John Oborn’s family joined the Church in 1843 and soon thereafter felt prompted to gather to Zion. However, their very limited means didn’t allow them to act on these promptings until 1856. John, the youngest son in the family, was 12 years old at the time. The family sailed to America and then traveled by train and boat from New York to Iowa City.
Of the Willie company’s journey across the plains, John later wrote, “God only can understand and realize the torture and privation, exposure, and starvation that we went through.” Conditions were so bad at the Sixth Crossing camp that John described it as “the most terrible experience of my life.” With their rations gone and winter upon them, it was hard to think they could survive. “We had resorted to the eating of anything that could be chewed, bark and leaves from trees, etc.,” John recalled. “We youngsters ate the rawhide from our boots. It seemed to sustain life and we were very thankful to get it.”
As John later remembered this life-or-death situation, the coming of the rescuers remained vivid: “When it seemed all would be lost, . . . and there seemed little left to live for, like a thunderbolt out of the clear sky, God answered our prayers.” The rescuers brought life-giving food and supplies. John remembered that one of the men was particularly kind to their family: “He seemed like an angel from heaven. We left our handcart and rode in his wagon, and slowly but safely he brought us to Zion.” John’s father, however, died just 10 days before the family reached the Salt Lake Valley, giving “his life cheerfully and without hesitation, for the cause that he espoused. We buried him in a lonely grave.” John remained a faithful member of the Church for the rest of his life.