By this time the approach of the famine was beginning to be felt. In the course of some remarks at a special conference in Provo, July 13th, 1855, President Kimball said:
"Perhaps many feel a little sober because our bread is cut off, but I am glad of it, because it will be a warning to us, and teach us to lay it up in future, as we have been told. How many times have you been told to store up your wheat against the hard times that are coming upon the nations of the earth? When we first came into these valleys our President told us to lay up stores of all kinds of grain that the earth might rest once in seven years. The earth is determined to rest, and it is right that it should. It only requires a few grasshoppers to make the earth rest, they can soon clear it. This is the seventh year; did you ever think of it?"
Then came the famine, the second one in the history of the Saints, in fulfillment of the warning words of their prophets and seers. It was the famine of 1856.
In this famine, which was likened unto the famine of Egypt, Heber C. Kimball played a part like unto that of Joseph of old; feeding from his own bins and storehouses, filled by his providence and foresight in anticipation of the straitness of the times, the hungry multitude—kindred, strangers and all—who looked to him for succor. His own family were put upon short rations, to enable him to minister more effectually to the wants of others.
He had taken his own counsel, and stored up grain for the famine he had predicted, and when the time of scarcity came he had on hand thousands of bushels of wheat, with bran and shorts, corn and barley in abundance; all of which, however, was used before the next harvest-time.
Several hundred bushels of wheat he lent to President Young, to help feed those who were dependent on the President, while he himself personally undertook to relieve hundreds of the poor of Salt Lake City.
The following letter from Bishop John B. Maiben forms an interesting link in the historic chain of that period:
"MANTI, SANPETE CO.,"January 16th, 1877.
"S. F. Kimball,"Salt Lake City,
"DEAR BROTHER:—In answer to your enquiries inrelation to the flour I distributed for your father, I will say:
"That during the early part of the year 1856, in what is known as the "time of the famine," when a great many persons who in other respects were esteemed well to do, were under the necessity of eating thistle roots, sego roots and other wild plants for sustenance of themselves and families, owing to the extreme scarcity of breadstuff, there being none in the market at any price; at this critical juncture President Heber C. Kimball, who had by wise economy and prescient forethought garnered up a quantity of surplus grain, requested my assistance to distribute flour to the families of the Saints in small quantities adapted to their number and necessity, charging them only $6.00 per 100 lbs, then the standard Tithing Office price. Although there was no flour in the market, still some individuals were selling at $25. to $30. per 100 lbs. To the best of my recollection some 20,000 to 30,000 lbs. of flour were thus distributed in various amounts, varying from five to fifty lbs., according to the size of the family.
"This act of generosity and fatherly care on the part of the late Heber C. Kimball was only in keeping with his general character as a man of sterling integrity and a faithful steward before the Lord to his fellow-men, and thus his memory is justly enshrined in the hearts of the Saints, who fondly cherish the hope to enjoy his society after a glorious resurrection.
"Yours Very Truly,"J. B. MAIBEN."
Many are the acts of mercy and charity related of President Kimball and his family, especially his noble and unselfish partner, Vilate, during this time of sore distress. They kept an open house, and fed from twenty-five to one hundred poor people at their table, daily, besides making presents innumerable of bread, flour and other necessaries, which were then literally worth their weight in gold.[A]
[Footnote A: While thus feeding the poor on the best that her larder afforded, Vilate would send her own children into the fields to dig roots (artichokes) which she would cook for them. This, with coarse corn bread, while her guests were served with wheaten bread, potatoes and boiled beef, was the frequent diet of the Kimball family during the famine of "fifty-six."]
It was Vilate's chief delight to sally forth with a basket on her arm, filled with nicely cooked edibles and little domestic comforts, and seek out some poor, obscure person, in need of help, though perhaps too proud or timid to make it known. She would often go to the houses of such persons, on finding that they were away from home, and provide for their needs in their absence, in order that they might meet a glad surprise on their return, without knowing the good angel who had visited them.
It is related that, during this famine, a brother, sorely in need of bread, came to President Kimball for counsel how to procure it.
"Go and marry a wife," was Heber's terse reply, after relieving the immediate wants of the applicant.
Thunderstruck at receiving such an answer at such a time, when he could hardly provide food for himself, the man went his way, dazed and bewildered, thinking that President Kimball must be out of his mind. But the more he thought of the prophetic character and calling of the one who had given him this strange advice, the less he felt like ignoring it. Finally he resolved to obey counsel, let the consequences be what they might. But where was the woman who would marry him? was the next problem. Bethinking himself of a widow with several children, who he thought might be induced to share her lot with him, he mustered up courage, proposed and was accepted.
In that widow's house was laid up a six months' store of provisions!
Meeting President Kimball shortly afterwards, the now prosperous man of family exclaimed:
"Well, Brother Heber, I followed your advice—"
"Yes," said the man of God, "and you found bread."
President Kimball's letters to his son William, who was then in England, will fully tell the story of the famine, and also many of the current events of that period:
"GREAT SALT LAKE CITY,"February 29, 1856.
"My family, with yours, are all in good health and spirits. I have been under the necessity of rationing my family, and also yours, to two-thirds of a pound of breadstuff per day each; as the last week is up to-day, we shall commence on half a pound each—at the same time they all begin to look better and fatter, and more ruddy, like the English. This I am under the necessity of doing. Brother Brigham told me to-day that he had put his family on half a pound each, for there is scarcely any grain in the country, and there are thousands that have none at all scarcely. We do this for the purpose of feeding hundreds that have none.
"My family at this time consists of about one hundred souls, and I suppose that I feed about as many as one hundred besides.
"My mill has not brought me in, for the last seven months, over one bushel of toll per day, in consequence of the dry weather, and the water being frozen up—which would not pay my miller. When this drought came on, I had about seven hundred bushels of wheat, and it is now reduced to about one hundred and twenty-five bushels, and I have only about twenty-five bushels of corn, which will not provide for my own family until harvest. Heber has been to the mill to-day, and has brought down some unbolted flour, and we shall be under the necessity of eating the bran along with the flour, and shall think ourselves doing well with half a pound a day at that. * * * We have some meat and perhaps about seventy bushels of potatoes, also a very few beets and carrots; so you can judge whether or not we can get through until harvest without digging roots; still we are altogether better off than the most of the people in these valleys of the mountains. There are several wards in this city who have not over two weeks' provisions on hand.
"I went into the tithing office with Brother Hill and examined it from top to bottom, and, taking all the wheat, corn, buckwheat and oats, there were not to exceed five hundred bushels, which is all the public works have, or expect to have, and the works are pretty much abandoned, the men having been all turned off, except about fifteen who are at work on Brother Brigham's house and making some seed drills for grain, as we will be obliged to put in our grain by drilling, on account of the scarcity, which probably will not take over one-third of the grain it would to sow broadcast.
