Israel Barlow, Horse and Whip

This is another story that I had heard before, yet I didn’t realize it was about my third great-grandfather until recent family history research.

Israel Barlow helped build the Nauvoo temple by transporting large slabs of rock from the quarry to the temple site. One day while he was backing up his wagon at the quarry, Joseph Smith came over to him and said, “Israel, on your next trip, stop and buy yourself a buggy whip.” Now Israel trusted his pair of beautiful black mares and had never carried a whip because he didn’t think he had use for it, but on the way he decided to stop in town and buy himself a whip.




Israel arrived back at the quarry and picked up his load of stone. In order to leave, he had to back up the wagon until he could turn down the right road to town. The horses backed up as usual, but when he gave his “Whoa” to stop them, they would not stop. Looking behind him, Israel realized that he was approaching the edge of a large cliff. He continued to shout, “Whoa!” but the horses refused to listen. In a final attempt to stop them, Israel quickly grabbed the whip and cracked it above their heads. This new sound jolted them to instantly stop, right at edge of the cliff! 

Fortunately Israel decided, against his own judgment, to follow the Prophet and it saved his life.

https://www.lds.org/manual/doctrines-of-the-gospel-teacher-manual/chapter-17-obedience-a-law-of-heaven?lang=eng