On the Sweetwater, they met Apostle Taylor and his company, and were treated by them to a rich feast, prepared as a surprise to the returning pioneers.
The Indians had now commenced to be troublesome, prowling around the camps, stealing horses and cattle, and committing other petty depredations. An exciting though bloodless affray took place between them and the pioneers on the morning of the 21st of September. The brethren were just getting ready to start, when the alarm was given by the men who had been sent out to gather up the horses, that the Indians were "rushing" them--driving them off. The camp flew to arms, just in time to receive the onslaught of the savages, who, emerging from the timbers and firing their guns, charged upon them at full speed. There were at least two hundred mounted warriors. A return volley from the pioneers broke the Indian charge, and the brethren then gave chase, Heber C. Kimball and Wilford Woodruff leading the counter charge with impetuous zeal. Dashing almost alone at the swarming savages, the sight of their daring courage spread consternation among their foes, who broke and fled incontinently.
The old chief who had directed the attack now shouted to his band and proclaimed peace to the pioneers, telling them that he and his warriors were good Sioux, and had mistaken them for Crows or Snakes, with whom they were at war. The brethren thought it good policy to accept the excuse, transparent though it was, and to appear satisfied with the explanation. The chief proposed the smoking of the pipe of peace with them, and wanted the "big chief of his Mormon brothers" to go to his camp. This, however, was not deemed prudent, but Heber, Col.
Markham and Apostle Woodruff went instead, hoping thus to recover their horses, eleven of which had been stolen that day, besides many others on the Sweetwater.
Heber and his companions were kindly received by the Indians, who were camped about five miles away, and smoked the pipe of peace with their leading men. Seeing some of the stolen animals in camp, Heber walked deliberately up to them, took their ropes out of the hands of the astonished savages, and coolly returned with them, amid the grunts and approving nods of his swarthy admirers. They named him "the bald-headed chief." Says he:
"I saw quite a number of horses that were stolen from us on the Sweetwater, but President Young suggested that we say nothing about these for the present; but when we should get to Fort Laramie to offer Mr. Bordeaux $100 to procure them for us; inasmuch as it was deemed inexpedient to take them by force, numbering as they did some eight hundred men, and their camp comprising upwards of one hundred lodges.
It was chiefly through my own exertions that we recovered the most of the horses, and I verily believe that if I had had a few more men with me of sufficient energy and resolution, while at their camp, I could have secured all of the stolen horses."
It was President Young's wise policy to placate the Indians and win their friendship, for the sake of future emigrations.
At Fort Laramie, President Young, Apostle Kimball and others of the Twelve dined with Commodore Stockton, from the Bay of San Francisco, who was eastward bound.
Continuing on their way, the pioneers and Battalion "boys" arrived in safety at Winter Quarters on the 31st of October. Upon the joy of their meeting with their families and with the Saints, we need not dwell. They found that during their absence peace and prosperity had generally prevailed.
CHAPTER LVII.
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."
CHAPTER LVIII.
THE CRICKET PLAGUE--SAVED BY THE GULLS--HEBER'S FAMOUS PROPHECY--"STATES GOODS" SOLD IN GREAT SALT LAKE CITY CHEAPER THAN IN NEW YORK.
Now came a series of trials differing from anything the Saints had yet experienced. Indeed, it seemed as if they were fated to literally "endure all things," and like the Master they served, the great Captain of salvation, be "made perfect through suffering." Hitherto they had been warred against by the powers of evil and their fellow-men. Now their opponents were the blind forces of nature, and creatures of another class.
The year 1848 was the year of the cricket plague. Myriads of these destructive pests, an army of famine and despair, rolled in black legions down the mountain sides and attacked the growing fields of grain. The tender crops fell an easy prey to their fierce voracity.
They literally swept everything before them. Starvation with all its terrors seemed staring the poor settlers in the face.
They were saved by a miracle. In the midst of the work of destruction, when it seemed as if nothing could stay the devastation, great flocks of gulls suddenly appeared filling the air with their white wings and plaintive cries, and settled down upon the half ruined fields. At first it seemed as though they came but to destroy what the crickets had left. But their true purpose was soon apparent. They came to prey upon the destroyers. All day long they gorged themselves, and, when full, disgorged and feasted again; the white gulls upon the black crickets, like hosts of heaven and hell contending, until the pests were vanquished and the people were saved. The heaven-sent birds then returned to the lake islands whence they came, leaving the grateful people to shed tears of joy at the wonderful deliverance wrought out for them.
[Illustration: Brigham Young]
Still there was a season of scarcity. The surplus of the first harvests in the Valley had barely been sufficient to meet the wants of the emigration, which had commenced pouring in from the frontiers and from Europe; and now that the crickets had played such havoc with the crops, there was danger, in spite of the interposition of the gulls, of some suffering from hunger. This was only averted by the exercise of the highest wisdom and broadest charity, and the partial observance of the principle of the United Order, which the Saints had before sought to introduce, and still have it in their mission to establish.