"We shall probably not do anything on the public works until another harvest. The mechanics of every class have all been counseled to abandon their pursuits and go to raising grain. This we are literally compelled to do, out of necessity. Moreover, there is not a settlement in the Territory but is also in the same fix that we are. Some settlements can go two months, some three, some can, probably, at the rate of half a pound per day, till harvest. Hon. A. W. Babbitt even went to Brother Hyde's provision store the other day, and begged to get twenty or twenty-five pounds of flour, but could not. This I was told by William Price who is the salesman of the store. Money will not buy flour or meal, only at a few places, and but very little at that. I can assure you that I am harrassed constantly; I sell none for money but let it go where people are truly destitute. Dollars and cents do not count now, in these times, for they are the tightest that I have ever seen in the Territory of Utah. You and your brethren can judge a little by this. As one of the old Prophets said, anciently, 'as with the people so with the Priest,' we all take it together.
"Some of the people drop many big tears, but if they cannot learn wisdom by precept, nor by example, they must learn it by what they suffer.
"Now is the time for us to be like unto Joseph of old—lay up stores for ourselves, and our children; and thousands, and hundreds of thousands from the old world, the United States, and North and South America will flee to this place to get down by the side of Joseph's cribs, and granaries, and storehouses, to get that which will sustain life from "these poor deluded creatures" that they drove from the United States, and were not willing that they should have shelter in the land of their birth, and the privilege of worshiping our God and our Father who organized and prepared this earth for His children, and those who would keep His commandments; and killed our Prophet, our Patriarch, and Apostles, and hundreds of others and thousands of men, women, and children, the widows and fatherless, who died on the plains in consequence of their oppression. Will they receive the rod in consequence of this? Yes, I can say in truth, in the name of Israel's God, they shall receive fourfold pressed down. I can say in my heart, I wish to God this people would all listen to counsel, and do at the start as they are told, and move as one man, and be one. If this were the case, our enemies would never have any more power over us, our granaries never would be empty, nor would we see sorrow. There is not a good, wise, humble Saint that is filled with the elements of eternal lives, but what knows that this is true as well as myself. * * * * * *
"Now, as to my own stock—cattle, horses and sheep. My sheep are on Antelope Island. Peter Hanson is with them, and Joseph Toronto is with Brother Brigham's, five miles beyond. Some portions of the Island are covered with snow nearly three feet deep. The sheep range on the tops of the mountains where the wind has blown off the snow, and they do first rate. My cattle, sixty head of them, were put in Cache valley with the church cattle, and those of other individuals, numbering about two thousand five hundred head, with some forty or fifty horses, some six or eight of which were mine. When the snow fell in that valley about ten inches deep, the fatter portion of the cattle broke and came over into Box Elder and Weber valleys, and scattered hither and thither. It is supposed that one-half of those two thousand five hundred head are dead. Whether mine are all dead I know not. My John horse fled out of that valley down on the Weber and died. Old Jim, Elk, Kit and Kurley remained in Cache valley, and they were with about forty head of other horses when last seen, but they have not been heard of for a considerable time, and whether living or dead we know not. The snow is about waist deep in that valley. Week before last, Heber and some other boys started to go there, but when they got to the divide between that valley and Box Elder, the snow was about twelve feet deep, and they were obliged to return. Heber found the Lize mare and your two mules on the Weber, and brought them home. They were so poor that they almost staggered.
"The Carr boys have lost most all of their cattle, as they were in Cache valley. Old Daddy Stump went there also, and most of his died. Brother Shurtliff had some ninety cows of Brother Brigham's, and he says that they are all dead except ten or a dozen. Brothers Hooper and Williams told me that they had lost about seven hundred head. Mr. Kerr, a Gentile, told me that he had six or seven hundred head, and they were all dead. Messrs. Gilbert and Gerrish had about as many, and they are all dead, as are also Livingston and Bell's, and, from the accounts from all the brethren north of this place, we learn that they have lost half of their stock, and this destruction seems to be more or less throughout the Territory, and many cattle and horses are dying in the city There may be more or less of these cattle living, but they are scattered from the Malad to this place. There are some forty head of cattle on the Island, probably living.
"Some of the Indians have killed some cattle in Utah Valley. Judge Drummond, being there, issued a writ for them. T—— J—— had the writ, and summoned a posse, without consulting Brother Brigham, and, anxious to obtain a few dimes from Uncle Sam, went over to Cedar Valley, and came to the lodge where the Indians were. Battest drew his rifle upon George Parish, who warded it off on firing, and one of the brethren drew a revolver, and shot Battest through the head, and he fell dead. In a very short time after this three of our brethren were found dead; one of their names was Carson. They were herd boys. Brother Hunsaker's son has never been found yet—supposed to be dead. Last evening we received news that two more of the brethren were dead, and one mortally wounded, and that the horses were taken from the company who were going to get back some of the cattle from the Indians. It happened in the cedars, between Rush and Cedar valleys, the brethren not expecting any Indians were anywhere about.
"The more reckless portion of the Indians have gathered together, and taken something over one hundred head of cattle and horses, and the last we heard, they were making their way toward the Sevier, taking the west side of the mountains, on the borders of the desert. General Wells has issued orders to Gen. Cownover to raise men and pursue them, and take away the cattle from them. We have received no news as yet from this company. This difficulty has arisen from our Judges, Kinney and Drummond, and some of our foolish brethren who are ready to run at their nod.
"There have been courts in session here for weeks and weeks, and I suppose that one hundred and fifty or two hundred of the brethren have been hanging around, with the council house filled to the brim. This scenery continuing for a long time, one day Brother Brigham sent Thomas Bullock to take their names, for the purpose of giving them missions, if they had not anything to do of any more importance. So Brother Brigham counseled me to make a selection—for Los Vegas some thirty, who are ordered to sell their possessions and go with their families as soon as the weather will permit, for the purpose of going down on to the Rio Virgin to raise cotton; Another company of forty-eight to go to Green River to strengthen up that settlement, make farms, build mills, etc., and some thirty-five or forty to go north to Salmon River, where Thomas J. Smith is, to strengthen up that post; some thirty to go to Carson Valley to strengthen that post; some thirty to go into the lead business near the Los Vegas; and eight to go to the East Indies. There are eighteen called to Europe, and seven to Australia.
"We left Fillmore on the day of the adjournment of the Legislature, which took place at five o'clock A. M. We got home in about four days.
