Woodruff's journal entry for 15 June 1878 notes that he "spent most of the day in the office[.] I had a vary strange vision copied in the office to day of a Desolating sickness which covered the whole land[.]" Woodruff wrote "A Vision" on the next line followed by a line that read "Salt Lake City, Night of Dec 16, 1877[.]" The account begins: "I [lengthy blank] went to bed at my usual hour half past nine oclok[.]"
In Victims: The LDS Church and the Mark Hofmann Case (1992), Richard Turley wrote that the vision "described a desolating sickness afflicting communities from Salt Lake City to the eastern coast of North America and graphically detailed crimes, carnage, death, and destruction, together with the establishment of a temple in the New Jerusalem" (p. 16).
There can be no doubt that the "vary strange vision" account is more interesting than any general conference talk or sunday school lesson. It brings to mind the time I spent as a youth poring over old and odd Mormon books, pamphlets, and mimeographs, fully anticipating, for example, that Salt Lake City would soon become the wickedest city on earth, with blood running through the gutters like streams of water, and learning that Joseph Smith's persecutors died gruesome and agonizing deaths.
Turley identified several factors, however, that "suggested Woodruff had not authored the vision but had simply made a copy of a curious but anonymous document that had been circulated" (p. 16). First, the 15 June 1878 journal entry indicated that Woodruff "had the vision copied but did not say that he had experienced the vision himself" (p. 16) (emphasis in original). Second, Woodruff's journal entries for December 1877 do not say anything about having a vision (pp. 16-17). Third, although Woodruff used the first-person voice in the entry, he left a lengthy space between "I" and "went," suggesting that he intended "to fill in the name of the vision's author when he learned it" (p. 17). Fourth, the clerk who made the copy for Woodruff "added a filing notation to the document that included a large blank after the words 'Vision had by'" (p. 17). Fifth, the text states that the vision recipient "had been reading the Revelations in the French Language," but Woodruff "did not know French" (p. 17).
I would not place too much weight on the fact that Woodruff's journal entries for December 1877 did not mention a vision. Woodruff, a steady journal writer, made no note of Brigham Young's transfiguration in his journal entry for 8 August 1844, but it's clear that the transfiguration happened. As documented in the film SIx Days in August, even a blind man witnessed the transfiguration. The other factors cited by Turley, however, lead me to think that Woodruff was likely copying an account from someone else into his journal entry for 15 June 1878.
Turley noted that other copies of the vision began to be circulated that attributed it to Joseph F. Smith. Smith denounced the document in 1880 (p. 17).
Here is the Wilford Woodruff Papers website's transcript of Woodruff's 15 June 1878 journal entry (note: I have not checked the transcript against the original):
Today, the Joseph Smith Foundation attributes the vision to John Taylor. (Please note the remarkable photographs of Taylor and of the events described in the vision.)I wrote 28 & spent most of the day in the office
I had a vary strange vision copied in the office to day
of a Desolating sickness which covered the whole land
A Vision
Salt Lake City, Night of Dec 16, 1877
I [blank] went to bed at my usual hour half
past nine oclok I had been reading the Revolations
in the French Language, my mind was calm, more
so than usual if possible to be so. I composed myself
for sleep but could not sleep. I felt a strange stupor
come over me and apparently became partially
unconscious, still I was not asleep, nor awoke
With a strange far away dreamy feelings the
first I recognized was that I was in the Tabernacle
at Ogden sitting on the back seat in the corner for
fear they would call upon me to Preach which
after singing the second time, they did by calling me to
the stand. I arose to speak and said I did not
know that I had any thing special to say except to
bear my Testimony to the Truth of the Latter Day work
when all at once it seemed as though I was lifted
out of myself, and I said "yes I have sumthing to
say, it is this—some of my brethren present have been
asking me what is coming to pass, what is the wind
blowing up. I will answer you right here what is
coming to pass shortly. I was immediately in Salt
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Lake City wandering about the streets in all parts of the
city and on the door of every house I found a badge
of mourning, and I could not find a house but what
was in mourning. I passed by my own house and
saw the same sigm there, and asked "Is that me
that is dead?" Sumthing gave me answer "No
you'll live through it all." It seemed strange to
me that I saw no person [on] the street in my wandering
about through the city, they seemed to be in their houses
with their sick and Dead. I saw no funeral possess-
ion, or any thing of that kind, but the city looked
vary still and quiet as though the people were praying
and had controll of the desease what ever it was
I then looked in all directions over the Territory, East
West North and South, and I found the same mourn-
ing in every place throughout the Land. The next
I knew I was Just this side of Omaha. It seemed
as though I was above the Earth, looking down to it
as I passed along on my way East and I saw the
roads full of people principally women with just
what they could carry in bundles on therir backs
travelling to the mountains on foot, and I wond-
ered how they could get there, with nothing but
a small pack upon their backs. It was remarkable
to me that there were so few men among them, it
did not seem as though the cars were running
the rails looked rusty, and the road abandoned, And
