It was in the year 1885 that a remarkably singular occurrence in my history happened in St. Louis. In the church at San Francisco the pastor, Henry A. Sawtelle, J. S. Ring, a deacon, and I were very close friends. Mr. Ring had passed on some years previous at San Francisco, and we had an etching taken from a photograph and enlarged to almost life size. This likeness hung over the sitting-room sofa in our chamber, and on my return from the office about six o'clock, as I was resting on the sofa directly under this likeness of Mr. Ring, I went off into a partial doze, when I heard a voice plainly and distinctly utter these words: “We three will soon meet again.” The voice roused me and I immediately told Mrs. Bemis what I had heard, with the remark, “Something is going to happen.” The next day we were apprised of the death of Henry A. Sawtelle, and the hour of his passing away was identical with the time that the voice came to me. Since then long years have elapsed, but no reunion has occurred of the three. The memory of that voice, which I did not immediately recognize, has never been forgotten. The day will come when this meeting will take place, be it a longer or a shorter time before fulfillment. I do not attempt to explain this phenomenon but only mention it as a fact.

CHAPTER VI
Recollections of a long and somewhat uneventful life
Stephen A. Bemis
California As I Saw It: First-Person Narratives of California's Early Years, 1849-1900
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