"The Deseret Dramatic Association are now performing on the evenings of Wednesdays and Saturdays; "She stoops to Conquer" comes off for the second time to-morrow night. A benefit to Bernard Snow is to be given on Monday night, when will be played, 'Virginius.'
"Brother Smoot has made a selection of one hundred men, principally young men, to go back with ox teams to fetch on the Church goods that lie in Missouri and St. Louis, if there are cattle enough left alive to do so. Your brother David, Brigham Young, Jr., and George Grant's son George, will go with them.
"Heber and Phoebe are living with Ruth and Christeen. Heber is a very steady, good boy, and takes a great burden from my shoulders, by waiting on the family and seeing to things.
"You can say to the brethren that I see their wives occasionally at the public places. They are all well so far as I know; I have all I can do and no time to visit. Say to all the brethren that they are most kindly remembered by me. I would be glad to write to them all.
"This letter is for the benefit of all, as it gives the generalnews. We shall expect to see you home next season, as BrotherBrigham has sent word, which you will get before you get this.
"God bless Brother Franklin, Brother Spencer, yourself, with all the rest of the brethren. Your dear mother is sitting beside me and wishes to be remembered kindly to her son William.
"Brother Brigham and all the brethren are well and would say, ifthey were present, Amen.
"From your father in the gospel of your Lord and Savior JesusChrist, to his son, William H. Kimball.
The story is continued in his letter of a later date, as follows:
"GREAT SALT LAKE CITY,"April 13th, 1856.
"My Son William:
"We have not received a line from you or Daniel since August 19th, and all the news that we have received was from a business letter that came from Franklin, by the last southern mail. * * * * *
"As to matters at home, things are going on in peace, with the exception of the disturbances with some of the Utes. They have killed eight of our brethren in Utah, and drove away many cattle and horses.
"The times are said to be more close this season than they have ever been in the valleys; and this is universal through all the settlements. There are not more than one-half of the people that have bread, and they have not more than one-half or one-quarter of a pound a day to a person. A great portion of the people are digging roots, and hundreds and thousands, their teams being dead, are under the necessity of spading their ground to put in their grain. There is a pretty universal break with our merchants, as there is no one to buy their goods, and their stock are mostly dead. My family, with yours, have only one-half a pound of bread-stuff to a person, a day. We have vegetables and a little meat. We are doing first rate, and have no cause but to be very thankful; still I feed hundreds of others, a little, or they must suffer. Brother Brigham, myself, and others have been crying unto this people for more than three years, to lay up their grain for a time when they would have much need of it. My family, with yours, I can say with propriety, look more healthy, and fair, and rugged, and athletic, than they did when they had plenty to eat. * *
"I shall be very glad when you return home to take a little of my burden off my shoulders, for it has been extremely hard for me and your mother to calculate, devise and administer to near one hundred that are dependent on us, besides hundreds of others that are teasing us constantly for something to eat; still your father has got a spirit in him that is like an old lion, that endures by the help of the Almighty; but your mother is very sympathetic, and it gives her much sorrow, not because your children and mine cry for bread, but because of others. There was no need of my rationing my family, but I did it for the sake of keeping hundreds of others alive. I foresaw these times more than three years ago, and prepared myself, more or less, for it.
* * * * * *
"This people have been told to build forts around their cities, and gather up together and be one, and to build store-houses and lay up grain to last seven years, and hundreds of other things. Have they done it? No. What is the consequence? Eight more of our brethren slain! No bread! No clothing except what we buy of the ungodly, when they are universally taught to make their clothing, so that we may be independent of any of the nations; for the connection between us and the world will be closed, in a measure. This you and your brethren in the old world can see through a glass clearly, not darkly. War, death, desolation of nations, famine and desolating sickness, are becoming prevalent throughout the old world, and in the United States it will be more so, and that soon, and they (the United States) will have all they can do to attend to their own concerns at home, without troubling themselves about the Mormons.
"At our April conference there were about three hundred missionaries selected for different missions; some thirty or forty to go to Europe and the United States, and about one hundred to Carson Valley, to try to sustain that place; a large company to Green River, another to Los Vegas and another to Salmon River. All business is given up for the present on the public works. Not much of any building is going on in the city, as all mechanics are advised to go to tilling the earth. The majority of the people feel well; your mother's health is rather poor, still she is about. I see Mary and Melissa and the children every day. Helen, your sister, has just come in with the little Vilate—well, Heber, David and all the boys, with all the family, are well, and say, 'Give my kind love to brother William, and all the faithful Elders.' I am still continuing my own improvements, making good rock fence and setting out many fruit trees.
"Now I will come to a close by saying, God bless you and Franklin,Daniel and all in that land, and all that believe on your words.Even so, amen.
And thus did this father in Israel not only give to the people the word of the Lord in time for a general provision against the day of famine, but when it came, his patriarchal care and benevolence were the means of preserving many from absolute want, and some perhaps from starvation.
The year 1856 witnessed another calamity, upon the harrowing details of which it would indeed be painful to dwell. It was the year of the famous hand-cart emigration, in which several hundred souls, overtaken by winter on the plains, perished in the snows and from starvation.
On hearing of the situation of these poor emigrants, the most strenuous efforts were made by the authorities and the people in the Valley to rescue them from their terrible fate. Presidents Young, Kimball and others despatched all their teams, loaded with bedding and provisions, to the relief of the sufferers, and prayers in public and in private were offered up throughout the entire Territory for the deliverance of the unfortunate companies from the destruction impending over them.
Among those sent out to meet the hand-carts, were two of the sons of President Kimball, William H. and David P., the former of whom had just arrived home from England; also Joseph A. Young, George W. Grant and others. These brave men by their heroism—for it was at the peril of their own lives that they thus braved the wintry storms on the plains—immortalized themselves, and won the undying gratitude of hundreds who were undoubtedly saved by their timely action from perishing.
David P. Kimball, George W. Grant and C. Allen Huntington carried upwards of five hundred of these emigrants on their backs across the Sweetwater, breaking the thin ice of the frozen river before them, as they waded from shore to shore. The effects of the severe colds then contracted by these brethren, remained with them, and finally conduced to the death of the two former, while the survivor, Brother Huntington, is a sufferer from the same cause to this day.
