Vision of Wilford Woodruff

I went to bed at the usual hour, half past nine o'clock. I had been reading the Revelations in the French language. My mind was calm, more so than usual if that were possible. I composed myself for sleep, but felt a strange stupor come over me and I apparently became partially unconcious. Still I was not asleep nor awake, but had a strange far-away dreaming feeling.

The first thing I recognized was that I was in the Tabernacle at Ogden, Utah, sitting in the corner for fear they would call on me to preach; -which, after singing the second song, they did by calling me to the stand. I arose to speak and said that I did not know that I had anything special to say except to bear my testimony of the truth of this work- when all at once it seemed I was lifted out of myself. I said, "Yes, I have something to say, it is this: Some of my brethren present have been asking me what is coming to pass. I will tell you what will shortly come to pass-"

Then I was in Salt Lake City walking through the streets. In parts of the city and upon the door of every house, I saw a badge of mourning, and I could not find a house but what was in mourning. I passed my own home and saw the same sign there. I asked the question, "Is that me who is dead?"

Something gave the answer, "No."

It seemed strange to me that I saw no person on the streets in my wandering around the city. They seemed to be in their houses with their sick and dead. I saw no funeral processions or anything of this kind, but the city was very still and quiet as if the people were praying. It seemed as though the people had control over the disease, whatever it was, I do not know, that was not shown to me.

I then looked in all directions over the territory, -east, west, north and south, and found the same mourning in every place throughout the land.

The next thing I knew I was this side of Omaha. It seemed I was above the earth looking down upon it as I passed along on my way east. I saw the roads full of people, principally women, with just what they could carry in bundles on their backs, traveling to the mountains on foot. And I wondered how they would get there with nothing but a small pack on their backs. It was remarkable to me that there were so few men among them. It did not seem as though trains were running; the rails looked rusty and the roads abandoned. Indeed, I have no conception of how I traveled myself as I looked down upon the people.

I continued east through Omaha and Council Bluffs, which were full of disease, and women were everywhere. The streets of Missouri and Illinois were in turmoil and strife. Men were killing one another, and women joined in the fighting. Family against family were cutting each other to pieces in the most horrible manner imaginable.

Next I saw Washington D.C., and found the city a desolation. The White House was empty and the Halls of Congress likewise. Everything was in ruin and the people seemed to have fled from the city and left it to take care of itself.

I was next in the city of Baltimore, in the square where the monument of 1812 stands in front of the St. Charles and other hotels. The dead were everywhere. I saw their bodies piled up, filling the square. I saw women cut the throats of their own children for the sake of their blood. I saw them suck it from their veins to quench their own thirst, and then lie down in the streets and die.

The waters of the city and the Chesapeake Bay were so stagnant, and such a stench arose from them on account of the putrefaction of the dead carcasses in them, that the very smell carried death with it.

Singularly again, I saw no men, except they were dead or dying in the streets. There were but very few women, and they were crazy and mad, or in a dying condition. Everywhere I went I saw the same all over the city. It was horrible beyond conception to behold.

I thought this was the end; but not so. Seemingly in an instant I was in Philadelphia where everything was still. No living soul was to be seen to greet me. It seemed as though the whole city was without inhabitants. In Arch and Chestnut Streets, in fact, everywhere I looked the putrefaction of the dead bodies created such a stench that it was impossible for any creature to remain alive.

I next found myself on Broadway in New York. There it seemed as if the people had done all they could to overcome the disease. But in wandering down Broadway, I saw the bodies of beautiful women lying, some dead, and others in a dying condition, on the sidewalks. I saw men crawl out of the basements and violate the persons of some that were alive, then kill them and rob their dead bodies of the valuables they had on them. Then, before they could return to their basements, they themselves rolled over a time or two in agony and died.

On some of the streets I saw mothers kill their own offspring and eat their flesh, and then in a few minutes die themselves. And wherever I looked, I saw the same sights, -horror and desolation, rapine and death. No horses, nor carriages, nor omnibusses, nor streetcars, -nothing but death and destruction everywhere.

I then went to Central Park, and looking back, I saw a fire start, and just at that moment a mighty east wind sprang up and carried the flames west over the great city. And it burned until there was not a single building left standing whole; even down to the water's edge. -Warves and shipping- all seemed to be burned and swallowed up in common destruction. Nothing was left but desolation where a great city stood a short time before. Stench from the bodies that were burned was so great that it was carried a great distance across the Hudson River, and it spread disease and death wherever the fumes penetrated.

I cannot paint in words the horrors that seemed to encompass me about, it was beyond description or thought for me to conceive.

I supposed this was the end, but I was given to understand that the same horrors that were here inacted were all over the world, east, west, north, and south. -That few were left alive, -still there were some.

Immediately after, I seemed to be standing on the left bank of the Missouri River, opposite the city of Independence; -but I saw no city. I saw the whole states of Illinois and Missouri and part of Iowa, a complete wilderness of desert with no living human being there.

I then saw a short distance from the river, twelve men draped in the robes of the Temple, standing in a square, or nearly so. I understood it to represent the twelve gates of the New Jerusalem. And they with uplifted hands, were consecrating the ground and laying the cornerstone of the Temple.

And while they were thus employed, I saw myriads of angels hovering over them and around them. And I heard the angels singing the most heavenly music. The words were: "Now is established the Kingdom of God and His Christ, and He shall reign forever and ever! And the Kingdom shall never be thrown down, for the Saints have overcome!"

I saw people coming from the river and from distant places to help build the Temple and the City. It seemed as though there were hosts of angels helping to bring material for the construction of that building. Some were in Temple robes, and the pillar-like cloud continued to hover over the spot.

Later, I found myself in the Ogden Tabernacle, where I was calling upon the people to listen to the beautiful strains of music from the angels, as the building seemed to be filled with them, and they were singing the words I heard before: "Now is the Kingdom of our God and His Christ established forever and ever!"

And then a voice said, "Now shall come to pass that which was spoken by Isaiah the prophet, that seven women shall take hold of one man [Isaiah 4:1]."

At this time I seemed to stagger back from the pulpit and F. D. Richards and someone else caught me and prevented me from falling when I requested Brother Richards to apologize to the audience for me because I stopped so abruptly and tell them I had not fainted but was exhausted. I rolled over on my bed and the clock struck twelve. The vision had occurred between 9:30 P.M. and midnight.