AN ILLUSTRIOUS MORMON WOMAN--THE FIRST WIFE OF THE IMMORTAL HEBER C.
KIMBALL--OPENING CHAPTER OF HER AUTOBIOGRAPHY--HER WONDERFUL VISION--AN
ARMY OF ANGELS SEEN IN THE HEAVENS.
One of the very queens of Mormondom, and a woman beloved by the whole
church, during her long eventful lifetime, was the late Vilate Kimball.
To-day she sleeps by the side of her great husband, for Heber C.
Kimball was one of the world's remarkable men. He soon followed her to
the grave; a beautiful example she of the true love existing between
two kindred souls notwithstanding polygamy. Her sainted memory is
enshrined in the hearts of her people, and ever will be as long as the
record of the sisters endures.
"My maiden name," she says, in her autobiography, "was Vilate Murray. I
am the youngest daughter of Roswell and Susannah Murray. I was born in
Florida, Montgomery county, New York, June 1st, 1806. I was married to
Heber Chase Kimball November 7, 1822, having lived until that time with
my parents in Victor, Ontario county.
"After marriage my husband settled in Mendon, Monroe county. Here we
resided until we gathered in Kirtland in the fall of 1833.
"About three weeks before we heard of the latter-day work we were
baptized into the Baptist Church.
"Five elders of the Church of Latter-day Saints came to the town of
Victor, which was five miles from Mendon, and stopped at the house of
Phineas Young, the brother of Brigham. Their names were Eleazer Miller,
Elial Strong, Alpheus Gifford, Enos Curtis and Daniel Bowen.
"Hearing of these men, curiosity prompted Mr. Kimball to go and see
them. Then for the first time he heard the fullness of the everlasting
gospel and was convinced of its truth. Brigham Young was with him.
"At their meetings Brigham and Heber saw the manifestations of the
spirit and heard the gift of speaking and singing in tongues. They were
constrained by the spirit to bear testimony to the truth, and when they
did this the power of God rested upon them.
"Desiring to hear more of the saints, in January, 1832, Heber took his
horses and sleigh and started for Columbia, Bradford county, Penn.,
a distance of one hundred and twenty-five miles. Brigham and Phineas
Young and their wives went with him.
"They stayed with the church about six days, saw the power of God
manifested and heard the gift of tongues, and then returned rejoicing,
bearing testimony to the people by the way. They were not baptized,
however, until the following spring. Brigham was baptized on Sunday,
April 14th, 1832, by Eleazer Miller, and Heber C. Kimball was baptized
the next day.
"Just two weeks from that time I was baptized by Joseph Young, with
several others.
"The Holy Ghost fell upon Heber so greatly, that he said it was like
a consuming fire. He felt as though he was clothed in his right mind
and sat at the feet of Jesus; but the people called him crazy. He
continued thus for months, till it seemed his flesh would consume away.
The Scriptures were unfolded to his mind in such a wonderful manner by
the spirit of revelation that he said it seemed he had formerly been
familiar with them.
"Brigham Young and his wife Miriam, with their two little girls,
Elizabeth and Vilate, were at the time living at our house; but soon
after her baptism Miriam died. In her expiring moments, she clapped her
hands and praised the Lord, and called on all around to help her praise
him; and when her voice was too weak to be heard, her lips and hands
were seen moving until she expired.
"This was another testimony to them of the powerful effect of the
everlasting gospel, showing that we shall not die, but will sleep and
come forth in the resurrection and rejoice with her in the flesh.
"Her little girls sister Miriam left to my care, and I did all I could
to be a mother to her little ones to the period of our gathering to
Kirtland, and the marriage of Brigham to Miss Mary Ann Angell.
"The glorious death of sister Miriam caused us to rejoice in the
midst of affliction. But enemies exulted over our loss and threw many
obstacles in the way of our gathering with the saints.
"To my husband's great surprise some of the neighbors issued
attachments against his goods; yet he was not indebted to any of them
to the value of five cents, while there were some hundreds of dollars
due to him. However, he left his own debts uncollected, settled their
unjust claims, and gathered to Kirtland with the saints about the last
of September, 1832, in company with Brigham Young.
"Here I will relate a marvelous incident, of date previous to our
entering the church.
"On the night of the 22d of September, 1827, while living in the town
of Mendon, after we retired to bed, John P. Green, who was then a
traveling Reformed Methodist preacher, living within one hundred steps
of our house, came and called my husband to come out and see the sight
in the heavens. Heber awoke me, and Sister Fanny Young (sister of
Brigham), who was living with us, and we all went out of doors.
"It was one of the most beautiful starlight nights, so clear we could
see to pick up a pin. We looked to the eastern horizon, and beheld a
white smoke arise towards the heavens. As it ascended, it formed into a
belt, and made a noise like the rushing wind, and continued southwest,
forming a regular bow, dipping in the western horizon.
"After the bow had formed, it began to widen out, growing transparent,
of a bluish cast. It grew wide enough to contain twelve men abreast. In
this bow an army moved, commencing from the east and marching to the
west. They continued moving until they reached the western horizon.
