Daniel Tyler’s Mother Sees Michael the Archangel in a Vision — Joseph Smith Confirms It Was True (c. 1832)

Daniel Tyler (1816–1906) was one of the most significant historical witnesses of early Latter-day Saint history. He joined the Church in January 1833, sacrificed personally to help build the Kirtland Temple, knew Joseph Smith personally, and later served in the Mormon Battalion before settling in Beaver, Utah, where he lived to age 90.

Before any of that, his mother had a vision.

Shortly before the Prophet Joseph Smith came to the Tyler family home in upstate New York — probably around 1832, on his way to Canada — Elizabeth Comins Tyler experienced something she could not explain. 'Lest it might be attributed to the evil one,' Tyler later wrote, 'she related it to no person, except my father, until the Prophet arrived.'

She saw a man sitting upon a white cloud, clothed in white from head to foot. He wore a peculiar cap unlike any she had ever seen, with a white robe, underclothing, and moccasins. It was revealed to her that this person was Michael, the Archangel. She was sitting in the house drying peaches when the vision came to her. 'The walls were no bar between her and the angel,' Tyler wrote, 'who stood in the open space above her.'

When Joseph Smith arrived at the Tyler home, she told him what she had seen.

He confirmed it: she had seen a true vision, and it was of the Lord. He himself had seen the same angel several times. It was Michael, the Archangel, as had been revealed to her.

Daniel Tyler recorded this account decades later in the Juvenile Instructor, noting that 'the joy that filled my juvenile soul no one can realize except those who have had a foretaste of heavenly things.'