Life of Heber C. Kimball, an Apostle Part 35

A spectacle sublime. An exiled nation, going forth like Israel from Egypt, into the wilderness, there to worship, unmolested, the G.o.d of their fathers in His own appointed way; that from their loins might spring a people nursed in the spirit of prophecy, made stalwart by tribulation, that should leap from the mountains in a day to come, and roll back, an avalanche of power, to regain possession of their promised land.

Such was the meaning of that exodus. The future will justify the action of the past.

On Tuesday, February 17th, 1846, Heber C. Kimball left Nauvoo, in company with Bishop N. K. Whitney, and, crossing the Mississippi, joined the camp of Israel on Sugar Creek, with their faces toward the Rocky Mountains. Heber's prediction over the fated city, which had so alarmed Elder Rigdon seven years before, was being fulfilled; the evacuation of Nauvoo and the exodus of the Saints from Illinois had begun. President Young had left the city two days before, Heber, having sent his family away on the 16th, had tarried behind with William Clayton and Bishop Whitney, to secure and bring Church property needed for the pioneers. Sugar Creek was the starting point.

Here, for nearly two weeks, some of the advance companies had been anxiously awaiting the coming of their leaders.

At half-past one, Brigham and Heber dined together in George D.

Grant's tent, on bean porridge, after which frugal meal, the President, with Heber C. Kimball, Orson Hyde, Orson Pratt, John Taylor, George A. Smith and Willard Richards went up the valley east of the camp about half a mile, and held a council. A letter was read from Samuel Brannan, with a copy of an agreement between Elder Brannan and Postmaster-General Benson. The matter concerned a proposition of certain politicians at Washington and members of the government to the Mormon leaders, to take possession of California and divide the lands with them as a great "land grab" for these statesmen, in return for proffered protection to the Mormons. The proposition was at once rejected.

On the 18th, Heber accompanied President Young and several others back to Nauvoo, where many of the Saints still lingered, most of whom were getting ready to join the camp as soon as possible, while others, like those of earlier days in Kirtland and Far West, were preparing to fall away. A number of meetings, public and private, were held in the Temple, at the last one of which, on Sunday the 22nd, a panic was caused by the snapping of a piece of timber in the settling of the new floor under the weight of the mult.i.tude. Several people were seriously injured. The same afternoon, Brigham, Heber and John Taylor returned to camp.

The companies were being organized and made ready to start. They comprised about four hundred wagons, all heavily loaded, with not over half the number of teams necessary for a rapid journey. Most of the families were supplied with provisions for several months; but a number, regardless of counsel, had started in a dest.i.tute condition, and some with only provisions for a few days.

Colonel Stephen Markham had about one hundred pioneers to prepare the road in advance of the main body. Colonel Hosea Stout with about one hundred men acted as police, armed with rifles. Colonel John Scott with a hundred men accompanied the artillery.

On the morning of Sunday, March 1st, the camp was notified to be ready to start at noon. At half past ten Heber went to meeting and stated that President Young was unwell, and further addressed the a.s.sembly as follows:

"It is the President's will that the camp should remove to some other location, because while we are so near Nauvoo the brethren are continually going back and neglecting their teams and families, and running to Brother Brigham about a little property they have here or there. No doubt many will be tried, but we shall see the kingdom of G.o.d established and all the kingdoms of this world become the kingdoms of our G.o.d and His Christ." He encouraged the brethren to go forward. "The gra.s.s will start before long. They were not going out of the world. If Nauvoo has been the most holy place, it will be the most wicked place." He then called upon all who meant to go ahead to say aye. The brethren responded heartily. "No doubt you mean to have President Young for your leader. We will do all that he says and everything will be right. A plague came upon Zion's Camp for disobedience when on our way to Missouri, and some of our best men fell victims, and so it would be again under like circ.u.mstances. I want no man to touch any of my things without my leave. If any man will come to me and say that he wants to steal I will give him the amount. Cease all your loud laughter and light speeches, for the Lord is displeased with such things, and call upon the Lord with all your might."

Such was Heber's first pioneer address to the Camp of Israel.

All tents were now struck, and about noon the camp began to move. They traveled in a north-westerly direction about five miles, and at night camped again on Sugar Creek. The ground was covered with snow, but by dint of shoveling and sc.r.a.ping s.p.a.ce was soon made for the tents, and in a short time quite a primitive little city had sprung up as if by magic from the frozen earth. Large fires were built in front of the tents and wagons, corraled in circular array according to the custom of the plains, and all were made as comfortable as possible under the circ.u.mstances.

Notwithstanding their hardships and privations, past, present and prospective, a spirit of remarkable cheerfulness reigned throughout the camp; songs were sung, jokes pa.s.sed and stories told, and, in spite of the situation and forbidding surroundings, everybody seemed determined to "make the best of it" and be contented and happy.