They moved in platoons, and walked so close the rear ranks trod in the
steps of their file leaders, until the whole bow was literally crowded
with soldiers.
"We could distinctly see the muskets, bayonets and knapsacks of the
men, who wore caps and feathers like those used by the American
soldiers in the last war with Great Britain. We also saw their officers
with their swords and equipage, and heard the clashing and jingling of
their instruments of war, and could discern the form and features of
the men. The most profound order existed throughout the entire army.
When the foremost man stepped, every man stepped at the same time. We
could _hear_ their steps.
"When the front rank reached the western horizon, a battle ensued, as
we could hear the report of the arms, and the rush.
"None can judge of our feelings as we beheld this army of spirits as
plainly as ever armies of men were seen in the flesh. Every hair of our
heads seemed alive.
"We gazed upon this scenery for _hours_, until it began to disappear.
"After we became acquainted with Mormonism, we learned that this took
place the same evening that Joseph Smith received the records of the
Book of Mormon from the angel Moroni, who had held those records in his
possession.
"Father Young, and John P. Green's wife (Brigham's sister Rhoda), were
also witnesses of this marvelous scene.
"Frightened at what we saw, I said, Father Young, what does all this
mean? He answered, Why it is one of the signs of the coming of the Son
of Man.
"The next night a similar scene was beheld in the west, by the
neighbors, representing armies of men engaged in battle.
"After our gathering to Kirtland the church was in a state of poverty
and distress. It appeared almost impossible that the commandment to
build the temple could be fulfilled, the revelation requiring it to be
erected by a certain period.
"The enemies were raging, threatening destruction upon the saints; the
brethren were under guard night and day to preserve the prophet's life,
and the mobs in Missouri were driving our people from Jackson county.
"In this crisis the 'Camp of Zion' was organized to go to the defence
of the saints in Jackson, Heber being one of the little army. On the
5th of May, 1834, they started. It was truly a solemn morning on which
my husband parted from his wife, children and friends, not knowing that
we should ever meet again in the flesh. On the 26th of July, however,
the brethren returned from their expedition.
"The saints now labored night and day to build the house of the Lord,
the sisters knitting and spinning to clothe those who labored upon it.
"When the quorum of the twelve apostles was called, my husband was
chosen one of them, and soon he was out with the rest of the apostles
preaching the gospel of the last days; but they returned on the 27th of
the following September and found their families and friends enjoying
good health and prosperity.
"The temple was finished and dedicated on the 27th of March, 1836. It
was a season of great rejoicing, indeed, to the saints, and great and
marvelous were the manifestations and power in the Lord's house. Here I
will relate a vision of the prophet concerning the twelve apostles of
this dispensation, for whose welfare his anxiety had been very great.
"He saw the twelve going forth, and they appeared to be in a far
distant land; after some time they unexpectedly met together,
apparently in great tribulation, their clothes all ragged, and their
knees and feet sore. They formed into a circle, and all stood with
their eyes fixed on the ground. The Saviour appeared and stood in their
midst and wept over them, and wanted to show himself to them, but they
did not discover him.
"He saw until they had accomplished their work and arrived at the gate
of the celestial city. There Father Adam stood and opened the gate to
them, and as they entered he embraced them one by one, and kissed them.
He then led them to the throne of God, and then the Saviour embraced
each of them in the presence of God. He saw that they all had beautiful
heads of hair and all looked alike. The impression this vision left on
Brother Joseph's mind was of so acute a nature, that he never could
refrain from weeping while rehearsing it.
"On the l0th of May, 1836, my husband again went East on a mission,
and I made a visit to my friends in Victor, where Heber and I met, and
after spending a few days, returned to Ohio, journeying to Buffalo,
where a magistrate came forward and paid five dollars for our passage
to Fairport.
"The passengers were chiefly Swiss emigrants. After sitting and hearing
them some time, the spirit of the Lord came upon my husband so that he
was enabled to preach to them in their own language, though of himself
he knew not a word of their language. They seemed much pleased, and
treated him with great kindness.
"We returned to Kirtland to find a spirit of speculation in the church,
and apostacy growing among some of the apostles and leading elders.
These were perilous times indeed.
"In the midst of this my husband was called on his mission to Great
Britain, this being the first foreign mission.
"One day while Heber was seated in the front stand in the Kirtland
temple, the prophet Joseph opened the door and came and whispered in
his ear, 'Brother Heber, the spirit of the Lord has whispered to me,
let my servant Heber go to England and proclaim the gospel, and open
the door of salvation.'"
Here we may digress a moment from Sister Vilate's story, to illustrate
the view of the apostles "opening the door of salvation to the
nations," and preaching the gospel in foreign lands without purse or
scrip.
