Life of Heber C. Kimball, an Apostle Part 45

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 s.h.i.+pped 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 pa.s.s 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 pa.s.s 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."

A FRIEND:

"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 ill.u.s.tration 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 fas.h.i.+oned 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 pa.s.sed 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 n.o.blemen, one of the n.o.blest works of G.o.d,--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 Was.h.i.+ngton, D.C., and build up a church, and the way he would do it was by beginning so small."

ELDER JUNIUS F. WELLS:

"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 father _the 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."

ELDER CHARLES W. STAYNER:

"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."

SOLOMON F. KIMBALL:

"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 G.o.d 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 accomplis.h.i.+ng nothing, Brother Heber returned to the sh.o.r.e, 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."]

"He said that this government would dissolve pretty much all the laws pa.s.sed by our legislature, and that the time would come when the government would stop the Saints from holding meetings. When this was done the Lord would pour out His judgments."

"At family prayers, just a little while before his death, he remarked that the angel Moroni had visited him the night before and informed him that his work on this earth was finished, and he would soon be taken."

FATHER O. N. LLILJENQUIST once said to the author:

"My first impression of President Kimball was far from favorable. He was preaching in the Tabernacle, and belaboring a certain man very severely, and I did not like his harshness. The next time I met him was in the Endowment House, and if ever I saw a man look like a G.o.d, and act as humble as a little child, that man was Heber C. Kimball.

All my prejudice vanished in a moment."

BISHOP JAMES WATSON:

"In 1864, soon after my arrival in Utah, I went with my brother Joseph to see President Kimball about a lot I desired to purchase. We found him at his mill on City Creek, superintending some workmen. Being introduced to him, I said: 'President Kimball, I wish to buy a lot which I am informed belongs to you.'

"Eyeing me in a very searching manner, he said: 'I have sold many lots and never received the pay for them,' and then turned away and resumed his directions to the workmen.

"I was very much hurt at his abrupt manner, especially as his words seemed to intimate that I was one who would not pay my debts, a reputation I had not earned. 'Have you any further business with me?'

he asked, turning towards me again, after the lapse of a few moments.

'No sir,' said I sternly, and walked away.

"Some time elapsed, and we did not meet, for I avoided him whenever I saw him coming. One day, however, we met face to face, he on his way to the Endowment House, and I near the Temple Block, where I was then working. Smiling amiably and reminding me that I had avoided him several times, he asked: 'Have you got a lot yet?' 'No sir,' I answered, coolly, although my blood was warmed by the recollection which his words called up. 'Well, you'll get one,' said he, 'and you'll get it of me, too.' (I inwardly resolved that I never would.) 'Yes, you'll come and get it of me,' he repeated, and we separated.

"Being determined that his words should not come to pa.s.s, (for I was not at all won over by his change of manner) I went and purchased a lot from a sister in the Church, paid her for it, and put up a house on the land. I then asked her for the deed, but she told me she did not have one.