Patriarch Billy Perkins' Prophetic Blessing of Maria Young

When Maria Young was a bride, Uncle Billy Perkins visited and blessed her. It was his first time blessing a child born under the covenant of plural marriage. He prophesied that she would perform a marvelous work, have a kingdom, sit on a throne, and wear a crown of celestial glory. He stated her posterity would have power to raise the dead and cast out devils, that she would go to the center stake of Zion, and that in the temple there, she would see many Saints with resurrected bodies and witness the return of the Savior with a great multitude.

In his interview for the Young Woman's Journal, Maria Young Dougall noted that Uncle Billy Perkins was a 'patriarch and a Saint' and an old friend of her mother-in-law, Mrs. Catherine Harrocks. He was visiting their home when he requested to bless her. Perkins was visibly affected during the blessing, both by the nobility he perceived in the young bride and by the historical significance of her being a child born under the new covenant of plural marriage. He remarked that the specific terminology used in the blessing was unusual because the words were typically addressed to men rather than women.