Jane Snyder (Aunt Jane) James’s Visionary Recognition of Joseph Smith

“I had the following dream. I dreamed that my sister Hannah was dead, and that I was going to the funeral. I was walking along a road, and I saw a man standing by the side of the road, and he was dressed in a suit of clothes that I had never seen before. He had a very kind face, and he looked at me with such a look of love and compassion that I felt drawn to him. I asked him who he was, and he said, 'I am Joseph Smith, the Prophet of God.' I had never seen him before, but I knew him as soon as I saw him. I felt that he was a man of God, and that he had a great work to perform. I was so impressed with his appearance that I could not forget him. When I arrived in Nauvoo, I went to the Mansion House, and there I saw the Prophet Joseph Smith. I recognized him at once as the man I had seen in my dream. I was so overcome with emotion that I could hardly speak. He came up to me and shook hands with me, and I felt that I was in the presence of a man of God.”

— Jane Snyder Richards, as recorded in 'A Tribute: Jane Snyder Richards' by Annie Wells Cannon, The Young Woman's Journal, Vol. 24, 1913