Lydia Clawson Hears Unseen Singing from the Southeast Corner of the Temple (1893)

On the evening of 8 April 1893, while the congregation waited for the Salt Lake Temple dedication service to begin, Lydia Clawson — wife of Rudger Clawson, then a member of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles — heard singing that no earthly choir was producing. Her husband recorded the experience in his journal: Lydia "heard beautiful singing that seemed to come from the South East Corner of the room. At first she thought there must be a choir there, but of course there was not. She heard the singing twice."

Her experience parallels the auditory manifestations reported by other witnesses during the same two weeks of dedication services. The evening before, eight-year-old Alice Minerva Richards heard "beautiful music, beyond anything [she had ever] heard elsewhere" and saw angels. On 9 April, Abraham H. Cannon recorded that while the earthly choir sang he heard "a voice, and then many voices" joining from unseen singers. Apostle Francis M. Lyman likewise heard sacred music and saw "a beautiful light cross the building above the chandeliers." The Saints had sung "The Spirit of God" across forty years of construction — with its promise that "angels are coming to visit the earth" — and at the dedication, witnesses on multiple days reported that heavenly choirs seemed to join them.