Mormon History, October, 1845

"Although President Wilford Woodruff gave Eliza R. Snow credit for originating the idea," notes Linda Wilcox, -"That hymn is a revelation, though it was given unto us by a woman."-it is more likely that Joseph Smith was the first to expound the doctrine of a Mother in Heaven. Joseph F. Smith claimed that God revealed that principle ('that we have a mother as well as a father in heaven') to Joseph Smith; Joseph Smith revealed it to Eliza Snow Smith, his wife; and Eliza Snow was inspired, being a poet, to put it into verse."
Other incidents tend to confirm this latter view. Susa Young Gates told of Joseph's consoling Zina Diantha Huntington on the death of her mother in 1839 by telling her that not only would she know her mother again on the other side, but, "More than that, you will meet and become acquainted with your eternal Mother, the wife of your Father in Heaven." Susa went on to say that about this same time Eliza R. Snow "learned the same glorious truth from the same
inspired lips" and was then moved to put this truth into verse. Since Zina Huntington and Eliza were close friends as well, it was also a likely possibility that Zina might have spoken of this idea to Eliza.

[source: Grunder, Rick, Mormon Parallels: A Bibliographic Source]