Show correspondence missionary WORK PITTSBURG pa may ath 9 til 1887 editor deseret news perhaps a little jotting by the wayside d e by a rov roving ing missionary will not i prove ro ve uninteresting interesting I 1 last wrote you rom irom sandusky and sky ohio march 38 30 since which time I 1 have drifted around to kirtland and spent the ane evening of the ath of april in the kirtland temple hearing a discourse delivered by young joseph as he is called or sometimes denominated little joseph of over pounds as it cannot be in dimensions it must be in calibre it I 1 am to bethe be the judge having often heard both father and son I 1 must say of young or little joseph in a my that while the one was the real prophet the other is merely the shadow one main feature of the evening was that they were finding grace in the eyes of the people and that he be could go and preach where ibis his father was murdered and where their houses were burned people would flock out to hear him and treated them with kind ness and the world were their friends I 1 was very forcibly compelled to contrast the difference father hunted harr harf assed hated bated mobbed from the beginning until his martyrdom I 1 noted and passed on our oar interview with young joseph was very agreeable ile he treated us well no do fault to find on that score but I 1 felt very much grieved t to 0 have him go back on his father that if he did practice plural lifery wi fery or spiritual wifely wj wi fery as he chose to call it that his father was a fallen prophet for this would cast a f fearful earful mi reflection lection on his dying mothers testimony and on the testimony of elder bates noble who was knowing to the P prophets having inga a second wife sealed t to 0 him and the evidence of mr L L sobey and I 1 chos hos grover of the high C council lo uncil who testify that they heard t the he revelation read in the high council by hyrum smith while in nauvoo joseph did not deny when I 1 stated to t him that his bother david darld believed these things and I 1 verily believe that this was ane cause of the turning of his brothers brain who is still in the asylum in illinois it appeared to me that young joseph believed my testimony of ray my knowledge of his fIL fathers career from 1834 until 1844 and that he be bad not fallen but died a martyr and still holds the keys and will soon stand upon the earth with power and that then young joseph would have his eyes opened to see ache as he did not now see on the ath I 1 spent the he day to contrast the mode of their conducting confer ances with ours and to see and hear for myself before opening the conference a move was made to elect a permanent president and vice president to the conference which was carried and it il was then moved that joseph smith preside reside ever the conference with wm W blair as vice president much time was used up to elect all of the officers then came testimonies five to ten minutes long when the gavel would come comedown down on the longwinded ones afternoon business and a very creditable gospel sermon by elder hyrum rathburn of michigan at the opening I 1 counted eighty souls but about in the evening my other duties called me onward after viewing the temple as repaired the old bishop N K whitney store now occupied and the old residences of bishop whitney Wn itney johnson and others and looking on the old sign in a rubbish pile with J johnson house on OB it we passed out of sight of the temple on a high hill or a large flat surrounded by a network of deep ravines our thoughts riveted to many of the scenes of the infantile days of the church when the stood in the presence of moses elijah and jesus in this dear old temple I 1 felt impressed with the advanced and enlarged temples built aadil and in course of erection elsewhere and a whole territory filled to overflowing with devoted followers of the prophet joseph I 1 could but reflect upon the milk and watery pretentious of of the younger with a gap of 16 years between the martyrdom of the prophet and the claims he made to reorganizing a church never disorganized I 1 spent a few days in franklin par pa with one ofay correspondents theroun whom I 1 was introduced into the family of attorney osmer where I 1 visited very pleasantly ples antly and I 1 hope quite profitably also with a chemist and others leaving them with two books of mormon and other works for reading and investigating we felt as through our visit with the people was not without profit we also visited the oil works etc of which we may take occasion fion to say something hereafter the ride down the river through hilly billy pennsylvania to pittsburg was not without interest at coal Coat valley vaney an opening was effected by hand bills for lour four lectures in the knights of labor hall and the salvation army hall at fay atte tte tt e on the monongahela eiver fifty miles from pittsburg an opening was also made wherein we held two more lectures one in a methodist church with the minister aud and his bis wife as attendant son the opposite side of the river at al leeport len port the bill called about seventy together to hear a lecture on the final destiny of man from seventy too to gnp depina h undre dand afif fifty ty souls have attended each of those six lectures and we felt as though the lord was with us and blessed our feeble efforts in moving I 1 from some winds clouds of prejudice pr eudice that are so abundant we are now in the old field of sidney rigdon and wm win bickerton about A bout seventy five of their followers are now rejoicing in the gospel having baving been re baptized by our elders although they are scattered considerably they are a real good