Joel Hills Johnson — Spiritual Witness and Conversion (1831, Ohio)

In early 1831, while living in Ohio (accounts variously place him near Kirtland and in Amherst), Joel Hills Johnson heard Latter-day Saint elders Harvey Whitlock and Edson Fuller preach at a meeting in a nearby schoolhouse. Despite local "evil reports" and prejudice against the Church, Johnson was struck with astonishment and received a powerful spiritual confirmation: he later wrote that their discourse on faith, repentance, baptism, and the "signs following the believer" was the first he had ever heard that perfectly corresponded with the New Testament. This manifestation led to his baptism on June 1, 1831, by Harvey Whitlock, and set him on the course to become a pioneer, missionary, and hymn writer. (One account also lists Anna Pixley Johnson among persons associated with this period of his life.)