At a later period the Mormon apostles and elders have deemed it as
nothing to take missions to foreign lands, but in 1837, before the age
of railroads and steamships had fairly come, going to Great Britain on
mission was very like embarking for another world; and the apostolic
proposition to gather a people from foreign lands and many nations to
form a latter-day Israel, and with these disciples to build up a Zion
on this continent, was in seeming the maddest undertaking possible in
human events. This marvelous scheme of the Mormon prophet, with many
others equally bold and strangely uncommon for modern times, shall be
fully treated in the book of his own life, but it is proper to throw
into prominence the wondrous apostolic picture of Heber C. Kimball
"opening the door of salvation to the nations that sat in darkness;"
and for the gathering of an Israel from every people and from every
tongue. Relative to this, by far the greatest event in' his life, Heber
says, in his family journals:
"The idea of being appointed to such an important mission was almost
more than I could bear up under. I felt my weakness and was nearly
ready to sink under it, but the moment I understood the will of my
heavenly Father, I felt a determination to go at all hazards, believing
that he would support me by his almighty power, and although my family
were dear to me, and I should have to leave them almost destitute, I
felt that the cause of truth, the gospel of Christ, outweighed every
other consideration. At this time many faltered in their faith, some of
the twelve were in rebellion against the prophet of God. John Boynton
said to me, if you are such a d--d fool as to go at the call of the
fallen prophet, I will not help you a dime, and if you are cast on Van
Dieman's Land I will not make an effort to help you. Lyman E. Johnson
said he did not want me to go on my mission, but if I was determined
to go, he would help me all he could; he took his cloak from off his
back and put it on mine. Brother Sidney Rigdon, Joseph Smith, Sr.,
Brigham Young, Newel K. Whitney and others said go and do as the
prophet has told you and you shall prosper and be blessed with power to
do a glorious work. Hyrum, seeing the condition of the church, when he
talked about my mission wept like a little child; he was continually
blessing and encouraging me, and pouring out his soul in prophesies
upon my head; he said go and you shall prosper as not many have
prospered."
"A short time previous to my husband's starting," continues Sister
Vilate, "he was prostrated on his bed from a stitch in his back, which
suddenly seized him while chopping and drawing wood for his family, so
that he could not stir a limb without exclaiming, from the severeness
of the pain. Joseph Smith hearing of it came to see him, bringing
Oliver Cowdery and Bishop Partridge with him. They prayed for and
blessed him, Joseph being mouth, beseeching God to raise him up, &c. He
then took him by the right hand and said, 'Brother Heber, I take you by
your right hand, in the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, and by virtue
of the holy priesthood vested in me, I command you, in the name of
Jesus Christ, to rise, and be thou made whole.' He arose from his bed,
put on his clothes, and started with them, and went up to the temple,
and felt no more of the pain afterwards.
"At length the day for the departure of my husband arrived. It was June
13th, 1837. He was in the midst of his family, blessing them, when
Brother R. B. Thompson, who was to accompany him two or three hundred
miles, came in to ascertain when Heber would start. Brother Thompson,
in after years, writing an account in Heber's journal of his first
mission to Great Britain, in its preface thus describes that solemn
family scene: 'The door being partly open I entered and felt struck
with the sight which presented itself to my view. I would have retired,
thinking I was intruding, but I felt riveted to the spot. The father
was pouring out his soul to
That God who rules on high,
Who all the earth surveys;
That rides upon the stormy sky,
And calms the roaring seas,
"that he would grant unto him a prosperous voyage across the mighty
ocean, and make him useful wherever his lot should be cast, and that
he who careth for the sparrows, and feedeth the young ravens when they
cry, would supply the wants of his wife and little ones in his absence.
He then, like the patriarchs, and by virtue of his office, laid his
hands upon their heads individually, leaving a father's blessing upon
them, and commending them to the care and protection of God, while
he should be engaged preaching the gospel in foreign lands. While
thus engaged his voice was almost lost in the sobs of those around,
who tried in vain to suppress them. The idea of being separated from
their protector and father for so long a time, was indeed painful. He
proceeded, but his heart was too much affected to do so regularly; his
emotions were great, and he was obliged to stop at intervals, while
the big tears rolled down his cheeks, an index to the feelings which
reigned in his bosom. My heart was not stout enough to refrain; in
spite of myself I wept and mingled my tears with theirs at the same
time. I felt thankful that I had the privilege of contemplating such a
scene. I realized that nothing could induce that man to tear himself
from so affectionate a family group--from his partner and children who
were so dear to him--but a sense of duty and love to God and attachment
to his cause.'
"At nine o'clock in the morning of this never-to-be-forgotten-day,"
continues Sister Vilate, "Heber bade adieu to his brethren and friends
and started without purse or scrip to preach the gospel in a foreign
land. He was accompanied by myself and children, and some of the
brethren and sisters, to Fairport. Sister Mary Fielding, who became
afterwards the wife of Hyrum Smith, gave him five dollars, with which
Heber paid the passage of himself and Brother Hyde to Buffalo. They
were also accompanied by her and Brother Thompson and his wife (Mary
Fielding's sister), who were going on a mission to Canada. Heber
himself was accompanied to Great Britain by Elders Orson Hyde, Willard
Richards, J. Goodson and J. Russell, and Priest Joseph Fielding."
Here, for the present, we must leave Brother Heber to prosecute his
important mission, and this illustrious woman to act her part alone as
an apostle's wife, while we introduce others of the sisters, and follow
the church through its scenes of persecution and removal from Missouri
to Illinois.