The situation and sufferings of the emigrants were the main theme of the Tabernacle discourses at the time. President Kimball thus refers to them on the 2nd of November of that fatal year:
"Some find fault with and blame Brother Brigham and his council, because of the sufferings they have heard that our brethren are enduring on the plains. * * But let me tell you most emphatically that if all who were entrusted with the care and management of this year's immigration had done as they were counseled and dictated by the First Presidency of this Church, the sufferings and hardships now endured by the companies on their way here would have been avoided. Why? Because they would have left the Missouri river in season, and not have been hindered until into September. * * Our brethren and sisters on the plains are in my mind all the time, and Brother Brigham has given, to those who wish it, the privilege of going back to help bring them in. If I do not go myself I will send a team, though I have already sent back nearly all my teams, and so has Brother Brigham. Those who have gone back never will be sorry for or regret having done so. If brothers Joseph A. Young, my son William H., George D. Grant, and my son David P. had not gone to the assistance of those now on the plains I should always have regretted it. If they die during the trip, they will die while endeavoring to save their brethren; and who has greater love than he that lays down his life for his friends?"
"Were I in the situation of some of you, I would not sleep another night before starting to the assistance of the people that are now struggling through the snow. * * As Brother Brigham has said, I would rather be helping in those on the plains than be here, if circumstances and duty would permit. We offered our offering and started to go but the Lord ordered it otherwise and we came home. But we have done a better work than if we had gone. * * There would have been no general stir in behalf of our brethren on the plains; but scores and hundreds have now gone to meet them, and they have had good weather so far, have they not?"
The last of the hand-cart companies, the fifth one of the season, commanded by Edward Martin, arrived in Salt Lake City about the 1st of December. They had numbered nearly six hundred souls at starting, but lost over one-fourth of their number by death.
Let the curtain fall over the tragic scene.
During the exciting period of the "Utah War," the subject of which, treated at length, would cover the four years from 1857 to 1861, the time of the sojourn of "Johnston's army" in the valley, Heber was one with Brigham in the bold yet patriotic stand taken by Zion's leader in repelling the hostile invasion. We need not dwell upon the oft-told tale. President Kimball was a man of peace, and not of war, and, though not lacking in courage, preferred to battle with error and the powers of evil, than with his fellow-men.
In the spring of 1858, when the Saints, to the number of 30,000, abandoned their homes at the approach of the army, President Kimball accompanied the exodus of his people south as far as Provo, whence he returned, after peace was assured, to his home in Salt Lake City early in July. The soldiers had marched quietly through the deserted city, crossed the Jordan, and camped at Cedar Valley, forty miles south-west, opposite the town of Lehi, where they founded Camp Floyd, afterwards renamed Fort Crittenden, and occupied it until the autum of 1861, when the troops were withdrawn to take part in the war of the Great Rebellion.[A]
[Footnote A: General A. S. Johnston, who led this army to Utah, fell at the battle of Shiloh, April 6th, 1862, fighting on the side of the Confederacy. He was a brave and brilliant soldier, and one of the recognized great generals of the war.]
Apropos of the war:—In an old memorandum book belonging to President Kimball, in which he sometimes noted down his thoughts, appears the following:
"GREAT SALT LAKE CITY,"March 27th, 1859.
"The word of the Lord to me, Heber C. Kimball. At 9 o'clock in the evening the Lord said to me that division would take place between the north and south within six years, and much blood would be spilt, and I should live to see it."
A few leaves from President Kimball's domestic life will now be in order. His was one of the most interesting, as likewise one of the most numerous families in the Church. Like the patriarchs and prophets of old, whose example he religiously followed, he was the husband of many wives and the head of a multitudinous posterity.
Moreover, it is safe to say that no family in Israel, in its domestic relations, better exemplified the true nature and purpose of the polygamic principle, than the family of Heber C. Kimball.
That much of this was due to his wise government and upright example, none who knew him will doubt, but that it was also largely the result of the nobility of character displayed by the true and faithful women who honored him as husband, father and friend, there is as little room for question. We can only regret that circumstances uncontrollable prevent our dwelling in detail upon their heroic lives and virtues. Only here and there an incident, by modesty reluctantly supplied, has been furnished in response to solicitation for the purposes of this work.
We are enabled, however, to present in this chapter a complete list of the members of Heber's family, the names of the wives and children which God had given him, with whatever incidents relating to them that have come into the author's possession.
Reference has already been made to the fact that, before leaving Nauvoo, Heber, like many of his brethren, had entered upon his career as a polygamic patriarch. The story of Sarah Noon, his second wife, has been partly told in a former chapter. The other wives we cannot name in their order, but will speak of them in proceeding as the course of our narrative suggests.
VILATE MURRAY,*[A] Heber's first wife, was the mother of ten children.Their names are as follows:
[Footnote A: The star attached to names in this chapter signifies deceased.]
Judith Marvin,*William Henry,Helen Mar,Roswell Heber,*Heber Parley,*David Patten,*Charles Spaulding,Brigham Willard,*Solomon Farnham,Murray Gould.*
Heber's children by Sarah Noon were:
Adelbert Henry,*Sarah Helen,*Heber.*
Sarah, it will be remembered, was a widow with two little daughters when he married her. The names of these children were Betsy and Harriet Noon.
After the death of the Prophet Joseph, who had also taken many wives, most of his widows were married, for time, to Brigham, Heber and others of the martyr's brethren. The wives of the Prophet who wedded Heber C. Kimball were Sarah Ann Whitney,* eldest daughter of Bishop N. K. Whitney; Lucy Walker, Prescindia Huntington, Sarah Lawrence, Mary Houston, Martha McBride.+[A] Sylvia P. Sessions,* Nancy Maria Smith+ and Sarah Scott.+
[Footnote A: Names marked thus, whether living or dead, unknown.]
The children of the first-named are as follows:
David,* } died in infancyDavid O.,* } died in infancyDavid Heber,Newel Whitney,Horace Heber,Maria,Joshua,
Newel has fulfilled a mission to the Southern States, and is now an acting Bishop of the Church in Logan, Cache County, Utah.
Heber's wife Lucy bore to him:—
Rachel Sylvia,*John H.,Willard H.,*Lydia H.,Anna S.,Eliza,Washington,Franklin H.*
It is related that during the illness of the boy Willard, who died in infancy, his father and another Elder were administering to him, when the latter began to promise life, a speedy recovery, etc., to the little sufferer. In the midst of it Heber, seized with a sudden inspiration, cried: "Hold!" The Elder paused, they took their hands from off the child's head, and he died in a few minutes.
"AUNT PRESCINDIA," who is a notable woman in Israel, with an unwritten history of great interest, is the mother of two children by Heber, namely:
Prescindia Celestia,*Joseph.
The latter is the Bishop of Meadowville, Rich County, Utah, and has been a member of the Territorial Legislature.
The other widows of the Prophet who married Heber, had no children by him.
