One day while crossing a large prairie, six or eight miles from any house, we crossed a small stream. The ground was frozen deep on each side, and we sprung one of the axletrees of Brother Barnard’s carriage. Brother Barnard said we could not travel with it any farther. Brother Joseph looked at it and said, “I can spring that iron axletree back, so that we can go on our journey.” Brother Barnard replied, “I am a blacksmith, and used to work in all kinds of iron, and that axletree is bent so far round that to undertake to straighten it would only break it.” Brother Joseph answered, “I’ll try it.” He got a pry, and we sprung it back to its place, and it did not trouble us anymore till we arrived at Far West, March 14, 1838. Brother Barnard, seeing this done, concluded that he would never say again that a thing could not be done when a prophet said it could.
Elden J. Watson, Manuscript History of Brigham Young 1801-1844 (Salt Lake City, Utah: Elden J. Watson, Publisher, 1968), 27.