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Show Page 45 The epic journey of Zion's Camp was only half-over for Orson Pratt. It remained to return, sermonizing by the way, over an eight-month, fifteen-hundred- mile road to Ohio. Undaunted by the disappointment of the marchers, Orson saw the entire experience as a vindication of his faith, for "the promises of the Lord were verified...we were blessed and counseled from on high throughout our Journey." On August 21, 1834, Orson left the Clay County settlements with his brother, William Dickinson Pratt, and the two of them traveled up the north bank of the Missouri toward Illinois. Fighting the fever and convulsions brought on by "over-exertion," Orson would often lie down on the wet prairie, unable to walk another step. His brother left him at Vandalia, Illinois, and Orson continued up the Kaskaskia Valley alone, reaching Terre Haute where he baptized two. Here, he found Elder John Murdock, a lonely widower and tireless missionary, a former companion, who accompanied him eastward into Indiana. Four counties later, the two elders encountered another pair of Mormon travelers, Lorenzo D. Barnes and Lewis Robbins, south of Indianapolis, and carried off meetings around Shelbyville, baptizing several. In December, Murdock and Robbins resolved to go directly to Kirtland; Orson remained behind with Barnes, who wandered southeast toward Cincinnati soon after New Year's Day, 1835. At a sabbath sermon in Brookville, Indiana, sometime in January, a reporter took down his impressions of the Mormonites, publishing in his Brookville Enquirer a very thorough evaluation of the style and impact of Orson Pratt's preaching. After a brief discourse on the compatibility of the Book of Mormon and the Bible before a "respectable" audience at the courthouse, Orson was invited to preach Sunday afternoon. He began with a prayer, as was his custom, "an able address to the Throne of the Most High." This was followed by an hour's peroration on the prophecies of the Bible "according to their literal meaning" - Orson's literalism impressed the |