people and kind saints elder J W P presiding siding and with other presiding Fre elders doing all they can to spread the truth and add strengthen the saints who have taken great interest in these lectures elder P and 1 I walking over hills and dates dales some groves of timber interspersed with farms hills and hillsides hill sides witia wheat rye oats and barley hillsides sides an and meadows and occasionally dwellings scattered heatter ed in the lower lands all looked lovely and green and without irrigation ditches and well it is they are not required in this hilly country or else the hills would yield the husbandman very poor it if any results about six miles brought us in sight of ar aa old town ot of or inhabitants situated in a lovely valley our eye caught sight of au an object at a distance white as snow a green meadow enc enclosing lobing it and thirteen old stacks of hay within As we approached a little nearer the screech of the peacock three large painted barns a beautiful dwelling a pavilion law lawns groves and cleanliness revealed to us the enclosures of the beautiful ua white fence As we entered the little romantic old town we stepped into a store and asked if there was a lecture announced for the town that evening A county paper was handed to us and we read in the uniontown Union town news that elder Ste stevenson had bad notified the people 1 of and vicinity that he be I 1 would lecture in davidsons hall may ath subject pre existence of spirits and immortality of the soul on the authority of the bible there stands an old grist mill which was built by george washington iu in the year 1776 bat commenced in 1774 it was built of logs the dam dain was on run in 1844 a small addition was put to it and the mill weather boarded the old wheel still goes round and the farmers bring their grain there today to day just the same ast they did years ago across the mill was a large stone threshing floor which is still lobe to be see seen nasit as it gasthen was wa then here the farmers flailed flallen out their grain and brought it into the mill to be ground the old romantic mill among the trees and rocks the race tracing down the ravine to the river make a very picturesque tur esque scene over 80 skeletons were taken out of an elevated hill of an indian burying ground from the papoose up to the warrior with them were indian jewelry etc dr fuller had bad a number of the skeletons articulated foghis friends after further looking into the history of this most romantic town we learned that general washington surveying in this country had an eye to business he was then a young man and ambitious and in 1767 fie wrote a letter from mount vernon to his friend captain william crawford to look out acres of good land for a plantation for him it was located right here in the field of our lecture the log houses were built and slaves put on improvements made a mill built and business began in order for washington to obtain so large a tract of land some whitewashing had bad to be resorted to he got a warrant for acres and used others as cats paws to obtain the desired 2000 acres the beautiful farm with white washed fence and peacocks peacock S are a part of the estate which hi li proved rather a failure ard and was divided up and the little town is the result many tales are told u up p to this day of wash washington ington one b eing being a trade with an indian boy boy in which washington gave a double bladed pocket knife for an indian pony which washington led away after the trade this town was named after co comodore in 0 perry the hero of the great naval battle of L lake a ke erie brie just before the tolling of the bell announcing the lecture a reverend tempe temperance radee lecturer came from his bis supper picking his teeth and picking at us for he had bad already learned about us as ile he became very abusive and paid we all ought to be in prison he used his influence as far as h be e could against our lecture and the blowing of a long tin horn born during our services services rather looked like trouble below for us at the close of our lecture our meeting however came off all right about 40 listened very quietly one hour and a 9 au arter elder P opening and elder of mayfield may field closing and elder bodily singing at closing we told them we had no charges and no place to lay our heads one by one they left us to look out tor for a place to rest we took a long walk talk and five cents worth of apples for supper A friend thomas young took the four of us home three miles in the mud gave us the two beds and then made a bed on OB the floor for the family and himself this bed to rest on with a little refreshment caused us with broken hearts to feel khank god the gospel is to the poor the next day we held meeting inthe in the family theman the man says he will be baptized his wife shed tears as we parted we walked nine miles and held two meetings yesterday and tonight to night hold a lecture at heckley five miles northeast of mount pleasant westmoreland comaty Cout ity pennsylvania here we met elders wm W allen alien jr and joseph bidwell who are laboring hereabouts just now we learn the militia are called out and to collect at hickley where we hold our two lectures ono tp to bight I 1 and the next on wednesday evening the they areto are to colbet col bot tomorrow to morrow so we are likely likely to have lesture leo ture strike and militia militina aa a I 1 little ittle mixed up upon on wednesday it is said men are on a strike and about souls are dependent for bread who knows when the end will come for come it will by and by and that scene is most terrible to bontem late with tope hope and patience E S |