Lucy Walker Smith Kimball (1826-1910), in her biographical sketch, recalled the following example of young Latter-day Saint children prophesying in 1835:
During
the year 1835, the children of this branch [in Ogdensburg, New York] who were eight
years old and upward were baptised by Elder Abraham Palmer. Haveing been taught
by their parents to pray, were full of faith and received the Holy Ghost by the
laying on of hands, and the signs followed them, according to promise. At the next
prayer-meeting, some spoke in tongues, others prophecied; again others had the
gift of faith, to heal the sick, etc. One of this little band sprang to his feet
his feet, [sic] his countenance shone like that of an angel, and
prophecied that before we reached our destination, we would be surrounded by
armed mobs with blackened faces, and would need great faith in God to endure
the many persecutions and trials before us. And that some of our number would
lay down their lives; other would see their brethren shot down before their
very eyes, this was verified as the wholesale slaughter at “Hauns Mills.” (Lucy
Walker Kimball, “A Brief Biographical sketch,” MS 741, Church History Library, in
In Sacred Loneliness: The Documents, ed. Todd M. Compton [Salt Lake
City: Signature Books, 2022], 515)
