Emmeline B. Wells's Spiritual Recognition of Joseph Smith
Published October 20, 2026 at 5:06 PM
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Young Woman's Journal Research
While landing at Nauvoo as a young girl, Emmeline B. Wells felt a profound, electric spiritual witness upon shaking the hand of the Prophet Joseph Smith, recognizing him instantly despite having never met him or been told who he was.
In a biographical chronology, the Church Historian's Press documents that Joseph Smith met the Harris group, which included Emmeline, specifically at the steamboat landing in Nauvoo in May 1844. The record notes that throughout her later life, Emmeline repeatedly bore witness to this electrifying experience of first meeting a prophet of God.
In Their Own Words
“She saw him first on the shore of the Mississippi river as the people were landing from the boat on which she was a passenger. He passed among them clasping their hands in greeting, a magnificent, handsome figure, and when he took her hand she was thrilled as though an electric spark had entered her soul. She knew him instantly, though no one had told her. — The Young Woman's Journal 26:3”
Sources & References
The Young Woman's Journal, vol. 26 no. 3 (March 1915). L. Tom Perry Special Collections, Harold B. Lee Library, Brigham Young University digital collections. https://contentdm.lib.byu.edu/digital/collection/YWJ/id/18684 (account extracted verbatim from the collection's page-level OCR; research confidence: high) Additional sources (periodical research): The Church Historian's Press, "Chronology of Emmeline B. Wells," https://www.churchhistorianspress.org/emmeline-b-wells/events?lang=eng
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