Doubtless the romance of the situation helped to season it and make it palatable; but above all was it due to the presence and sustaining power of the Holy Spirit, the peace that "pa.s.seth understanding,"

which rested upon the homeless pilgrims, causing them to rejoice, like the Saints of old, in suffering tribulation for the truth's sake.

At a seasonable hour the merriment was hushed. Heads were bowed in reverent prayer. The G.o.d of Israel was invoked in behalf of His cause and people; these whose home from henceforth was the houseless plain and prairie, and the remnant left behind to the mercies of the mob in the doomed city of Nauvoo. Guards were then placed, the flickering firelight waned and died in the wintry stillness, and the Camp of Israel, all save the watchful sentries, slept.

Near the Chariton River, on the 27th of March, the organization of the camp was perfected. It was divided into companies of "hundreds,"

"fifties" and "tens," with captains appointed over each. The Apostles were placed at the heads of divisions, as presidents. Commissaries were also appointed for each company, with a Commissary General. The camp consisted of two grand divisions, presided over respectively by Brigham Young and Heber C. Kimball; the former, as President and General-in-Chief, directing the whole. Occasionally the President would return and gather a council of the captains and Apostles at Heber's encampment, and at other times Heber would go over with his captains to Brigham's camp, for the same purpose.

The law of the Lord was laid down in great strictness, honesty and morality being especially enjoined. Innocent amus.e.m.e.nt and recreation were encouraged by the leaders, in moderation, as tending to divert the people's minds from their past troubles, and lighten their present toils, but excess of mirth and loud laughter were deprecated and denounced. The Church had again been cleansed of much of its dross, by leaving it behind, and in the main it was a faithful and a pure people that journeyed westward to find another promised land.

The vanguard under Brigham and Heber reached the Missouri River about the middle of June, and received a friendly welcome from the Pottowatomie and Omaha Indians.

CHAPTER LII.

DESTINATION OF THE SAINTS--THE CALL FOR THE MORMON BATTALION--HEROIC RESPONSE OF THE EXILES--BRIGHAM, HEBER AND WILLARD AS RECRUITING SERGEANTS--DEPARTURE OF THE BATTALION--THE CAMP OF ISRAEL GOES INTO WINTER QUARTERS--THE FALL OF NAUVOO.

Where now shall fancy's roving pinion rest?

'Mid barren regions of the boundless West, Where silvery streams through silent valleys flow From mountains crested with eternal snow; Where reigns no creed its rival creed to bind, Where exiled faith a resting-place shall find, Where builds the eagle on the beetling height And wings o'er freedom's hills unfearing flight.

The point in view of the leaders of Israel was the Valley of the Great Salt Lake, a portion of Mexican territory located in the tops of the mountains, in the very heart of the American desert. Discouraging as were all reports relating to this barren and inhospitable region, a thousand miles farther on over trackless plains and bleak mountains swarming with wild beasts and savages, these intrepid men resolved to go forward, trusting in G.o.d and braving every peril. At least it was a land of liberty, uninfested by mobs and heartless priests and politicians, and with the wintry sky above, and the frozen earth beneath, or in summer the burning rocks and waterless wastes around them, they felt safer far in the society of wild Indians and savage wolves, than in the midst of the Christian civilization they had left behind.

Far from the realms where civilization reigns, Where Freedom's b.a.s.t.a.r.ds bind her sons in chains, They sought a home within the western wild, And fraternized the forest's dusky child; No fiercer found, less savage in the test, Than priestly tyrants trampling the oppressed.

Journeying towards the Missouri river they founded temporary settlements, or "traveling stakes of Zion," recruiting their strength with needed rest along the way, and putting in crops for their own use or for their brethren to reap who came after them. Two of these settlements were named Garden Grove and Mt. Pisgah, the latter over a hundred miles in the rear of the vanguard now resting on the Missouri river.

It was the design of the leaders to leave the main body of the people in these places, while they, with a picked band of pioneers, hastened on to the Rocky Mountains that season. But an incident now occurred which changed their plans and delayed the departure of the pioneers until the following spring.

Word was brought to head-quarters on the Missouri, that a United States army officer with a squad of soldiers had arrived at Mt.

Pisgah, with a requisition for five hundred men, to be furnished by the Mormons, to enter the army and march to California to take part in the war against Mexico.

Imagination can alone picture the surprise, almost dismay, with which this startling news was received. What! the nation whose people had thrust them from its borders, robbed them of their homes and driven them into the wilderness, where it was hoped they might perish, now calling upon them for aid? And this in full face of the fact that their own oft reiterated appeals for help had been denied?

