In the fall of 1858 Dudley LeavittDudley Leavitt,
Mable Lillian Leavitt Waite,
Rodney Waite,
Laron Waite, Jacob Hamblin and other missionaries were returning home to Santa Clara, Utah after visiting the Oriba band of Indians in nothern Arizona.

The trip home was long and hard. Winter had set in. All day they faced a piercing wind and at night did not dare light a fire for fear of roving bands of Indians. They had expected to get food at an Orubi village but were disappointed. To add to their troubles one of their horses carrying what little provisions they had got away. That left them entirely without. To add more to their troubles, it began to snow until in a whole day they went only eight miles.

When they camped at Pipe Springs the snow was knee deep. They pitched their tent and prepared to face another cold night without food. For two days Jacob had ridden almost in silence. Some of the men thought he was angry, but as a matter of fact, he was worried and almost ill from exposure. After huddling a while in the rude shelter, Dudley and Lucius Fuller went out and began saddling their horses. Jacob came out and asked them what they were going to do.

"We are going home, or we are going to die in the attempt, " they told him." The chances are you can't make it," Jacob told them.

"Your horses are already jaded, and in this storm it would be hard to find the road. If you did get through, you could not get help back to us for a week, and we cannot go hungry that long. I see no way but to kill one of the horses for food."

Without a word, Dudley pulled the saddle from his mare and motioned for his companion to shoot it. Jacob turned and walked into the tent, tears running down his cheeks. He felt that he had got the group into this difficulty and was afraid the men would complain or argue among themselves as to whose horse could be shot.

"Some of the men had steaks cut out of the hind quarters of that horse almost before it stopped kicking," Dudley said years later. "No meat has ever tasted so good since."

For two days the men lived on horse flesh without salt. After the first hunger was satisfied, it did not seem so good, but it was better than nothing. On the third day the storm was over, and the men, eager to get home, would brave a snow-covered plain. Dudley's saddle and bridle and gear had to be added to the loads of the other pack animals, while he had to "ride and tie." That is, one man would ride ahead some three miles, stop and tie his horse and walk on. Dudley would mount the horse and ride until he overtook the owner, who would take his mount.

The whole Santa Clara settlement came out to meet them. Dudley's mother and his two wives were among the most concerned, especially when he trudged in more than an hour behind. Mary was expecting her third child in January, and Mariah her first in April. Dudley had kept his pledge to her mother that he would wait until she was eighteen years old before he would make her his wife in fact. Dudley was proud that now he had two good houses for his wives, and a place for his mother as well. Thomas, as he had expected, had gone back to Wellsville, where he had an excellent setup, a home and forty acres of land.