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Day in the Life

Dec 13, 1838

Journal Entry

December 13, 1838 ~ Thursday

Dec 13th This was a solemn Day to me I spent most of the day in inquiring into & attending to the business & affairs
of Brother ASAHEL H. WOODRUFF Deceased. Messrs R. A. Smith & Martin Ray the Administrator & clerk of Broth[er]
Asahel informed me that Brother Asahel Died at 3 oclock in the morning on the 18th of Oct 1838 & that he was
sick 10 days & deprived of his reason 4 days before his death. his mind while delireous was principly upon his business
but occasionally spoke of his friends. His disease was the congestive fever on the brain Martin Ray had been in
his employ two months was with him through all his sickness & death they informed me that they considered
him some absent minded or his mind deeply exercised upon some subject unbeknown to them for several months
before his death. they were not as well acquainted with this matter as I was myself for I was intimately
corresponding with him by letter & I know from his communications that his mind was deeply interested
in the subject of the gospel of Jesus Christ or the fulness of it & the cause of the Church of Latter Day
Saints
. They also informed me that he was moral in his life temperat in practice Beloved & honoured as
a citizen & his loss deeply felt. His entire stock of Books with all personal property was sold at the Administrator
sale on the 4th of Dec amountaing to about $3000 dollars. All of his private letters, Journals, writing, papers
Account Books & his pocket watch, penknife, pencil, letter stamp, bosom pin, silver thimble, & some other small things
were reserved, & I took them into my possession to preserve for his Mother & ownly Sister & friends untill I can
have an opportunity to convey them unto them. While looking over Asahels letters I found all that I sent him
carefully filed with other communications from his friends After attending to the above affairs I visited my
Brother [FIGURE] grave [FIGURE] A. H. W. accompanied ownly by my wife & Mr Ray I viewed it, & it looked lonely indeed. I never more fully
sensed the vanity of earth & the impropriety of trusting to the honours of this world for happiness than on this occasoion
I took some pebbles from his grave in memory of the spot & retired with this peculiar reflection resting upon my mind

That I had paid my last visit to my eldest Brother without spending a night beneath his rofof

That I had paid my last visit to my youngest Brother & ownly permitted to view his GRAVE

I returned to his Book store & wrote a Letter to our Parents in Farmington Con [FIGURE] giving an account of Asahels
Death &c. I took the parting hand with Mr Smith & Ray & left Terre Haute & crassed the Wabash River into the state of
Illinois & travled 9 miles & put up for the night 9 miles

People

Browse people Wilford Woodruff mentioned on this day in his journal.

Woodruff, Asahel Hart, b. 1814
11 Apr 1814 - 18 Oct 1838
196 mentions
Family
Woodruff, Azmon, b. 1802
29 Nov 1802 - 14 Jan 1889
348 mentions
Family
Woodruff, Azubah Hart
31 Jul 1792 - 20 Mar 1851
251 mentions
Family
Webster, Eunice Hart Woodruff
19 Jun 1821 - 15 Jun 1853
258 mentions
Family
7 mentions
Woodruff, Phebe Whittemore Carter
8 Mar 1807 - 10 Nov 1885
1544 mentions
Family
17 mentions

Places

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Related Documents

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Autobiography 1882 Leaves from My Journal

I left this place and crossed into Illinois on the 13th of De-

Autobiography 1883 Tullidge's Quarterly Magazine

Illinois on the , and

Daybook (3 October 1838 - 4 March 1839)

13th This was a solemn Day to me I spent most of the day in attending to Brother Asahels affairs I visited his grave acompanied ownly by my wife & Mr Ray Asahel clerk I took some pebbls from his grave I next visited his store looked over his business & took his private account Books letters & writings with some other small articls unto my papers I took his watch to save for Eun- nice I sent a paper to Azmon & [FIGURE] a letter & paper to Aphek Woodruff I then took the parting hand

Daybook (3 October 1838 - 4 March 1839)

hand with Mr Smith & Ray & left Terre Haute & crossed the Wabash & rode to Mr Martin Ray in Elbridge ^Illinois^ & spent the night distance 9 m

Autobiography 1883 Tullidge's Quarterly Magazine Notes 1

The next day I spent mostly in enquiring into and attending to the affairs of my brother Asahel. I learnt from Messrs Smith and Ray that he died at 3 o'clock on the morning of the 18th of October and that he was sick ten days and deprived of his reason four days before his death. While in this state his mind in its wanderings was principally upon his business but he occasionally spoke of his friends. His disease was the congestive fever on the brain. They farther said that his mind for several months previous to his death had seemed to them occupied by some matters unknown to them. They was not so well acquainted with the secret of this as I was for I was corresponding with him and knew by his letters that his mind was deeply interested upon the subject of the Gospel and the Church of Latter-day Saints Of his character they testified that he was moral in his life temperate in his practises beloved and honoured as a citizen and his loss deeply felt Asahel was indeed a young man of very excellent talents, firm and indipendent in mind and also indipendent and liberal in his principals I had not been privileged with an interview with him for about seven years but we had corresponded with each other by letter. He had a peculiar art in letter-writing which gave much interest to all the productions of his pen. Both of us had long anticipated much upon our meeting but my hopes were thus suddenly blighted but I said the will of the Lord be done: All is right! His entire stock of books with his personal property was sold but his private letters journals manuscripts account books pocket watch penknife pencil letter stamp bosom pin

Events

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Dec 13, 1838