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Alma Lamoni Smith and WW Cluff

October 30, 1838, an angry mob attacked the small Missouri settlement of Hawn’s Mill. It was a vicious premeditated attack that in the end took the lives of 17 men and boys. As the shooting stopped the mob discovered two small boys hiding beneath the bellows in the blacksmith shop. They were Alma and Sardius Smith. Sardius, 11 years-old, was brutally murdered. A mobber pointed his weapon at Alma and fired at point blank range.

As the mob fled, it was Willard Smith, the boy’s older brother who crept first out of hiding to survey what he would later describe as a holocaust. Stepping over the body of his father he found Sardius, also dead, and Alma barely alive. Picking him up he started out when he was met his mother Amanda Barnes Smith. She screamed, “They have killed my little Alma!” “No, mother,” he replied, “But Father and Sardius are dead.”

Together they carried him to their tent and laid him on a bed of straw. They found that the entirety of his left hip had been shot away leaving the ends of the bones 3-4 inches apart. “It was a ghastly sight.”

Amanda gathered her remaining children around Alma and prayed fervently for him. If it was the Lord’s will, would He help her to help him? Inspiration flowed into her soul and she was directed to take the ashes from her fire and make a lye to cleanse the wound. She then prayed again and felt impressed to make a poultice from the bark of a slippery elm tree. After dressing the wound she laid Alma on his stomach and only then gave vent to her tears and terror.

By that inspiration came a miracle. A mere five weeks later, Alma Smith leaped off his bed and danced about, “A flexible gristle having grown in place of the missing joint and socket.” On that new hip Alma Smith would follow his family in their flight to Illinois and then later across the plains to Salt Lake City. Alma Smith would serve numerous missions—all on foot. But that is not the end of the story.

On one of those missions in 1864, he was in company with Elder Lorenzo Snow sailing by boat from Honolulu to LaHaina. Their boat was overturned and Elder Snow was drowned. Elder Snow was given a blessing, but still there was no response. It was Alma Smith and Benjamin Cluff who took the Apostle and rolled him face-down over a barrel to expel the water he had swallowed–still no response. The natives, standing by, gave him up for dead, but the missionaries refused to yield. They knelt and prayed again, and then felt impressed to try something most unusual for that day. Taking turns they blew into Elder Snow’s lungs to re-inflate them. They kept at it—and then, suddenly, there was a slight wink of an eye, and then a rattle in the throat.

Lorenzo Snow would live, thanks to that same faith and  inspiration that had once saved the man who now saved him.

WW Cluff Saving a Prophet

In 1864 the First Presidency assigned Apostles Ezra T. Benson and Lorenzo Snow, along with Elders Alma Smith and William W. Cluff, on a mission to the Hawaiian Islands. From Honolulu they took passage on a small boat to the little harbor of Lahaina. As they approached the reef, the surf was running high and a heavy swell struck the boat, carrying it about 50 yards and leaving it in a trough between two huge waves. When the second swell struck, the boat capsized into the foaming sea.

The people on the shore manned a lifeboat and picked up three of the brethren, who were swimming near the submerged boat. But there was no sign of Brother Snow. Hawaiians accustomed to the surf swam in every direction to search for him. Eventually one of them felt something in the water, and they pulled Brother Snow to the surface. His body was stiff, and he looked like he was dead as they hauled him into the boat.

Elder Smith and Elder Cluff laid Brother Snow’s body across their laps and quietly administered to him, asking the Lord to spare his life that he might return to his family and home. When they reached the shore, they carried Brother Snow to some large empty barrels lying on the beach. Laying him face downwards on one of them, they rolled him back and forth to expel the water he had swallowed.

After the elders worked over him for some time, without any indication of life, the bystanders said that nothing more could be done for him. But the determined elders would not give up. So they prayed again, with the quiet assurance that the Lord would hear and answer their prayers.

They were impressed to do something rather unusual for that day and time. One of them placed his mouth over Brother Snow’s in an effort to inflate his lungs, alternately blowing in and drawing out air, imitating the natural process of breathing. Taking turns, they persevered until they succeeded in inflating his lungs. A little while later they perceived faint indications of returning life. “A slight wink of the eye, which, until then, had been open and death-like, and a very faint rattle in the throat, were the first symptoms of returning vitality. These grew more and more distinct, until consciousness was fully restored.” With their perseverance and the smile of merciful Providence, all four of the Lord’s servants survived and were able to complete their missions.⁴

Elder Snow went on to become the President of the Church. While serving in that office, he stabilized the Church’s funds by urging the members to pay their tithes and offerings.

You brethren will be interested to know that the Alma Smith in this story was the boy who was shot in the hip at Haun’s Mill, destroying the hip joint and socket. His mother dressed the terrible wound with some balsam and then was inspired to have him lie on his face for five weeks. A flexible gristle grew in place of the missing joint and socket so that he was able not only to live a normal life but also to serve a mission to Hawaii and give a lifetime of service to the Church.⁵