Testimony of Jacob Strong
THE TESTIMONY OF JACOB STRONG
Farmington, Utah
August 22, 1927
Sixteen miles north of Salt Lake City, Utah
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By the request of Jacob Strong's great, great and grandchildren, who wished
me to give them the following testimony of the divine mission of the Prophet,
Joseph Smith, and the truth of the Gospel of Jesus Christ, that was revealed
through him.
As near as I can remember, it was in my tenth year (about 1862). I am now seventy-five
years old on this date. I was at fast meeting, which was then on Thursday, in
the old Tenth Ward adobe meeting house, in Salt Lake City, Utah. I heard Jacob
Strong testify in that fast meeting that he knew the Gospel was true and that
Joseph Smith was a prophet, which made a great impression on me, as young as
I was.
When we were alone, putting in some alfalfa in the north end of the lot where
Mother lived, joining on the west side of James T. Strong's lot, I asked him
how he knew the Gospel was true, and he said, one day when he was in the East,
Nauvoo, he doubted the work, and doubted the divine mission of the Prophet Joseph
Smith, and it so preyed upon his mind that he went out in the woods to pray.
As he knelt down in humble prayer he asked God, the Father, to give him a testimony,
a voice said to him, "Jacob Strong, arise, as Jesus Christ, Son of God,
revealed this great latter day work to the Prophet, Joseph Smith, and called
him to be a Prophet, Seer, and Revelator, and to carry on and spread this glorious
work, for the salvation of the human family." And he said, "I have
never doubted this work from that day to this."
It made a great impression upon my mind, and being, and has been one of the
guiding stars of my life.
Jacob Strong was a good man, honest, a hard working man, and a true Latter-Day
Saint.
We used to live in Emigration Canyon, lived there for many years, my Mother
and family. He sold some potatoes to a man. In those days all of the freight
came from Omaha to Salt Lake City with ox teams and came through Emigration
Canyon. As the man he had sold the potatoes to, joined his wagon train, Jacob
Strong found he had given him a dollar and a half too much money. He called
me to get the old mare "Doll", and taking his handkerchief, tied the
dollar and a half in one comer, and tied the handkerchief around my wrist, put
me on the mare and told me to take the money to the man and tell him there had
been a mistake. I overtook the man at the mouth of the Canyon, near where the
pioneers came out onto the bench in the valley of the Great Salt Lake. I gave
him the money, and he thanked me and said I was an honest boy.
About a week later the man came back in the canyon as he had lost some of his
oxen. I told him where they were, in fact, I went and got them for him. When
I fetched the oxen to him he gave me a dollar and a half and said, "Now,
my boy, that is for being honest. This dollar and a half is the same dollar
and a half you gave me, and now I give it back to you." This was a great
lesson to a lad often years. I have always tried to carry that rule out in my
life. So, from a little thing, or a little circumstance, what a mighty thing
it has been to your humble servant all his life.
I hope and trust that the principal of honesty and truthfulness may be instilled
in the hearts of Jacob Strong's descendants, that great and good man, as he
impressed it on your humble servant in the days of his childhood. My mother
was his second wife.
Your brother in the gospel, John Walsh.
Arlie Campbell, a great-grandson of Alice Walsh Strong said this of his uncle,
John Walsh:
"He was the young boy--four years old--who crossed the plains, and I knew
him very well. He moved to Farmington and became a prominent man in Davis County.
He went on several missions. In fact, he was on a full-term mission to California
when I was on a mission to California, and for one month he was my missionary
companion. But he gave me shortly before he died in 1927, he gave me this testimonial
of Jacob Strong (he then gave him the above testimony.")