Woodruff, Wilford (1844) Journal of Wilford Woodruff. [Published (1983—85) (ed. Scott G. Kenny) as: Wilford Woodruff’s Journals 7833-1898. The excerpt below is from: Anon. (1980) A Bridge To The Past, Wi/mot Valley 1784—1979. Williams & Crue, Summerside.]

Wilford Woodruff (b. 1807 at Farmington, Connecticut; 0'. 78.98) was a Mormon elder who came to Prince Edward Island in 7844 on a missionary visit to Mormon families at Wi/mot Valley. He arrived with another elder by sail from Shed/ac at ”the harbour of Bedeque” in the early morning of 37 July, departing three days later on 2 August ”by the packet back to Shed/ac”. The whole of his visit was spent in the area of Wi/mot Valley. He seems to have recorded what his hosts (the Maxfie/d family) told him, and it is thus unlikely that he saw the fires that he records. This may partly excuse the exaggeration in his account: ”hundreds of miles” and ”millions of acres ” are well beyond the scale of the island ’8 size. The fires may have occurred months before, though his words ”this year” imply that they occurred in 7844. Woodruff was later to rise to the top of the Mormon hierarchy, becoming the president of the Latter Day Saints in 7889.

REFERENCES:

Anon. (1980) A Bridge To The Past, Wi/mot Valley 7784—7979. Williams & Crue, Summerside, P.E.l., pp. 24—27.

Arrington, L. J. & Alexander, T. G. (1998) Wilford Woodruff, New Encyclopedia of the American West (ed. H. R. Lamar), Yale University Press, New Haven. pp. 1232-33.

Aug. 1st I found Prince Edward Island a beautiful farming country to appearance for withall its grand appearance, they are nearly in a state of starvation. The crops have failed for two years past and the merchants are taking all the money out of the country all the colonies seem to be in a deplorable state. Hundreds of miles of

Large f0r93f ”’93- country has been burned over this year with fire sweeping many millions of acres of forest, farms, dwellings, mills, lumber, lumber yards, and in some instances the inhabitants have had to flee into the sea or on the beach to escape the flames, every branch of business seems to be dead, people are fleeing to the states every possible way

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