Elder
Joseph Taylor, sen., of Harrisville, Weber County, Utah, was born June 4th,
1825, in Warren County, Kentucky. He was baptized into the Church in Ray
County, Missouri, in the summer of 1835. In Zion's Camp, on the Salt River,
Monroe County, Missouri, in June, 1834, he first met the Prophet Joseph Smith.
Of him he thus testifies:
"When
I first saw him I believed he was one of God's noblemen; and as I grew older I
became thoroughly convinced that he was a true Prophet of God."
An
incident he relates of the Prophet is the following, given his own words:
"In
February, 1841, my brother John was in jail, in the hands of the Missourians,
about two hundred miles from home, and my dear widowed mother was very much
concerned about his safety. On one occasion she was crying and fretting about
him.
When
I saw her in trouble, I asked what was the matter.
She
replied that she was afraid the Missourians would kill her dear son John, and
she would never see him again.
I
was strongly impressed to have her let me go to the Prophet Joseph and ask him
if my brother would ever come home. She was very desirous for me to do so.
As
the Prophet Joseph only lived about three miles from our house I got on a horse
and rode to his home. When I reached there, Sister Emma Smith said that he and
his son Joseph had just gone up the river near Nauvoo to shoot ducks. I rode up
to them, when the Prophet inquired about my mother's welfare.
I
told him that Mother was very sad and downhearted about the safety of her son
John; and she had requested me to come and ask him as a man of God whether my
brother would ever return home.
He
rested on his gun, and bent his head for a moment as if in prayer or deep
reflection. Then, with a beautiful beaming countenance, full of smiles, he
looked up and told me to go and tell Mother that her son would return in safety
inside of a week. True to the word of the Prophet, he got home in six days
after this occurrence. This was a great comfort to Mother for her son had been
absent about six months. ("Recollections
of the Prophet Joseph Smith," comp. H. George Bickerstaff, The
Juvenile Instructor 27, no. 7, [April 1, 1892], 202-3)
Further Reading:
