“He [Orson Pratt] asked Joseph [Smith, Jr.] whether he could not ascertain what his mission was and Joseph answered that he would see. & asked Pratt and John Whitmer to go upstairs with him. And arriving there Joseph produced a small stone called a seer stone. And putting it into a hat soon commenced speaking.”

James R.B. Vancleave to Joseph Smith III – 29 September 1878, (Independence, MO: Community of Christ Library-archives), 2; Reprinted in Lyndon W. Cook (editor), David Whitmer Interviews: A Restoration Witness (Orem, UT: Grandin Book Company, 1991), 239-240.