, not a soul was lost, but all returned safe to our homes; and, what was more remarkable still, we used ox, mule, and horse teams through the whole journey, and not a hoof lost, of any beast belonging to the pioneer camp of Israel, except in two or three instances horses were shot accidentally, or killed by not hearkening to counsel.”
— Wilford Woodruff, Autobiography, published in The Latter-day Saints' Millennial Star, Vol. 10, No. 12
Sources & References
The Latter-day Saints' Millennial Star (Manchester, later Liverpool, England, May 1840–1970), 15 June 1848 (Vol. 10, No. 12). https://archive.org/details/per_utah-and-the-mormons_the-latter-day-saints-millennial-star_1848-06-15_10_12 (account extracted verbatim from the issue's Internet Archive OCR text; research confidence: high) Full first-person account: The Latter-day Saints' Millennial Star, 15 June 1848, Vol. 10, No. 12, p. 184 https://archive.org/details/per_utah-and-the-mormons_the-latter-day-saints-millennial-star_1848-06-15_10_12
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