Among his wives when he came out of Nauvoo, were Clarissa and Emily Cutler, sisters, both the daughters of Alpheus Cutler, who left the Church while at Winter Quarters. When the Saints removed to the Rocky Mountains, Clarissa and Emily remained with their father, each with an infant son in arms. Clarissa's child was named Abram A., and Emily's, Isaac A. Feeling impressed that their mothers would never come to the mountains, Heber, on leaving them to go west with the pioneers, blessed his little sons and, while his hands were upon Abram's head, prophesied that he would some day come to the home of his people, and would afterwards return for his brother Isaac.
There was a fatality in his father's words, as usual.
Fifteen years later, the mothers of both boys being dead, Abram came to Utah and joined the Church. He was baptized by Enoch Reese, under his father's direction. On returning to the house after his baptism, his father confirmed him, ordained him an Elder and set him apart for a mission to the states, to go and bring his brother to Utah, thus resealing the blessing bestowed upon him in his childhood. Abram fulfilled his mission and returned, bringing his brother with him. Isaac also was baptized, and he and Abram afterwards went upon missions to Great Britain. The latter is now Bishop of Kanosh, Millard County, Utah.
Another incident of a prophetic nature may here be noted. One of Heber's wives, Mary Ellen Abel, or "Aunt Mary Ellen" as she is familiarly known, had lived with him for fourteen years and no child had blessed their union. Her husband prophesied that she should bear a son, and his name should be Peter. In due time the son was born and named, but was not destined to live to grow to manhood. This was her only child.
RUTH REESE, another of Heber's wives, was the mother of:—
Susannah R.,*Jacob R.,*Enoch H.*
In memory we yet can hear the well-known voice of Grandfather Kimball, calling to his sons in stentorian tones: "Abraham! Isaac! Jacob! Come in to prayers!" For these names, with many others of Scriptural origin, were all included in his family nomenclature.
CHRISTEEN GOLDEN, who, with many others, was married to him in Nauvoo, was the mother of:—
Cornelia C.,*Jonathan Golden,Elias Smith,May Margaret.
Jonathan and Elias both have been on missions to the Southern States.The former is president of the Young Men's Mutual ImprovementAssociations of Bear Lake Stake. Elias was a member of the housebranch of the Utah Legislature during its twenty-eighth session,January, 1888.
The Gheen sisters, Anna* and Amanda were likewise among his "honorable women." The issue of the first marriage was as follows:—
Samuel H.,Daniel H.,Andrew H., } twins.Alice, } twins.Sarah.
Andrew fulfilled a long and faithful mission to the Indian Territory in 1885-6-7, and is still recognized as the president of that mission. He is the present administrator of the Kimball estate.
AMANDA'S children are:
William G.,Albert H.,Jeremiah,*Moroni.
"Jerry" was accidentally killed by falling from a railway train, between Fort Scott and Camas, Kansas, on the night of May 25th, 1887, while on his way to Europe to fulfill a mission.
The sisters Harriet and Ellen Sanders next occur to mind. The latter has already been mentioned as one of the three women who accompanied the pioneers from Winter Quarters to the Rocky Mountains in 1847.
HARRIET'S offspring:—
Harriet,*Hyrum H.,Eugene.
(Hyrum fulfilled an honorable mission to the Southern States.)
Samuel,*Joseph S,* } twins.Augusta,* } twins.Jedediah,Rosalia.
FRANCES SWAN,* one of Heber's wives who left him, was the mother of one child, a daughter named for herself.
Heber also married Martha Knight,+ by whom he had one child, a son; name unknown.
One of his last wives was Mary Smithies,* the same whom, in her infancy, in a far-off land, he had blessed and promised that she should live to become "a mother in Israel." Her children are:—
Melvina,James,*Wilford,Lorenzo,Abbie.
In the foregoing lists we have classed together the wives who were the mothers of his children. Besides these there were many others, most of them aged ladies and widows whom he merely supported, without living with them. Following is a list of their names:—
Mary Fielding Smith,*[A]
[Footnote A: Widow of Hyrum Smith, sealed to Heber for time.]
Margaret McMinn,*Hannah Moon,*Dorothy Moon,Adelia Wilcox,Huldah Barnes,Eliza Cravath,Mary Ann Shefflin,*Charlotte Chase,Theresa Morley,*Ruth L. Pierce,Maria Winchester,*Laura Pitkin,*Abigail Pitkin,*Ruth Wellington,*Abigail Buchanan,*Sophronia Harmon,*Sarah Stiles.+Elizabeth Hereford,+Rebecca Williams,+Sarah Buckwater.+Mary Dull.+
Thus it will be seen that Heber C. Kimball was the husband of forty-five wives,[A] and the father of sixty-five children. Truly a patriarchal household.
[Footnote A: At the funeral of his wife Vilate, Heber, pointing to the coffin, said: "There lies a woman who has given me forty-four wives."]
It may well be surmised that the government and support of a family of such dimensions were no small tax upon the wisdom, patience and provident care of even the wisest and most opulent. Forever banished be the thought—aspersion upon reason and consistency as it is—that self-seeking, ease-desiring human nature would take upon itself such burdens and responsibilities from any motive less honorable and pure than that which Mormonism maintains is the true one. Luxury and lust go frequently hand in hand; licentiousness and honest toil but rarely.
Heber C. Kimball was a man of industry, a man of virtue, of self-denial, who would sooner have thought of severing his right hand from his body, than to have cherished an unchaste sentiment, or sacrificed a principle to sin or selfish ease. He was often heard to declare that the plural order of marriage, with its manifold cares and perplexities, had cost him "bushels of tears."
Yet his was an exemplary family—as much so as any in all Israel, polygamous or otherwise. His wives loved each other as sisters, and dwelt together in peace and unity; while his children, especially the males, sons of various mothers, clung together with an affection all but clannish in its intensity. Woe betide the luckless wight, who, even in childhood's days, imposed upon a "Kimball boy." The whole family of urchins would resent the insult, and that, too, with pluckiness surpassing even their numbers.
Family prayer was an institution in the Kimball household. Morning and evening the members were called in to surround the family altar and offer up praise and petitions to the Throne of Grace. It is a common remark to this day that such prayers are seldom heard as were wont to issue from the heart and lips of Heber C. Kimball. Reverence for Deity was one of the cardinal qualities of his nature. Nevertheless, it was noticeable that the God to whom he prayed was a being "near at hand and not afar off." He worshiped not as "a worm of the dust," hypocritically meek and lowly, or as one conscious of naught but the meanness of his nature, and the absence of merit in his cause. But in a spirit truly humble, confessing his sins, yet knowing something of the nobility of his soul, he talked with God "as one man talketh with another;" and often with the ease and familiarity of an old-time friend.
On one occasion, while offering up an earnest appeal in behalf of certain of his fellow-creatures, he startled the kneeling circle by bursting into a loud laugh in the very midst of his prayer. Quickly regaining his composure and solemn address, he remarked, apologetically: "Lord, it makes me laugh to pray about some people."
Heber loved his children, and was justly proud of his numerous and noble posterity. If at times he appeared stern, and was severe in his correction, it was not that he loved them less, but their welfare and salvation more. He made no compromise with sin, but nipped it in the bud, though the soil wherein it grew were the hearts of his dearest friends and relations. His greatest desire for his family was that they should be humble, virtuous and God-fearing. The riches, fashions, and even culture of the world were as nothing in his eyes, compared with honesty, morality and the treasures of eternal truth.
Nor was he morose and sullen, because thus sober-minded and religious. Mingling with his deeply earnest, profoundly solemn nature was a keen sense of humor, a continuous play of mirth, like sunlight gilding the edges of a cloud.
One day (it was July 23rd, 1864, and a grand celebration of Pioneer day was on the tapis) he drove down to the shop of James Lawson the blacksmith, to have some repairing done to his carriage, a long vehicle with seats on either side. He had about fifteen of his boys in the carriage, all urchins ranging from ten to thirteen years.
"James," said he, with a merry twinkle in his eye, "I have no shoes for these boys, and I'm going to have them out in the procession to-morrow in this carriage, so that their feet can't be seen."
Then, with a proud glance at his youthful progeny, he added: "There is a load of Elders; I have ordained them all myself."
He often took his children into his confidence, giving them practical lessons in the virtues he desired them to cultivate. His son David H. relates the following:
"One day President Young made a call upon father for $1,000., for some public purpose, and not having the ready cash, he was at a loss to know where to get it. At his suggestion we went down in the garden and bowed ourselves in prayer, father calling upon the Lord to direct him in the matter. We then arose and started down the street, and he remarked that the Lord would answer our prayer and direct him aright. When even with Godbe's corner, William Godbe came out of his store and told him that, in looking through his safe, he had come across about $1,000 in gold-dust, belonging to him, which his son Heber P. had left there for him some time before, though father until then knew nothing about it."
In the Spring of 1866 his son, Col. H. P. Kimball, was called into southern Utah at the head of a company of minute men, to aid in subduing the Indians in the Black Hawk War. His son David P. was also called, but having just returned from a mission to England, with his brother Charles, he was honorably released, and his younger brother, Solomon, sent in his stead. The evening before they started, Heber called their mother, Vilate, and her children into his room, and spent several hours with them, giving them much good counsel and explaining to them the relationship of the Lamanites, as a branch of the house of Israel, with the latter-day work, and the important part they were destined to play in this dispensation. He then blessed Heber and Solomon, and promised them in the name of the Lord that they should not see an Indian while they were gone.
This promise, though meant for their welfare, and, it may be added, for the welfare of the Lamanites as well, was quite a disappointment to the two brothers, who were anxious, not only to see the Indians, but to have a "brush" with them. Solomon had often heard of a fight which his brother William and others had had with the red men in Battle Creek Canyon, some years before, in which William had the horn of his saddle punctured by a bullet while ascending the ravine, thus narrowly escaping being wounded or killed. Solomon had seen the saddle, which had a romantic charm for him, and he now wanted to see the Indians. The remainder of the story we will give in his own words:
"We were gone ninety days and rode hundreds of miles, following the tracks of different bands of hostile Indians, and were close upon them a great many times. They were attacking settlements all around us, killing the settlers and driving off stock. At one time, after the Indians had made a raid on Round Valley (Scipio) killing one man and running off five hundred head of stock, Col. Kimball left a part of his command at Thistle Valley to hold the fort at that place, while he went to intercept the Indians on the Sevier River. We had gone but a few hours, when the Indians made a raid on the fort at Thistle Valley, running off all their horses, killing one of the party and wounding another.
"After our company returned home we were drawn up in line in front of the Court House, where President Young, my father, and others came down to see us. Father, looking at Heber and myself, whose clothing and countenances showed hard service, asked us if we had seen an Indian while we were gone. Our humiliating reply was, 'No.' He laughed and said, 'Didn't I tell you so?' and then added: 'I would rather have them kill you, than to have one of my sons shed their blood.'"
But a volume might be filled with incidents of like character in his experience, and then the half remain untold. Suffice this, at present, for his inner life and private family history.
Preaching, colonizing, traveling through the settlements, encouraging the Saints in their toils and sacrifices; sitting in council among the leaders of Israel; ministering in sacred and holy places, and otherwise laboring for and blessing the Lord's people:—so wore away the remaining years of Heber C. Kimball on this planet. His name was literally "a household word" in Israel. "Brother Heber" was everywhere honored and beloved. Even the Gentiles esteemed him, admiring his honesty and outspoken candor, let him lash as he might with the whip of his tongue, the wrong-doer outside, or the hypocrite inside the Church. Loved and honored as are few men in this life, he returned in measure full to overflowing the affection of the hearts which God had given him.
At this point in our history we deem it proper to introduce a series of anecdotes and reminiscences relating to President Kimball, nearly all of which were contributed, at the author's invitation, especially for this work. These flowers of incident culled from the gardens of recollection, cannot fail to interest the reader, while they illustrate, as nothing else could, the character and conduct of this remarkable man.
The first is from Brother N. B. Baldwin, of Fillmore, who writes as follows:
"My first acquaintance with Elder Kimball was in Zion's Camp, in the Spring and Summer of 1834. The following winter the young and middle-aged Elders, all who conveniently could, were called in to attend school in Kirtland, Ohio. William E. McLellin was the teacher of the grammar classes, grammar being then taught on the Kirkham plan, by lecture and repetition. Our class consisted of Joseph Smith (who, in the absence of the teacher at other duties, took charge of the class), David W. Patten, Heber C. Kimball, Benjamin Winchester, Nathan B. Baldwin and others that I do not now recollect.
"It seemed to be very hard for Brother Kimball to memorize sentences by hearing them repeated. One time when he was thus at fault, Joseph, in a jocular mood, said to him; 'Repeat that correctly, or I will take a stick and whip you as I would a little child.'
"With his model meekness, Brother Kimball smilingly said; 'Well, you may whip me.'
"'Yes,' said Joseph, 'it would be just about like whipping a little child. YOU ARE JUST AS INNOCENT AS A LITTLE CHILD.'"
This simple anecdote furnishes not only a key to the character of Heber C. Kimball, showing his native meekness and veneration, but also an evidence of the estimation in which he was held by the Prophet, even at that early day. Jesus said that "except ye become as little children ye shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven."
