William Clayton — Healed of a Raging Fever at Cutler's Park (1846)

In the summer of 1846, as the Camp of Israel waited on the Missouri River at Cutler's Park (a temporary camp of some 3,500 Saints near present-day Omaha, Nebraska), William Clayton — the clerk of the camp and the man who would write 'Come, Come, Ye Saints' — was stricken with a violent sickness. On Tuesday, August 11, 1846, he recorded 'a severe chill' followed by days of unbroken high fever. By Sunday, August 16, he had scarcely been out of bed since Wednesday, keeping his bed with raging fever the whole time.

Every earthly means had failed. Heber C. Kimball twice rebuked the fever, but it returned. Through the fear and persuasion of his family, Clayton took pills and medicine given by Dr. Sprague, the camp physician, 'but seem[ed] to grow worse all the time.' Toward evening his family moved him from the wagon into a tent where they had prepared a bed.

Soon after, President Brigham Young arrived to visit him, together with Willard Richards, George A. Smith, Orson Pratt, Lorenzo Young, and others — including Orrin Porter Rockwell, who had just been released from prison when no accuser appeared at his trial. Clayton wrote that the feelings of the sick man and the brethren on seeing Rockwell 'cannot be described.'

Then the Twelve and the brethren gathered around the dying clerk: 'The brethren all laid hands on me and rebuked my disease in the name of the Lord, President Young being mouth. I immediately felt easier and slept well all night being the first sleep I had had of any account for three days and nights.'

Clayton gained strength slowly in the following week and was able to walk about. The intermittent chills and fever that plagued the whole camp on the Missouri that season returned to him in later weeks, as they did to nearly everyone at Cutler's Park and Winter Quarters — but the August 16 administration marked the turning point, and Clayton recovered and resumed his duties as the camp's chief clerk. He would go on to keep the definitive journal of the 1847 pioneer company and enter the Salt Lake Valley with the first Saints.

The account is told in Clayton's own words — a first-person healing record from one of the most meticulous diarists of the pioneer era, preserved in his published journal.

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

August 11. I have been very unwell for several days. This morning I had a severe chill and have been very sick all day. August 12. I am still very sick with a high fever. August 13. I am no better. August 14. I am still confined to my bed with a high fever. August 15. I am still very sick. Since Wednesday have scarcely even been out of bed, but kept with raging fever all the time. Twice Heber has rebuked my fever but it has returned. Through fear and persuasion of my family I have taken some pills and medicine given by Dr. Sprague, but seem to grow worse all the time. Today I have been very sick. Towards evening my folks concluded to get me out of the wagon into the tent where they had prepared a bed. Soon after I got into the tent President Young, Dr. Richards, G. A. Smith, Orson Pratt, Lorenzo Young and others called to see me. They had just heard that Brother Porter Rockwell had arrived from prison, having been released because no one appeared against him. The feelings of the brethren and my own on seeing him cannot be described. The brethren all laid hands on me and rebuked my disease in the name of the Lord, President Young being mouth. I immediately felt easier and slept well all night being the first sleep I had had of any account for three days and nights.