THE FIRST PRESIDENCY REORGANIZED--HEBER ATTAINS TO "THE HONOR OF THE
THREE"--SECOND JOURNEY TO THE MOUNTAINS--SICKNESS AND DISTRESS--
HEBER'S CHARACTER AS A COLONIZER.
Another notable change in the eventful career of Heber C. Kimball. The
quorum of the First Presidency, which had remained vacant since the
death of Joseph, was now reorganized. Brigham Young, the chief Apostle
of the Twelve, was chosen President of the Church of Jesus Christ of
Latter-day Saints in all the world, with Heber C. Kimball and Willard
Richards as his counselors.
The subject of the reorganization had been considered by the leaders
soon after their return to Winter Quarters from the Valley, but it was
not until the fifth of December that the matter assumed definite
shape. At a feast and council held on that day at the house of Elder
Orson Hyde, who had presided at Winter Quarters during the absence of
the pioneers, the question was presented to the Apostles by President
Young. Those present were then called upon, in their order, to express
their views in relation to the subject, when Heber C. Kimball, Orson
Pratt, Wilford Woodruff, Willard Richards, George A. Smith, Amasa
Lyman, and Ezra T. Benson spoke to the question. President Young
closed.
Orson Hyde then moved that Brigham Young be President of the Church of
Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, and that he nominate his two
counselors to form the First Presidency. Wilford Woodruff seconded the
motion, and it was carried unanimously.
President Young then nominated Heber C. Kimball as his first
counselor, and Willard Richards as his second counselor, and the
nominations were unanimously sustained.
This action of the Apostles in their council was sustained by the
Saints in general conference assembled, on the 27th of December, 1847.
The conference lasted four days and was attended by at least one
thousand people. It was held in the new log tabernacle at Winter
Quarters, a building erected especially for the purpose. The
reorganization of the Presidency was confirmed at the October
conference of the following year, in Great Salt Lake City.
Apropos of this event:--In a patriarchal blessing upon the head of
Heber C. Kimball, given by the Patriarch Hyrum Smith, at Nauvoo, on
the 9th of March, 1842, the following language occurs: "You shall be
blest with a fulness and shall be not one whit behind the chiefest; as
an Apostle you shall stand in the presence of God to judge the people;
and as a Prophet you shall attain to THE HONOR OF THE THREE!"
On the 24th of May, 1848, the First Presidency organized the main body
of the Saints on the Elk Horn, preparatory to the second journey to
the Rocky Mountains. The camp consisted of six hundred wagons, the
largest pioneer company that had yet set out to cross the plains.
Under Brigham and Heber they were led in safety to Zion's mountain
retreat, arriving in Salt Lake Valley in September, 1848.
The journey, however, was one of severe trial to President Kimball and
his family. His daughter Helen, who had married Horace K. Whitney,
eldest son of Bishop Whitney, had lost by death her first babe, a
daughter, in the Spring of '47, while her husband was absent with the
pioneers; and in the journey of '48, she lost her second born, a son,
whom she considered as a little martyr. So great was the sorrow of the
poor mother over this second calamity, that she was not only brought
to death's door, but her reason was for a time overthrown. Vilate
herself was prostrated by her daughter's deep distress, and it was
only by dint of Heber's mighty faith and powerful will, that either of
them were kept alive. Again and again he administered to the
sufferers, praying that God would spare their lives, and declaring in
prophetic words to them and the whole camp that they "should not die."
Thus it was, throughout the entire journey to the mountains. That
season of dire trouble Heber and his family ever after looked back
upon as one of the extraordinary trials of his life.
But it also brought out the noble qualities of Vilate's sister wives,
who daily administered strength and succor to the family. For Heber,
prior to this, and even before leaving Nauvoo, had taken many wives,
and like Abraham and Jacob of old, had become the head of a
patriarchal house-hold. His family, at this time, including his
adopted children and those dependent upon him for support, numbered
over one hundred souls.
The residue of Heber C. Kimball's history is confined to the land
which his wives and children now inhabit, and where much of it that
may never be written by mortal pen is cherished as precious memories
in the hearts of tens of thousands. From here on, we are more than
ever compelled to cull from a superabundant variety of incidents the
leading events of a life which now saw some of its best and busiest
days.
During the remaining two decades of his mortal existence, his history,
so inseparably interwoven with that of the great work to which he had
given all his energy and heart's devotion, is largely the history, for
the same period, of the development of this intermountain region.
Though leaning in his temperament to the spiritual, he was also by
nature a colonizer, with the elements of a great leader in his
composition. Next to those of Brigham Young, will the name and fame of
Heber C. Kimball live in the hearts of God's people and forever shine
in the annals of Latter-day Israel as one of the foremost of that
hardy and heroic band, who, under God, redeemed and beautified this
barren waste, "making its wilderness like Eden, and its desert like
the garden of the Lord."