(Miraculous story about William Alvin Tolman, pictured above. Contributed by the Thomas Tolman Family Organization with quotations from Mary Jane Gorringe and Minnie Elizabeth Tolman Pickett.)
They were married the 12th day of December, 1878, in Salt Lake City, Utah, Endowment House. They lived in Salt Lake City three years. Alvin worked for his father-in-law, William Osborn Gorringe, at harness trade. The indoor work didn’t agree with him, so in the spring of 1881, he left Salt Lake with his father’s family, from Tooele, for Goose Creek Valley which was later known as Oakley, Idaho. The family included his father Cyrus Tolman and wife Alice Bracken and their children John Albert, Alice Ann, Ammon, William, Joshua Alvin, Alfretta, Aaron Alexander, Judson I., and Minnie. Here the boys filed on land to homestead.
“Alvin built a one room log cabin and returned to Salt Lake. That fall, he and I, a bride of a little more than two years, bought a new stove in Salt Lake City, put our belongings in a covered wagon with the stove loaded in front of the wagon. When we reached Kelton, Utah, Alvin bought some gun powder which he dropped in the back of the stove for safe keeping.”
“After a long, cold journey we finally arrived in Oakley, October 19, 1881. We were happy and desirous of making a permanent home. It being very cold we hurriedly unloaded the wagon in order to put the stove up. A big fire was built in the stove. I made a bed in back of the stove for our son William Alvin, as he had always been very frail. The powder in the stove had been forgotten. As soon as the stove became hot the powder exploded. The stove was utterly blown to pieces – the pieces of iron were driven into the logs and remained there as long as the house stood. The roof of the house was raised and came back on the house in a zigzag position. The plaster between the logs in the house was pushed out by force of the explosion. The windows we had brought with us for our house were placed inside the house and quilts were put up to the windows.”
“The explosion was heard by the other families. My mother said, ‘Oh, something terrible has happened to Alvin and family.’ Soon willing helpers were there and moved them across the street to John Albert’s home. Someone said, ‘We must have a doctor.’ But where could one be found. The brave young wife and mother replied, ‘God will be our physician. He knows our helplessness and will bless us through the power of the Priesthood’.”
The father (Joshua Alvin Tolman) and mother (Mary Jane Gorringe Tolman) were thrown to the floor bruised and burned from bits of fire and iron. But in their great anxiety for their children they didn’t realize they were hurt. They rushed to the bed where the baby (Owen) lay asleep. A hot lid lay very near his head, but aside from shock and choking from the smoke, he was unhurt.
“My little boy (William), apparently dead and as black as coal, I held in my arms. The floor was crushed in just in front of his bed and the two cats lying beside my son were killed. The child’s face was so filled with powder that it was black. His neck from one ear to the other was burned so badly it didn’t seem possible that he could live.”
“Every dish, window and glassware of any description were broken into bits, except a bottle of olive oil, which was used to administer to him. Everyone who saw him said he could never live. By my testimony and the testimonies of my husband, his brother William, his father Cyrus, and G. Smith who were present and administered to him, we testified many times that it was only through the power of the priesthood and their faith and prayers that he was saved. I knew the Lord would not forsake us in the hour of our great need, although no one seemed to give me much hope. I never gave up or had a doubt in my own mind but that he would live.”
William Alvin was healed by the ‘Great Physician’ without a scar and became the father of eleven children with a posterity of over 1500 today.
Visit FamilySearch to learn more about Joshua Alvin Tolman, Mary Jane Gorringe, and William Alvin Tolman. Also visit the Thomas Tolman Family Organization to find out how you can get more involved in family history.
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