| 610 The following from the pen of Elder J. W. Chatburn will give the reader an idea of the condition of the people in Utah--
"We came on to Pondtown, I having an old acquaintance there, one Dr. Coon, well known in western Iowa. I sent him word that I would like to obtain a place to preach in, in his neighborhood. He tried to get the schoolhouse for me, and gave the parties whom he asked the following statement as his reason for trying to get the schoolhouse for a Josephite to speak In: 'On a certain occasion,' he said, a couple of elders came from Utah to western Iowa. They could not get any place to preach in in his county until he went to Judge Chatburn and asked him for the courthouse in Magnolia, the Judge having control of the house. The Judge gave his consent, and not only for that time, but gave the privilege to use it as often as we wanted to. And now, brethren, this is the same man, this Chatburn, that I want the schoolhouse for.' The answer was, 'He did a good act in letting the elder have the house, and would get his reward for it, but now he was an apostate, and the command was not to take them in, nor bid them Godspeed.'
"We got a house to preach in, however, and had a good
he had lived for the past thirty-eight years, bearing a faithful testimony to the truth of the latter-day work, and his word no man that knew him could gainsay.
The last meeting he attended was on Thursday eve, February 23. He then spoke of leaving us, and said he was ready to go, that he had often prayed, but never could get a testimony that he would live to see the Savior come. He was powerful in testimony, and as he felt his dissolution approaching he was more vehement, and often in our meetings he would tell us, "I can do no more good here; but I want it known to the four corners of the earth that Josiah Butterfleld lived and died a true Latter Day Saint, knowing that this was the work of God, and that Joseph Smith was a prophet of the living God, and that his son Joseph is his successor." Yes, he had that abiding testimony that set him free from the bondage of death, and like the prophets of old, with one glance could survey the future, look into eternity, and in the hopes of his reward claim its joys and blessings as his own. Death to him was powerless, at the approach of eternal life; and he will, by the power of the redemption wrought out by Jesus Christ, come forth in the morning of the resurrection, clothed in a more glorious body, blooming with immortality, to reign upon a renovated earth. O that his family may try to emulate his example, and live as he lived; then it will be well with them, as it was with him. Death will be swallowed up in victory.-The Saints' Herald, vol. 18, pp. 217, 218
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