I have no conception how I travelled myself
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As I looked down upon the people I continued Eastward
through Omaha and Council Bluffs which were
full of disease, and women every whare. The states
of Missouri and Illinois were in turmoil and strife
Men killing each other, and women joining in the
fight, family against family cutting each other to
peaieces in the most horrid manner. The next I
saw was Washington, and I found the city a
Desolation. The white House Empty, the Halls of Con-
gress the same. Every thing in ruins, the people
seemed to have fled from the city and left it to
take care of itself. I was next in the city of Baltimore
and in the square whare the Monument of 1812
stands, in front of St Charles and other Hotels
I saw the Dead piled up so high as to fill the square
I saw Mothers cut the throats of thereir own
children for the sake of their blood, which they
drank from their veins, to quench their thirst
and then lie down and die. The waters of the
Chesapeake and of the city were so stagnant and
such a stench arose from them on account of
the putrefaction of Dead bodies that the vary smell
caused Death, and that was singular again
I saw no men except they were dead, lying in
the streets, and vary few women, and they
were crazy mad, and in a dying condition
Every whare I went I beheld the same all over
the city, And it was horrible beyound description
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to look at. I thought this must be the End. But No
I was seemingly in Philadelphia and there every-
thing was still no living soul was to be seen to greet
me, and it seemed as though the whole city was
without an inhabitant. In arch and chestnut
street and in fact Every whare I went the putrifaction
of the Dead bodies caused such a stench that it was
Impossible for any creature to Exhist alive, nor did
I see any living thing in the city. I next found
myself in Broadway New York and here it
seemed the people had done their best to overcome
the Disease. But in wandering down Broadway
I saw the bodies of Beautiful women lying stone
dead, and others in a dying condition on the side
walk. I saw men crawl out of the cellars and
rob the dead bodies of the valuables they had on
and before they could return to their coverts in the
cellars they themselves would roll over a time or
towo and die in agony. On some of the back streets
I saw Mothers kill their own children and
Eat raw flesh and then in a few minuts
die themselves. Whareever I went I saw the
same scenes of Horror and Desolation rapine
and Death. No Horses or carriages, No busses
or street cars, but Death and Destruction evry whare
I then went to the Grand Central Park and looking
back I saw a fire start and just at that moment
a mighty East wind sprang up and carried the flames
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west over the city, and it burned untill there was
not a single building left standing whole Even down
to the wharfs, and the shiping all seemed to be burned
and swallowed up in the common destruction
and left Nothing but a Desolation whare the great
city was a short time before. The stench from the
bodies that were burning was so great that it was
carried a great distance across the Hudson River
and bay, and thus spread deisease and death wha-
reever the flames penetrated. I cannot paint in
words the Horror that seemed to Encompass me around
It was beyound description or thought of man
to conceive. I supposed this was the End but I was
here given to understand, that the same horror
was being enacted all over the country, North
South East and West, that few were left alive
still there were some. Immediately after I
seemed to be standing on the west bank of the
Missouri River opposite the city of Independance
but I saw no city. I saw the whole states of Miss-
ouri & Illinois and part of Iowa were a com-
plete wilderness with no living human being im
them. I then saw a short distance from the river
Twelve men dressed in the robes of the Temple stand[in]g
in a square or nearly so. I understood it resprese-
nted the Twelve gates of the New Jerrusalem, and
they were with hands uplifted consecrating the ground
and laying the Corner Stones. I saw myriads
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of Angels hovering over them and around about them
and also an immens pillar of a cloud over them
and I heard the singing of the most beautif music the
words "Now is esstablished the Kingdom of our God
and his Christ and He shall reign forever and
Ever, and the Kingdom shall never be Thrown
down for the Saints have overcome" and I saw
people coming from the River and different places
a long way off to help build the Temple, and it seemed
that the Hosts of the angels also helped to get the material
to build the Temple, and I saw some come who
wore their Temple clothing rob[e]s to help build the
Temple and the city and all the time I saw the
great pillar of cloud hovering over the place
Instantly I found I was in the Tabernacle at
Ogden yet I could see the building going on and
got quite animated in calling to the people in the
Tabernacle to listen to the beautiful music that the
Angels were Making. I called to them to look at
the Angels as the House seemed to be full of them
and they were saying the same words that I
heard Before "Now is the Kingdom of Our God
Esstablished forever & Ever.["] and then a voice said
"Now shall come to pass that which was spoken by Isaiah
the Prophet "That seven women shall take hold of one man
saying["] &c. [Isaiah 4:1] At this time I seemed to stagger back from the
pulpit & F D Richards and some one els caught me and prevented
me from falling when I requested Brother Richards to
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apologise to the audience for me because I stoped
so adruptly and tell them I had not fainted
but was exhausted. I rolled over in my bed
and heard the City Hall clock strike Twelve
