Description

I Walked It All The Way

Zadok was just a little guy, never big and certainly not very strong. When he was about six years
old, he contracted some kind of illness that caused his legs to draw up until his knees almost
touched his chest. From that day on, he could not straighten them, until one day his father picked
him up, sat down on a chair, and offered him a new copper, or a penny, if he would let one foot
hang down. Zadok remembered:

It was very painful but for so much money and to please father I tried it and after a long,
slow and painful move I did it. I was now praised for such a manly effort and offered
another copper if I would let the other down. It was slow and painful, but I finally
succeeded. From that time on I gained very fast.

Zadok and his family were baptized into the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and in
1837 decided to emigrate to Kirtland, Ohio to join the saints there. It was a long journey from
Canada to Ohio and Zadok was forced to walk. He described the ordeal this way:

It all went well with the company except the cold weather, but with me it was too much
walking. I drove cows. My stiff leg and weak ankles could not stand it. In four or five days
we arrived at the St. Lawrence River and I was so badly used up I was obliged to ride the
rest of the way and it was several days after we arrived at the place of destination before I
could stand on my feet.

Later on, Zadok’s family decided it was needful that he learn a trade. He recorded,

Being small and puny he thought the tailor’s trade the most suitable for me.

It would seem from Zadock’s own description that he may have been considered small, weak and
crippled, and yet, it would be this same lad who at the age of 17 volunteered to march with the
Mormon Battalion and in his own words. “I walked it all the way.” Zadok Knapp Judd marched
all the way to California, and back, and from there stayed a determined course of faith all the
way into honored history. He helped settle Parowan, St. George, and finally Kanab. He was one
of those Battalion boys who learned that the only limitations placed on us are the ones we place
on ourselves. All things are possible to the faithful.

Source: https://www.familysearch.org/tree/person/memories/KWNN-2K3