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"As a boy of fifteen, I awakened one morning with a painful side. Mother decided I needed a doctor. Doctor Pointer saw me first and later brought Doctor Croft; the latter diagnosed appendicitis and proposed operating.  The nearest hospital was in Salt Lake City.  Since the next train would necessitate a very long wait, it was decided to operate at home. The operation took place on a table in the kitchen. Doctor Sutton and Doctor Smith, both dentists, administered the chloroform. After the incision was made, Doctors Pointer and Croft found the appendix had burst and peritonitis had set in. They cleaned my intestines as best they could under the unsanitary conditions they had.  After the operation, Bishop Clark asked the doctors what my chances were. Doctor Pointer told him I did not have a chance in the world. Doctor Croft (later to become the Big Horn Stake President) told him the only chance was through prayer and the power of the Priesthood. Bishop Clark and Doctor Croft administered to me. Bishop Clark and his counselors, J. S. Robinson and E. L. Burgoyne, administered to me again that evening, and Bishop Clark asked all the ward to pray for me. He also had Hyrum Holmes, Charles Pierce, K. Ole Swensen,  E. M. Winters, Sr., and F. M. Winters, Jr. administer to me.

"I know that it was through the prayers that were offered over me that my life was spared. Shortly afterward, the Bishop and the Ward members put up our second crop of hay and did our fall work since my father had recently died and I, the elder son, was unable to work."⁶