| 793 When the camp stopped at Winter Quarters and Kanesville, Bishop Miller with a small following moved on up the river about one hundred and fifty miles and located for the winter at the mouth of the Running Water.
In the spring of 1847 he returned to Winter Quarters, but when it was resolved to send out the pioneers to select a location in the West, Bishop Miller objected, and soon after went to Texas and joined with Lyman Wight who was advocating the right of "Young Joseph" to lead the church. That Lyman Wight had been preaching the claims of Young Joseph sometime before August, 1848, is evident from an attack made upon him in the Gospel Herald, (Voree, Wisconsin,) August 31, 1848. An extract from a letter now before us written by Bishop Miller to J. J. Strang, from Austin, Texas, June 12, 1849, will be of interest and explain some of his motives:-
"I was baptized in the summer of 1839, by John Taylor, then one of the Twelve; and in the summer of 1840 was ordained a high priest, under the hands of Bishop Knight, Hyrum and Joseph Smith; and in January, 1841, I was called to the Bishopric, and set apart by the First Presidency, and under the hands of Elder Marks. And at the fall conference after the death of Don Carlos Smith, I was called and set apart as President of the Quorum of High Priests, with my counselors Noah Packard and Amasa Lyman.
"On this wise I now find myself in Texas, an isolated, frail being. In the spring of 1844 Joseph organized a council of fifty. I was one of that number. The question arose in regard to settling those saints in the South, that were making lumber in Wisconsin, for building the temple and Nauvoo House. The decision of the council was had, and Lucian Woodworth, George Miller, and Lyman Wight appointed to settle the company and their families, and procure a place for a stake for the gathering of the saints; whereupon Lucian Woodworth forthwith started to Texas and returned about the first of May. He negotiated with Samuel Houston (then President of the Republic of Texas) for a district of country to colonize the before-mentioned saints upon, which was to have been ratified at the meeting of the Texan Congress
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