ELDER WILLIAM B. BARTON contributes the following:
"It was my happy privilege, while filling a mission to England in 1874-5-6 to receive my appointment to labor in the Liverpool Conference. This conference included, among others, a few branches that were left of the once flourishing conferences of Clithero and Preston. I realized that I was traveling on historic ground. I found some few Saints still in that land, who were personally acquainted with the early Elders and Apostles who first preached and established the gospel in Preston; and I found that while all were kindly remembered, none had made as indelible and lasting an impression on their minds as Brother Heber C. Kimball. They pointed out with pleasure and reverence the places where he and others had stood forth proclaiming the restored gospel. Among these were the Market-place, the Cock Pit, and the Rev. James Fielding's Chapel. I was fortunate in securing a photograph of this chapel, but had no idea at the time that it would ever be used to illustrate a history of the founder of the British mission.
"This Mr. Fielding and a Mr. Aitken were two of twelve men who had united together and made a vow that they would neither eat nor drink until the Lord revealed to them whether he would raise up His Church in their day. The Lord did make known to them that he had already established His Church on the earth, and in due time His servants would be sent with authority to preach and baptize. Brother Kimball visited Mr. Aitken and bore a powerful testimony of the truth, and prophesied to him that if he rejected the message of salvation, he would lose his influence, his flock would leave him, and he would go down; all of which was fulfilled to the very letter, with regard to him and Mr. Fielding also. Mr. Fielding had commenced to build a more commodious church, but he never finished it, and he himself was for a long time an inmate of Grosvenor hospital; a place where unfortunate and aged clergymen spent their declining years."
"Among the early converts of Apostle Kimball in that land were the sisters Mary Ann and Margaret Heaton Topping, whose parents were opposed to and never joined the Church. Brother Kimball counseled them to obey their parents, and told them that the time would come when they would cease to object to their attending the meetings of the Saints. Said he: 'When I say come, come, and all will be well,' which promise was literally fulfilled. He warned one of these sisters not to marry a young man she was engaged to, as he would apostatize and leave the Church, and told her that her future husband was not then in the Church, but would come in and remain faithful; and, said he, 'You shall see the man you are going to marry at the conference that I will notify you to attend.' These remarkable promises were all fulfilled, and Sister Topping is alive to-day to bear witness of their truth."
BROTHER CHARLES HUBBARD, an old friend of Heber's, whom he mentions repeatedly in his history, relates this incident:
"As is well known, President Brigham Young, when he crossed the Mississippi River from Montrose, in September, 1839, and started on his mission to England, was very sick. He was brought to the house of Heber C. Kimball, in Nauvoo. Brother Kimball was also sick with the same disease (ague) but after the fever went off he climbed upon his house and was trying to finish the roof, when his brother missionary (Brigham) came out to walk a little to try his strength. In the effort he fainted and fell to the ground. Brother Kimball, not having strength to lift him, called to me, just across the river, to come and help assist Brother Brigham into the house, where, after placing him upon the bed, we administered to him and he recovered consciousness. When I left, Brother Heber followed me to the door and said:
"'Charley, I doubt very much if Brigham ever rises from that bed.'
"But he had no sooner uttered the words, than he spoke up, as with another voice, and said, 'Heshalllive, and shall start upon this mission with me to-morrow morning.' And they did start the very next morning, on their mission to England.'"
ELDER JACOB HAMBLIN leaves the following on record:
"At the April conference I, with others, was called on a mission to the Indians in Southern Utah, in 1854. We commenced our labors at a place we called Harmony.
"About the end of May of that year, President B. Young, Heber C. Kimball, P. P. Pratt and others, to the number of twenty persons, came to visit us. President Young gave much instruction, etc. Brother Kimball prophesied that if the brethren were united they would be prospered and blessed, but if they permitted the spirit of strife and contention to come into their midst, the place would come to an end in a scene of bloodshed.
"Previous to this meeting, President Young asked some brethren who had been into the country south of Harmony, if they thought a wagon road could be made down to the Rio Virgin. Their replies were very discouraging, but in the face of this report Brother Kimball prophesied in this meeting that a road would be made from Harmony over the Black Ridge, and a Temple would be built on the Rio Virgin, and the Lamanites would come from the east side of the Colorado River and get their endowments in it. All these prophecies have been fulfilled."
One of the Elders laboring in the Manti Temple writes:
"In an early day when President Young and party were making the location of a settlement here, President Heber C. Kimball prophesied that the day would come when a temple would be built on this hill. Some disbelieved and doubted the possibility of even making a settlement here. Brother Kimball said, 'Well, it will be so, and more than that, the rock will be quarried from that hill to build it with, and some of the stone from that quarry will be taken to help complete the Salt Lake Temple.' On July 28th, 1878, two large stones, weighing respectively 5,600 and 5,020 pounds, were taken from the Manti stone quarry, hauled by team to York, the U. C. R. R. terminus then, and shipped to Salt Lake City to be used for the tablets in the east and west ends of the Salt Lake City Temple.
"At a conference held in Ephraim, Sanpete County, June 25th, 1875, nearly all the speakers expressed their feelings to have a temple built in Sanpete County, and gave their views as to what point and where to build it, and to show the union that existed, Elder Daniel H. Wells said 'Manti,' George Q. Cannon, Brigham Young, Jr., John Taylor, Orson Hyde, Erastus Snow, Franklin D. Richards, Lorenzo Young, and A. M. Musser said 'Manti stone quarry.' I have given the names in the order in which they spoke. At 4 p. m. that day President Brigham Young said: 'The Temple should be built on Manti stone quarry.' Early on the morning of April 25th, 1877, President Brigham Young asked Brother Warren S. Snow to go with him to the Temple hill. Brother Snow says; 'We two were alone: President Young took me to the spot where the Temple was to stand; we went to the southeast corner, and President Young said; 'Here is the spot where the prophet Moroni stood and dedicated this piece of land for a Temple site, and that is the reason why the location is made here, and we can't move it from this spot; and if you and I are the only persons that come here at high noon to-day, we will dedicate this ground."
The late George Nebeker said that President Kimball told him, many years ago, that he would live to see the kings and great ones of the earth pass by his door. Brother Nebeker resided in the nineteenth ward. The railway at that time was not thought of in Utah. But the iron horse now rushes along the street immediately in front of Brother Nebeker's family residence, and he himself lived to see such celebrities as President Grant, the Emperor of Brazil and other royal and great ones literally pass by his door.
MRS. MAMIE HOOPER JENNINGS, daughter of the late Captain Hooper, relates:
"Brother Kimball gave my father a half dollar, telling him that as long as he kept it he should never want for money. Father placed faith in the promise, and testified often that he had realized its truth; he had never wanted for money, in any sum, from that time."