It was even so; five hundred able-bodied men, the flower of the camp, were wanted. And this in the heart of an Indian country, in the midst of an exodus unparalleled for its dangers and hardships, when every active man was needed as a bulwark of defense and a staff for the aged and feeble. For even delicate women, thus far, had in some instances been driving teams and tending stock, owing to the limited number of men available.

On the other hand, it was their country calling, and these sons and daughters of the pilgrims and patriots loved their country, loved its inst.i.tutions and its laws, though the government of that country, in the hands of self-seeking demagogues and politicians, had been as a cruel step-mother rather than a tender parent to them.

What was to be done? What would the leaders decide to do? Such were the questions that flew like lightning through the camp, as these thoughts came rushing to mind. They were not left long unanswered.

On the 1st of July, Capt. James Allen, the recruiting officer, acting under orders of Col. S. F. Kearney at Fort Leavenworth, having arrived at "The Bluffs," went into council with Brigham Young, Heber C.

Kimball, Orson Hyde, Orson Pratt, Willard Richards, George A. Smith, John Taylor, John Smith and Levi Richards. Wilford Woodruff was at Mount Pisgah, where he had received Captain Allen and his party a few days before. The brethren were a.s.sured that the offer to accept the services of a battalion of Mormon soldiers in the Mexican war, was made by the government in kindness, and meant as a means of a.s.sistance to the community, whose young and intelligent men might thus proceed, at the government's expense, to the ultimate destination of their whole people, and look out the land and prepare the way for their brethren who came after them. This was the object, it was said, quite as much as to enlist their services in their country's cause.

Whether convinced or not that such was the case, the result of the council's deliberations was a resolve to raise the troops. Brigham Young, Heber C. Kimball and Willard Richards, in the role of recruiting sergeants, at once set out for Mt. Pisgah, a distance of one hundred and thirty miles, to execute the order for the Battalion.

Colonel Thomas L. Kane, that n.o.ble friend of the Mormon people, who had arrived at the Bluffs, thus summarizes the result: "A central ma.s.s meeting for council, some harangues at the more remotely scattered camps, an American flag brought out from the storehouse of things rescued, and hoisted to the top of a tree-mast, and, in three days, the force was reported, mustered, organized and ready to march."

The Mormon Battalion set out for the west about the middle of July.

The project of the Pioneers, of going to the mountains that season, was now of course abandoned, and the Camp of Israel prepared to go into "Winter Quarters." This was the name given to their settlement on the Missouri, the princ.i.p.al part of which was on the west side of the river, five miles above Omaha of to-day. It is now known as Florence.

Seven hundred houses of log, turf and other primitive materials, neatly arranged and laid out with streets and byways; well supplied with workshops, mills and factories, and with a tabernacle of worship in the midst; the whole arising from a pretty plateau overlooking the river, and well fortified with breast-work, stockade and block-houses, after the fashion of the frontier;--such was Winter Quarters, the princ.i.p.al one of these so-called "traveling stakes of Zion." Here, in these humble, prairie settlements, surrounded by Indians, whose savage hearts G.o.d had wondrously softened into sympathy and friendship for His exiled people, the Camp of Israel, the residue of twenty thousand souls, which the Saints had numbered in Illinois, pa.s.sed the winter of 1846.

Meanwhile, in September of that year, the remnant left in Nauvoo, between six and seven hundred souls, after a gallant defense of their city against the mob, which, in violation of every treaty, came upon them in overwhelming numbers, were driven from their homes at the point of the bayonet, and thrown, men, women and children, sick, dying and shelterless, upon the western sh.o.r.es of the Mississippi. And this--shades of the patriots!--while their brethren, the heroes of the Mormon Battalion, were marching to fight their country's battles on the plains of Mexico!

CHAPTER LIII.

THE WORD AND WILL OF THE LORD CONCERNING THE CAMP OF ISRAEL--THE PIONEERS START FOR THE ROCKY MOUNTAINS--NAMES OF THE HEROES--INCIDENTS OF THE JOURNEY WEST.

The "Word and Will of the Lord concerning the Camp of Israel in their journeyings to the West," was given through President Brigham Young at Winter Quarters on the 14th of January, 1847. It was the first written revelation sent out to the Church since the death of the Prophet Joseph. Agreeable to its instructions, the Saints began to prepare for their journey to the mountains.

Early in April the pioneers started from Winter Quarters. This famous band numbered one hundred and forty-eight souls, including three women and two children. The _personnel_ of the company as it left the Missouri River, was as follows:

1 Brigham Young.

2 Heber C. Kimball.

3 Orson Pratt.

4 Wilford Woodruff.

5 George A. Smith.

6 Willard Richards.

7 Amasa Lyman.