'Wilford the faithful': industrious leader
E-mail story
It's easy. Send a link to the story you were just reading to a friend. Just fill out the form on this page and we'll send it along.
Your name and e-mail address are transmitted to the recipient. Otherwise, it is considered private information; see Privacy policy.
Designated as "Wilford the Faithful" during the days of Joseph Smith, President Wilford Woodruff was an industrious and dedicated leader, ready to "labor with his hands as well as his head," wrote Andrew Jenson in his LDS Biographical Encyclopedia.
"Much younger men than himself were not his equals in the performance of heavy labor . . . he worked upon the threshing machine; he planted, irrigated, gathered and hauled from the farm . . . he planted vineyards, orchards, made ditches, watered, and pruned the trees and bushes of his orchard; he made roads, built bridges, hauled wood from the canyon, made adobes and did all forms of manual labor. . . ."His industry was so conspicuous a part of his being that when, at the age of ninety years, one of his grandsons excelled him a very little in hoeing some vegetables in the garden, he said with apparent humiliation: `Well, it is the first time in my life that one of my children has ever outdone me in hoeing.' "
President Woodruff frequently remarked that during his eventful life, he had broken nearly every bone in his body except those of his spine and neck, and concluded there were two powers seriously affecting his life: one attempting to destroy him, and the other preserving him.
"He recognized in the latter the hand of divine Providence, protecting him for a wise purpose," wrote Jenson.
*****
(ADDITIONAL INFORMATION)
Articles on this page may be used in conjunction with the gospel doctrine course of study.
Information compiled by Elayne Wells and Kellene Ricks.
Sources: LDS Biographical Encyclopedia, by Andrew Jenson; Profiles of the Presidents, by Emerson R. West.
