TODAY IN CHURCH HISTORY: 22 July

[Hemidakota]

1838 - The Kirtland Camp of Saints traveling across Ohio towards Far West, Missouri, had some "eggs thrown at them by some ruffians from their dwellings near the road." Some stopped to talk to them, but they pulled out their bayonets to defend themselves. "No one, however, intended doing any harm to them, and only wished them to understand that we noticed their intrusion upon our privileges as citizens to travel the high road unmolested" (History of the Church, 3:112-113).

1839 - The greatest day of healing in Church history. The Prophet Joseph, after spending several days in his home sick, arose from his bed and began to administer and heal those who were sick in his home and yard. He then walked along the river, healing everyone he came to, including Heber C. Kimball, who then joined him as he crossed the river to Montrose to heal the sick there. He healed Elders Brigham Young, Wilford Woodruff, Orson Pratt, and John Taylor who were staying in Montrose. The Prophet then sent the Quorum of the Twelve out to heal others who were sick. Joseph recorded, "The sick were administered unto with great success, but many remain sick, and new cases are occurring daily" (History of the Church, 4:3).

1840 - The Prophet Joseph Smith writes a letter to W. W. Phelps inviting him to join with the Saints once again in Nauvoo and forgiving him for his past offenses against him and the Saints in Missouri. Joseph wrote, "Believing your confession to be real, and your repentance genuine, I shall be happy once again to give you the right hand of fellowship, and rejoice over the returning prodigal." The letter also included the words, "Come on, dear brother, since the war is past, For friends at first, are friends again at last" (History of the Church, 4:163-164). Brother Phelps soon arrived in Nauvoo and would later write the hymn, Praise to the Man, in honor of the Prophet Joseph Smith.

1847 - Orson Pratt rode back to the main body of the pioneers and reported what he had seen the previous day. The decision was made that a group of brethren, led by Orson Pratt, would enter the valley and find a suitable place to plant seed while the rest of the main body would be led by Willard Richards into the valley. The main camp broke camp at about 8:30 a.m. and started down the remaining 2½ miles of canyon. At the mouth, they stopped for four hours to grade the hill at the entrance of the canyon to make travel easier for the wagons to enter the valley. They made camp on Mill Creek that night, about four miles south of what would become their new settlement of Salt Lake City. Brigham Young's rear company moved forward today, traveling 8 miles. For the first time, Latter-day Saints camped the night in the valley of the Great Salt Lake.

1915 - President Joseph F. Smith and nearly 250 dignitaries from Utah leave Salt Lake City for San Francisco, California, to participate in the International Congress of Genealogy and the Congress of Religious Philosophies, both of which were scheduled to coincide with the Panama-Pacific International Exposition being held at the same time.

1934 - Samuel P. Cowley, a member of the Church and head of the Federal Bureau of Investigation's antigangster unit, supervises the capture of John Dillinger, a notorious gangster in Chicago. In the process, Dillinger is killed during a gun battle. Tragically, four months later Brother Cowley is killed in a shootout with "Baby Face Nelson," another infamous gangster of the period.

1978 - The U.S. Senate passes a bill that had been earlier approved by the House of Representatives, designation the Mormon Trail from Nauvoo, Illinois, to Salt Lake City, Utah, as a national historic trail.

1997 - President Gordon B. Hinckley, joined by more than fifty thousand others and the international press, gather at This is the Place State Park at the mouth of Emigration Canyon to welcome the Sesquicentennial Mormon Trail Wagon Train at the conclusion of its ninety-three-day journey from Winter Quarters, Nebraska, to the Salt Lake Valley.