"Myself and my first husband, John Handbury, came to Council Bluffs in the year 1850. The doctrine of plural marriage was taught and practiced under the pretense of 'sealing for eternity.' I was opposed to it, my husband favored it, and it caused me a great deal of uneasiness. We had a great deal of talk about that doctrine, he trying to convince me of its truth; but I could not believe it. My husband being exposed to inclement weather while pursuing his daily occupation, caught a severe cold which terminated in a fever, from which he died in about nine days from the time he was taken sick. About three weeks after his death I had retired for the night and as I lay upon my bed my thoughts were fixed upon my departed husband, the loss of whom I deeply mourned, for he was a kind and loving husband. As I lay weeping I saw him enter the room through the door and come to my bedside. He spoke to me, saying : 'Bessie, what are you weeping for? I want you to cease weeping, for I can not rest. God called me from earth to do a work that I could not do here. The sealing power (referring to polygamy) is not of God.' At the same time he held a paper or pamphlet in his hand, which had on it the picture of an eye, and he said, "Teach not this to my children, for it is not God, and God will remove it from the earth. Seal those children unto no man, for they are mine (the Lord's), and God is going to commence a great work on the earth. Be faithful.' He then departed.

"This took place in the fall of 1851; and in the summer of 1852, I saw for the first time the paper called the Seer, published by Orson Pratt. It was exactly like the one my departed husband had in his hand when he appeared at my bedside in the vision; it was published in the interest of polygamy. I saw it in the house of a polygamist, and the man of the house presented it to me and wished me to read it, but I told him I had no use for it, for I recognized in that pamphlet the very Seer my husband held in his hand. From that time I told the polygamists of my vision, (but) they declared it was from the Devil." —Saints' Herald, January 28, 1893.