Mary Elizabeth Rollins Lightner recalls Joseph telling her an angel appeared to him 3 times between 1834 and 1842 commanding him to practice plural marriage.
Mary Elizabeth Rollings Lightner, Remiciscence, ca. 1905, 18, MS 29376, Church History Library
The next day after I arrived in Nauvoo Joseph & Brigham Young came to see me. There Bro. Joseph told me, that the angel had appeared to him 3 times, the last time with a drawn sword, commanding him to take me as his wife. He told me in 1834 he saw me standing by his side, while preaching in Kirtland, he asked the Lord what it meant he wanted the sight taken from him (I was a thousand miles away from him at that time) The angel appeared to him and told him what it meant but he became affraid, and did not dare to write me. The angel appeared again to him, still he did not write, but after 7 years the angel appeared the third time and threatened his life, unless he done what he ^the angel^ told him.