Alfred Douglas Young - Part 3 Raised from the Dead

[This is a continuation of the Autobiography of Alfred Douglas Young, summarized from his recollections in 1888.]

When Alfred Young, Billy Young, and Daniel Hunt arrived in Smith County they first stopped they in the home a "Mr" Hunt, a cousin of Daniel Hunt's. Mr Hunt, who I have not been able to identify, was not friendly with them at first but tolerated their religion because of his relation ship to their companion, Daniel Hunt. While they were there, however, they healed his nine year old son of a crippled leg, and his 16 year old daughter of her poor eyesight.

The father, Mr Hunt, then took the three missionaries to the home of his cousins who lived a couple miles away, where they spent to night. In the morning the missionaries felt inspired not to eat the food prepared for breakfast. The hostess was disturbed by this, nevertheless they did not eat, and instead returned to the home of Mr Hunt. Back at his home Mr Hunt said that he must be baptized, and then went out side supposedly to prepare the horses for the journey to where there was water. Instead Mr Hunt wandered outside for so long that his wife went to look for him without success. Eventually he came back to the house, exhausted and ill. With some assistance he made it to his bed where he died an hour later.

About three hours after Mr Hunt's death, a crowd neighbors had gathered to mourn him. Alfred and Billy felt compelled to minister to him that he might be raised from the dead. Immediately he began to breath again and was soon up and around. One of the people there was a minister and he accused Mr Hunt and the Young brothers of perpetuating a fraud; that Mr Hunt must have been faking his death. A number of those there favored the minister while about a dozen believed in the miracle.

After the minister and his crowd left the missionaries were afraid that they would return with a mob  and were therefore watchful of danger. The next day a lone man rode up to the house. Alfred didn't name him but said he was an influential man and the justice of the peace. He said that a mob had arrived at his house earlier that morning declaring their intent to drive Alfred, Billy and Daniel out of the county. The JP had convinced the mob to hold off while he investigated.

While the JP had not been there when the Mr Hunt had been raised from the dead, he did know about Mr Hunt's son's crippled leg and saw for himself that it was certainly better. After talking for about two hours, the JP agreed to return to his home and disperse to mob.

Since Alfred and Billy had not yet gone far enough to reach their own relatives, a distance of another 20 miles, they decided it was time for them to move on. Leaving Daniel Hunt among his cousins, Alfred and Billy continued along their way.

[...to be continued]

Note: Alfred refers to him as Mr D Hunt later in his autobiography. John D Lee refers to Daniel Hunt when describing the local perpetrators, but it is unclear whether he is referring to the missionary Daniel Hunt who may have stayed in the area for a short time or to Mr Hunt who actually lived there. It is possible they were both named Daniel. The missionary Daniel Hunt had at least four cousins name Daniel Hunt and just as many nephews, an uncle, and a grandfather after whom we may guess they were all named.