Chapter 9—God’s Providences
“We soon visited Michigan again, and I endured riding over log-
ways, and through mud-sloughs, and my strength failed not. We felt
that the Lord would have us visit Wisconsin, and were to take the
cars at Jackson at ten in the evening. About five in the afternoon a
young man of very pleasing appearance called at Brother Palmer’s
and inquired if they wished books bound, and stated that he was going
out on the evening train, and would bind them at Marshall, and return
them in a few weeks.
“As we were preparing to take the train we felt very solemn, and
proposed a season of prayer. And as we there committed ourselves
to God, we could not refrain from weeping. We went to the depot
with feelings of deep solemnity. We looked for seats in a forward car,
which had high backs, with the hope that we might sleep some that
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night, but were disappointed. We passed back into the next car, and
there found seats. I did not, as usual when traveling in the night, lay
off my bonnet, but held my carpet-bag in my hand, as if waiting for
something. We both spoke of our singular feelings.
“The train had run about three miles from Jackson when its mo-
tion became very violent, jerking backward and forward, and finally
stopping. I opened the window and saw one car raised nearly upon
one end. I heard most agonizing groans. There was great confusion.
The engine had been thrown from the track. But the car we were in
was on the track, and was separated about one hundred feet from those
before it. The baggage car was not much injured, and our large trunk
of books was safe. The second-class car was crushed, and the pieces,
with the passengers, were thrown on both sides of the track. The car
in which we tried to get a seat was much broken, and one end was
raised upon the heap of ruins. The coupling did not break, but the car
we were in was unfastened from the one before it, as if an angel had
separated them.
“We hastily left the car; and my husband took me in his arms,
and, wading in the water, carried me across a swampy piece of land to
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