David Patten was born in 1799 in New York. He joined the Church in 1832 and became one of the first Apostles in 1835. He died tragically in the Battle of Crooked River in 1838. This account of his remarkable gift of healing was related by Abraham O. Smoot:
"I have witnessed the power of God displayed in the healing of persons who were sick in hundreds of instances, in some cases that would probably be considered by the world as very wonderful, but to which the Saints, whose experience has been similar to my own, had become accustomed. I think Elder David W. Patten possessed the gift of healing to a greater degree than any man I ever associated with. I remember on one occasion when I was laboring with him as a missionary in Tennessee he was sent for to administer to a woman [the wife of Mr. Johnston F. Lane] who had been sick for five years and bed-ridden for one year and not able to help herself. Brother Patten stepped to her bedside and asked her if she believed in the Lord Jesus Christ. She replied that she did. He then took her by the hand and said, "In the name of Jesus Christ, arise!"
"She immediately sat up in bed, when he placed his hands upon her head and rebuked her disease, pronounced blessing upon her head and promised that she should bear children. She had been married for seven years and never had any children, and this promise seemed very unlikely ever to be fulfilled. But she arose from her bed immediately, walked half a mile to be baptized and back again in her wet clothes. She was healed from that time, and within one year became a mother [the baby was named David Patten Lane], and afterwards bore several children.
"I was myself healed under his administration in a manner which appeared to me very remarkable at that time. While traveling I was taken very sick and was forced to seek entertainment at the home of an infidel [enemy of the Church]. Elder Patten was desirous of administering to me, and, by way of a pretext, asked the privilege of praying. His request was granted, and he knelt beside the bed upon which I was lying, and, without the family noticing it, placed his hand upon my head. While his hand was upon me, I felt the disease pass off from my system as palpably as I ever experienced anything in my life, and before he arose from his knees I was as well as I ever had been, and able to arise and eat my supper."
(_Early Scenes in Church History_, p. 29ff)
May 17, 1835, Elders Patten and Woodruff laid hands on a woman by the name of Margaret Tittle, who was laying at the point of death, and she was instantly healed through the power of God. Bro. Patten had preached faith, repentance and baptism to her, and she covenanted to be baptized. But after she was healed, she refused to attend to that ordinance. Elder Patten told her that she was acting a dangerous part, and she would again be afflicted, if she did not repent. The brethren pursued their journey, and on their return found her very low with the same fever. She begged them to lay hands upon her and heal her, and she would obey the gospel. They complied with her request, and she was healed, after which Wilford Woodruff baptized her.
Said Elder Patten on one occasion: "The Lord did work with me wonderfully, in signs and wonders following them that believed in the fulness of the gospel of Jesus Christ; insomuch that the deaf were made to hear, the blind to see, and the lame were made whole. Fevers, palsies, crooked and withered limbs, and in fact all manner of diseases, common to the country, were healed by the power of God, that was manifested through his servants."
(LDS Biographical Encyclopedia, Andrew Jenson, Vol. 1, p. 76ff)
Compiled and written by David Kenison
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