The people were put upon rations, all sharing the same, like members of one great family. Many, however, in order to swell their scanty store, went out and dug roots with the Indians, or cooked and ate the hides of animals with which they had covered the roofs of their houses.
It was during this time of famine, when the half starved, half-clad settlers scarcely knew where to look for the next crust of bread or for rags to hide their nakedness--for clothing had become almost as scarce with them as bread-stuffs--that Heber C. Kimball, filled with the spirit of prophecy, in a public meeting declared to the astonished congregation that, within a short time, "States goods" would be sold in the streets of Great Salt Lake City cheaper than in New York and that the people should be abundantly supplied with food and clothing.
"I don't believe a word of it," said Charles C. Rich; and he but voiced the sentiment of nine-tenths of those who had heard the astounding declaration.
Heber himself was startled at his own words, as soon as the Spirit's force had abated and the "natural man" had reasserted himself. On resuming his seat, he remarked to the brethren that he was "afraid he had missed it this time." But they were not his own words, and He who had inspired them knew how to fulfill.
The occasion for the fulfillment of this remarkable prediction was the unexpected advent of the gold-hunters, on their way to California. The discovery of gold in that land had set on fire, as it were, the civilized world, and hundreds of richly laden trains now began pouring across the continent on their way to the new El dorado. Salt Lake Valley became the resting-place, or "half-way house" of the nation, and before the Saints had had time to recover from their surprise at Heber's temerity in making such a prophecy, the still more wonderful fulfillment was brought to their very doors. The gold-hunters were actuated by but one desire; to reach the Pacific Coast; the thirst for mammon having absorbed for the time all other sentiments and desires.
Impatient at their slow progress, in order to lighten their loads, they threw away or "sold for a song" the valuable merchandise with which they had stored their wagons to cross the Plains. Their choice, blooded, though now jaded stock, they eagerly exchanged for the fresh mules and horses of the pioneers, and bartered off, at almost any sacrifice, dry goods, groceries, provisions, tools, clothing, etc., for the most primitive out-fits, with barely enough provisions to enable them to reach their journey's end. Thus, as the Prophet Heber had predicted, "States goods" were actually sold in the streets of Great Salt Lake City cheaper than they could have been purchased in the City of New York.
Referring to this incident, in a sermon, a few years later, Heber says:
"The Spirit of prophecy foresees future events. God does not bring to pass a thing because you say it shall be so, but because He designed it should be so, and it is the future purposes of the Almighty that the Prophet foresees. That is the way I prophesy, but I have predicted things I did not foresee, and did not believe anybody else did, but I have said it, and it came to pass even more abundantly than I predicted; and that was with regard to the future situation of the people who first came into this valley. Nearly every man was dressed in skins, and we were all poor, destitute, and distressed, yet we all felt well. I said, 'it will be but a little while, brethren, before you shall have food and raiment in abundance, and shall buy it cheaper than it can be bought in the cities of the United States.' I did not know there were any Gentiles coming here, I never thought of such a thing; but after I spoke it I thought I must be mistaken this time.
Brother Rich remarked at the time, 'I do not believe a word of it.'
And neither did I; but, to the astonishment and joy of the Saints, it came to pass just as I had spoken it, only more abundantly. The Lord led me right, but I did not know it.
"I have heard Joseph say many times, that he was much tempted about the revelations the Lord gave through him--it seemed to be so impossible for them to be fulfilled. I do not profess to be a Prophet; but I know that every man and woman can be, if they live for it."
Though Heber did not "profess to be a Prophet," he was one nevertheless, and manifested the gift of prophecy, as is generally admitted, to a greater extent than any other man in the Church, excepting the Prophet Joseph Smith.
Brigham was in the habit of saying: "Heber is my Prophet." In a conversation with Col. Thomas L. Kane on the occasion of the visit of the latter to the Territory, at the time of the settlement of the "Utah War" troubles, President Young said: "Brother Kimball said in Nauvoo, 'If we have to leave our houses we will go to the mountains, and in a few years we will have a better city than we have here.' This is fulfilled. He also said, 'we shall have gold, and coin twenty-dollar gold pieces.' We came here, founded a city, and coined the first twenty-dollar gold pieces in the United States.[A] Seeing the brethren poorly clad, soon after we came here, he said, 'it will not be three years before we can buy clothing cheaper in Salt Lake Valley than in the States.' Before the time was out, the gold-diggers brought loads of clothing, and sold them in our city at a wanton price."
[Footnote A: Heber was one of the principal movers in procuring the stamp with which these gold pieces were coined.]
CHAPTER LIX.