Alfred Boaz (Continued)...Alfred Meets The Prophet

Something kept drawing me west, farther and farther west.  With St. Louis as my objective point, I went to Nauvoo to visit my uncle.  I put up at the Mansion House, curious to see the Prophet and was sitting watching for him to enter.  Presently he came in and sat down.  Lorin Walker put a towel about the Prophet’s shoulders and dressed his hair for him, after which he got up and came over to me, lifting me bodily out of the chair, and asked : “Young man, where are you from, and where are you going?”  I told him where I hailed from, and that I was bound for St. Louis to join a fur company going to Oregon, to which he said : “When you join a fur company at St. Louis to go to Oregon, I will  take Nauvoo on my back and carry it across the Mississippi, and set it down in Iowa” adding, “I have use for you.”

The Prophet made a deep impression on me; I felt he was superior to any man I had ever seen.  In fact, if any other man had asked me those questions I should have very soon told him it was none of his business—-but what use the Prophet could have for me, I could not see.

Next Time: Alfred Boaz gets stuck in Nauvoo.