Chapter 38—Visit to Oregon
By the close of the winter of 1877-78, which was spent in Cal-
ifornia, my husband had improved in health; and as the weather in
Michigan had become mild, he returned to Battle Creek, that he might
have the benefit of treatment at the Sanitarium.
I dared not accompany my husband across the plains; for constant
care and anxiety, and inability to sleep, had brought upon me heart
difficulties which were alarming. We felt keenly as the hour of separa-
tion drew on. We knew not that we should meet again in this world.
My husband was returning to Michigan, and we had decided that it
was advisable for me to visit Oregon, and bear my testimony there to
those who had never heard me.
The Voyage
In company with a lady friend and Elder J. N. Loughborough,
I left San Francisco on the afternoon of June 10, 1878, upon the
steamer Oregon. Captain Conner, who had charge of this splendid
steamer, was very attentive to his passengers. As we passed through
the Golden Gate into the broad ocean, it was very rough. The wind
was against us, and the steamer pitched fearfully, while the ocean was
lashed into fury by the wind. I watched the clouded sky, the rushing
waves leaping mountain high, and the spray reflecting the colors of
the rainbow. The sight was fearfully grand, and I was filled with awe
while contemplating the mysteries of the deep. It is terrible in its
wrath. There is a fearful beauty in the lifting up of its proud waves
with roaring, and then falling back in mournful sobs. I could see the
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exhibition of God’s power in the movements of the restless waters,
groaning beneath the action of the merciless winds, which tossed the
waves up on high as if in convulsions of agony.
As I looked upon the white-capped, roaring billows, I was re-
minded of that scene in the life of Christ, when the disciples, in obedi-
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