| 744 Methodists held a long, protracted meeting in the village of La Harpe, in Illinois. They got no converts. Brother Z. H. Gurley came there and attended their last meeting, and gave out an appointment. Curiosity drew a large crowd. After some four or five sermons he sent for Elder Jehiel Savage, who was preaching some twenty miles south of there, to come and help him. They labored there several weeks and baptized some sixty members. I was one of the number baptized in April, 1840."
We cannot give a detailed account of his life from this time until he entered into the work of the Reorganization, but the following items gleaned from various sources will be interesting. At the April General Conference of 1841, held at Nauvoo, Illinois, he was appointed one of eight (John Murdock, Lyman Wight, William Smith, H. W. Miller, Amasa Lyman, Leonard Soby, Jehiel Savage, and Z. H. Gurley) to travel and collect means for the purpose of building the Temple. It is said that he was ordained a president of Seventy while at Nauvoo; but we have no record of this ordination, so we cannot give the date.
After the death of Joseph Smith, Elder Gurley investigated the claims of the various leaders, and finally accepted those of J. J. Strang as being the most reasonable. A letter written by him from Gananoque, Canada West, November 6, 1849, and published in Gospel Herald, volume 4, page 187, indicates that he was then on a mission to Canada in the interest of the organization under Strang. On January 1, 1850, he again wrote from Landsdown, Upper Canada, (see Gospel Herald, vol. 4, p. 262,) still engaged in the same work.
A letter written January 10, 1850, from Pittsburg [Pittsburgh], Canada West, manifested faith and zeal in his work. March 15, 1850, he wrote from St. Lawrence, New York, that he was "assisting brother Silsbey in organizing the brethren and helping them in getting ready for Beaver." (Ibid., vol. 5, p. 22 ) He was present at a conference held at Voree, Wisconsin, June 1 and 2, 1850, and in these minutes we find this entry: "Bro. Z. H. Gurley was . . . sent to the northeastern parts of Wisconsin, on the presentation of President Strang." It was probably while on the mission thus appointed
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