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before it. The baggage car was not much damaged, and our large trunk
of books was uninjured. 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. Four were killed or mortally wounded, and many
were much injured. We could but feel that God had sent an angel to
preserve our lives.
We returned to Jackson, and the next day took the train for Wiscon-
sin. Our visit to that state was blessed of God. Souls were converted
as the result of our efforts. The Lord strengthened me to endure the
tedious journey.
August 29, 1854, another responsibility was added to our family in
the birth of Willie. About this time the first number of the paper falsely
called The Messenger of Truth was received. Those who slandered us
through that paper had been reproved for their faults and errors. They
would not bear reproof, and in a secret manner at first, afterward more
openly, used their influence against us. This we could have borne, but
some of those who should have stood by us were influenced by these
wicked persons. Some whom we had trusted, and who had acknowl-
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edged that our labors had been signally blessed of God, withdrew their
sympathy from us, and bestowed it upon comparative strangers.
The Lord had shown me the character and final come-out of that
party; that His frown was upon those connected with that paper, and
His hand was against them. And although they might appear to pros-
per for a time, and some honest ones be deceived, yet truth would
eventually triumph, and every honest soul would break away from the
deception which had held him, and come out clear from the influence
of those wicked men; as God’s hand was against them, they must go
down.
Again my husband’s health became very poor. He was troubled
with cough and soreness of lungs, and his nervous system was pros-
trated. His anxiety of mind, the burdens which he bore in Rochester,
his labor in the office, sickness and deaths in the family, the lack of
sympathy from those who should have shared his labors, together with
his traveling and preaching, were too much for his strength, and he
seemed to be fast going down to a consumptive’s grave. That was a