



Produced by the Mormon Texts Project
(MormonTextsProject.org), with thanks to Kimball Gardner,
Intern, for proofreading.






SCRAPS

OF

BIOGRAPHY.


TENTH BOOK OF THE

FAITH-PROMOTING SERIES.



Designed for the Instruction and Encouragement of Young Latter-day
Saints



JUVENILE INSTRUCTOR OFFICE.

Salt Lake City.

1883



Copyright applied for at the Office of the Librarian of Congress, at
Washington, D. C., by A. H. Cannon.



PREFACE.

There is a gradually increasing interest among the young of this people
for reading and study. It is now the ambition of nearly every son and
daughter of the Saints to become well educated. Parents, also, are more
deeply interested in the intellectual growth of the youth. Thus we are
gradually ascending to a higher plane, and our influence is being felt
in a more extended sphere.

The desire, however, to place matter in the hands of the young for
reading and study, should not cause parents to be less careful in
the selection of books. Truth expands the mind and quickens the
understanding, while fiction dulls the perceptions and impairs the
memory. The acquisition of the one is a source of joy to the possessor,
while the constant perusal of the other unfits a person for the study
of that which endures.

That truth is the foundation of all righteousness, and that
righteousness is what we desire, no person among this people will
deny. Hence our anxiety to teach the child from its earliest infancy
the principle of the gospel. In order to assist in this great work of
teaching the gospel principles, we have been led to publish the SERIES
of which this book forms a part. Whether or not our endeavors have met
with any success, we leave for others to say, but we can safely state
that all who have read these little works cannot but realize the fact
that "Truth is stranger than fiction."

That these "SCRAPS OF BIOGRAPHY" may help to instil the great principle
of faith in the minds of the rising generation is the earnest desire of

THE PUBLISHER.



CONTENTS.

SKETCH OF AN ELDER'S LIFE.

CHAPTER I.

Birth and Parentage of Elder John Tanner--Himself and Two Children are
Bitten by a Mad Dog--They are Healed--He Becomes Wealthy--Afflicted
With Unknown Disease--Physicians Fail to Cure Him--"Mormon" Elders
Visit Him--He is Converted--Is Miraculously Healed--Goes to
Kirtland--Freely Gives Money for the Benefit of the Church--His Elder's
Certificate.

CHAPTER II.

Receives Blessings in Temple--Assists With "Kirtland Bank"--Starts
for Missouri--His Daughter Dies--Is Attacked by Mob--Nearly
Murdered--Retained as a Prisoner--Released--Removes to Iowa--Receives
the Prophet's Blessing--Goes to the Rocky Mountains--Loses His Property
by Fire--Thrilling Indian Adventure--At Death's Door--Remarkable
Escape--His Death.

INCIDENTS OF EXPERIENCE.

CHAPTER I.

Account of My Ancestors--My Birth--Remarkable Vision--Its Effect Upon
Those Who Heard of It--My Father and Grand-Father Become Interested
in Reading the Scriptures--My Grand-Father's Prophecy--His Dislocated
Shoulder Replaced by the Power of God--My Grand-Father's Vision and
Death--"Mormon" Elders Visit the Neighborhood--I Go to Hear Them
Preach--Believe Their Doctrines--My Father Opposed to the Elders.

CHAPTER II.

My Covenant With the Lord--My Sister Desires Baptism--My Brother's
Threat--Visit of Hyrum Smith--My Sister Baptized--I Break My
Covenant--My Father's Dream--My Baptism--Exhortation to the
Young--Spiritual Gifts Received--Meeting Disturbed by Mobs--After
Talking to Them They Become Quiet and Leave the Place--Some of the Mob
Join the Church--The Leader of the Mob Dies Suddenly--Mobbings Cease.

CHAPTER III.

Ordained to the Priesthood--Invited to Preach--I Make Up a Sermon on
my Way--Sermon Apparently a Failure to Me--My Hearers Satisfied With
It--Abused by a Baptist Minister--He Desires a Sign--A Sign Promised
and Fulfilled--Blessings Received in the Kirtland Temple--Words of the
Prophet Joseph--Their Fulfilment--An Incident in Missouri--Literal
Fulfillment of a Prediction Uttered by Joseph Smith--His
Patriotism--Strange Phenomenon--Its Effect.

CHAPTER