BY CYRENA DUSTIN
FROM HER AUTOBIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH
      I am the only one of my father's family that ever embraced the gospel, yet I know my Father believed and, had it not been for some unwise conduct in one of the Elders whom my father and I befriended as assisted, he probably would have been baptized at the same time I was. My brothers and sisters were greatly mortified at my joining the Church and as long as I lived at home I had to endure their persecutions.
     I remained at home during the (winter of 1837-38), but the spirit of gathering seemed to come upon the Saints about that time and I felt that I could not be left behind and so determined to fo with them to Missouri. This was a severe blow to my father, who had sympathized with me from the beginning, and when he found that I was determined to go he requested me to leave home immediately that he might become reconciled to the separation before I left entirely; his real motive was a hope that I might become so homesick that I would give up the idea of going with the Saints and return home to stay.
     Accordingly, I left home and went to reside in the family of Elder Alexander Stanley, who was an old acquaintance and neighbor. He was like a father to me and there I lived until I gathered with the Saints in Missouri.
     A few nights before we started for Missouri, I went to my father's house and talked with all of them. My father and mother cried and begged me not to go, even until late into the night; when they found pleading was of no avail, they tried hiring me to stay, and when that also failed, Father said he would follow me and have me arrested and brought back by a process of law.
     As I was leaving the house, I turned back at the door and bore a faithful testimony to the truth of the Gospel; and that was the last time I ever saw any of my father's family (except Sylvenus, who passed through Utah on his way to Montana). ... In September following we left our homes (in Ohio) and commenced our wearisome journey (to Missouri) with Alexander Stanley as leader.
     We started early in the morning and were fearful that my father would stop us, for we had to pass his house, but as we neared home we saw the hand of the Lord in causing a dense fog to envelop the house until after we had passed; we could not even see the signboard at the street door. ... We went on to New Portage, where we made our camp and I slept out of doors for the first time in my life.

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