"He said to me one day, taking up a small stick from the ground, 'You see this stick. If it had remained down there you never would have noticed that there was any dirt clinging to it. But now that I hold it up you observe it is covered with dirt. It is just so when a man is put into office. He may be just as clean before he gets there as those around him, but his being lifted up above them makes his faults more manifest, and he is far more apt to be criticised than before.'"
The veteran Bishop, A. H. RALEIGH, speaks thus from his exile:
"Having fortunately been privileged with a personal acquaintance with the late Heber C. Kimball, from the early days of Nauvoo to the time of his decease, a period of about twenty-five years, I venture confidently to submit that no stronger or more forcible illustration of the peculiarity of his character can be presented than the notable eccentricity manifested in the subdivisions of plat E. Salt Lake City, which he fashioned by personally directing city surveyor J. W. Fox, Sen., in laying out and platting, and myself in naming the streets, while drafting the resolution which, when passed by the City Council, made it a legal survey. Though it has undergone some slight changes in the remodeling of a few lots, as also a few streets, and changing a few of these names, with a small addition to the plat, far the most of the original remains to be a lasting monument to his memory. The great variety of form and size of lots, involving corners, angles, widths and lengths of streets, together with their peculiar names, almost exhausting the names of the fruit and vegetable kingdom, are all characteristic of the man, familiarly called 'Brother Heber,' ever evincing a strong desire to imitate nature in its eternal variety and beauty; the same in his plain, easy, natural demeanor in his daily intercourse with his fellows, either in public or private life, giving evidence of the presence of one of nature's noblemen, one of the noblest works of God,—an honest man."
FATHER J. L. HEYWOOD writes from Panguitch:
"Brother Kimball was naturally of a jovial turn of mind. When working at the pottery business he would sometimes use a chip to turn his crocks, remarking that he 'did not care who stole his trade, as long as they did not steal his tools.'
"In relation to some protuberances on his forehead he remarked that they were the 'horns of Joseph' with which to push the people together, referring to his labors as an Apostle.
"President B. Young once said that Brother Kimball could go to the city of Washington, D.C., and build up a church, and the way he would do it was by beginning so small."
"One day he entered the Union Academy, taught by Dr. Doremus, and taking off his high-crowned straw hat that he used so much to wear, made a profound bow to the school, without saying a word. Then, while the students were gazing at him with fixed eyes and open mouths, he said solemnly: 'Boys; never call your fatherthe old man.' With another polite bow, and without saying another word, he turned and left the hall. The impression made by his presence and laconic speech was most profound."
"President Kimball's hat blew off on Main Street, one day, and as he was pursuing it, one of a party of men with whom he had been conversing on the corner, laughed at him. Stopping in his chase, he turned around and addressing that person said: 'Never mind; your hat will blow off some day, but your head will be in it.' The man to whom he spoke afterwards apostatized."
"I heard father prophecy that a certain Elder would lose all his means and die a poor man, because he neglected his spiritual duties to attend to his temporal affairs. I have seen that prophecy fulfilled."
JAMES LAWSON'S narrative:
"In 1855, Heber C. Kimball sent for me (I had just been married thirteen days) and said, 'Brother James' I want you to give your wife Betsy a divorce,' I said, 'Brother Kimball what is the matter? There is nothing wrong with us, and we think everything of each other?' He said, 'Nothing is the matter, but here is the divorce and I want you to sign it.' I signed it and he told me to send her home to her mother (Sarah Noon[A]) which I did. At the same time I asked her if she had been making any complaints to Bro. Kimball against me. She said, 'Never, to anybody.' I did not sleep a wink that night, and no one knows what I suffered in my feelings. I prayed frequently to the Lord and enquired of Him what all this meant. Towards morning I received an answer to my prayers. The Spirit said unto me, 'Be comforted, my servant James, all will come out right.' Soon after this Brother Kimball went to the Legislature, which was held at Fillmore, and was absent from home about two months. When he returned he gave me a mission to Carson Valley and told me to get Betsy and bring her to the Endowment House with me. I did so and he sealed us for time and all eternity.
[Footnote A: Heber's first plural wife.]
"After this took place I said, 'Brother Kimball what did you do that for?' He said, 'Brother James, I did it to try you as I was tried. I will tell you. After I had returned from my second mission to England in 1841, the Prophet Joseph came to me one evening and said, 'Brother Heber, I want you to give Vilate to me to be my wife,' saying that the Lord desired this at my hands.' Heber said that in all his life before he had never had anything take hold of him like that. He was dumbfounded. He went home, and did not eat a mouthful of anything, nor even touch a drop of water to his lips, nor sleep, for three days and nights. He was almost continually offering up his prayers to God and asking him for comfort. On the evening of the third day he said, 'Vilate, let's go down to the Prophet's' and they went down and met him in a private room. Heber said, 'Brother Joseph, here is Vilate.' The Prophet wept like a child, said Heber, and after he had cleared the tears away, he took us and sealed us for time and all eternity, and said, 'Brother Heber, take her, and the Lord will give you a hundred fold."
COL. ROBERT SMITH, a veteran friend of President Kimball's, and for many years almost like a member of his family, says:
"In 1857, I was working for Brother Heber and asked him for some goods, which he refused to let me have. Feeling bad over it, I went home and laid the matter before the Lord. The next morning when I came to work, Brother Heber called me into his room and said, 'Robert, what have you been complaining to the Lord for, about his servant Heber? Here are the things you asked me for, and after this don't go to the Lord about every little thing that happens."
"In the year 1855, he was moving a herd of sheep on to the Church Island, with a flat boat; the water was very shallow in some places and the boat got fastened on a sand-bar, and we could not get it off. There were about six of us in all. After working for some time and accomplishing nothing, Brother Heber returned to the shore, which was but a short distance, and getting behind some grease-wood he bowed down in prayer. Then coming back to the boat, he said, 'come boys, let's give her another trial, she'll move now.' All took hold and pushed and it went off the bar all right, and we arrived at the Island that night."
"At one time, putting his hand on his heart, he remarked that unless a man knew that Jesus was the Christ, he could not stand in this Church.
"He said that the Lord would allow all manner of abominations to come to Zion, in order to purify His people. This was in 1856.
"He saw in vision a U. S. Marshal in pursuit of one of his daughters, who had a small babe in her arms.[A]
[Footnote A: The heroine of this episode, which actually occurred, was Mrs. Melvina Kimball Driggs, wife of Bishop Apollos Driggs, one of the victims of the anti-polygamy crusade under the "Edmunds Law."]