[Apostle Wilford Woodruff Journal] ...What the future Year will bring to pass, time must determine, but it will lay many low in death. Judgments will Continue to increase upon the gentile Nations & great calamity awate the wicked. May the Lord Preserve me from evil sin & transgression. May he enable me to keep the word of wisdom & be preserved in life & health with my wives & Children. (1)
-- During 1855
(Brigham Young Jr.) A year earlier, Young was injured in a Christmas Day street fight between a group of Salt Lake City citizens and drunken soldiers from Ft. Douglas. (2)
(Francis M. Lyman) As a fifteen-year-old freighter, Marion "took to drinking, and found that I really liked it … though it was miserable stuff, and I wonder we were not poisoned by it. … Freighters generally do their praying, if any, before they leave home or after they return, so nothing of that kind takes their attention while on the road." (2)
(Parley P. Pratt) Pratt had met the McLeans in San Francisco. Her Church activity and Mr. McLean's alcoholism led to separation, she moving to Salt Lake City. Though she and McLean were never divorced, Elenore married Pratt November 14, 1855. (2)
(Porter Rockwell) The widow of the Prophet's brother, Don Carlos Smith, had lost her hair from typhoid fever. Rockwell cut his hair to provide her with a wigâ€"and claimed that henceforth he could no longer control his drinking and swearing. (2)
Footnotes:
1 - Wilford Woodruff's Journal: 1833-1898 Typescript, Volumes 1-9, Edited by Scott G. Kenney, Signature Books 1993, http://amzn.to/newmormonstudies
2 - Van Wagoner, Richard and Walker, Steven C., A Book of Mormons, http://amzn.to/newmormonstudies
LDS History Chronology: the Word of Wisdom
Mormon Timeline: the Word of Wisdom
http://lds-church-history.blogspot.com/
