Kimball's son J. Golden became a president of the First Council of Seventy; his stepson Joseph F. Smith, sixth president of the Church; and his grandson Spencer W. Kimball, twelfth president of the Church.

To Heber Kimball, his colleagues in the First Presidency were family: "I love these men, God knows I do, better than I ever loved a woman; and I would not give a damn for a man that does not love them better than they love women."

Unwilling to argue with his wives, Kimball declared, "If ever I am so foolish as to quarrel with a woman, I ought to be whipped; for you may always calculate that they will have the last word."

Missionary

1832. Three weeks after he and Vilate had joined the Baptist church, Kimball read a Book of Mormon left at an inn with Brigham Young's brother Phineas. When Alpheus Gifford mentioned baptism to Kimball the following April, "I jumped up, pulled off my apron, washed my hands and started with him with my sleeves rolled up to my shoulders, and went the distance of one mile where he baptized me in a small stream in the woods." He was sent almost immediately on a local mission with Brigham and Joseph Young. During the next twelve years he served eight missions and converted thousands to the Church.

Apostle

1835. After serving in Zion's Camp (1834), Kimball was the third elder chosen to be a member of the original Quorum of the Twelve. He and Brigham Young were the only original Quorum members never disfellowshipped or excommunicated, excepting David W. Patten, who was killed in 1838.

1837. In the midst of the Kirtland Safety Society banking crisis, Joseph Smith sent Kimball, Orson Hyde, Willard Richards, and four Canadian converts on a mission to England. It was the first European mission and a phenomenal success. Heber was instrumental in baptizing nearly 1500 people.

1839. He and seven other apostles labored in England, eventually baptizing between seven and eight thousand converts. They "established branches in almost every noted town and city, printed 5,000 copies of the Book of Mormon, 3,000 hymnals, 50,000 tracts, 2,500 of the Millenial Star, established a permanent shipping agency, and arranged for the emigration of about 1,000 Saints to Zion."

Mason

1842. May 4: Kimball and eight others received the "holy order" (later known as the "temple endowment") from Joseph Smith in the Prophet's brick store. He wrote to Parley P. Pratt, "We have received some pressious things through the Prophet on the presthood that would cause your Soul to rejoice. … Bro. Joseph Ses Masonry was taken from presthood but has become degenerated. But menny things are perfect." Kimball, who had been a Mason since 1825, was one of the founders of the Nauvoo Lodge.

In 1858 he explained, "We have the true Masonry. The Masonry of today is received from the apostasy which took place in the days of Solomon and David. They have now and then a thing that is correct, but we have the real thing."

Pioneer

1846. The Nauvoo exodus was particularly hard on Kimball's family, which consisted at the time of at least thirty-eight wives, four of them pregnant.

In Iowa a rattlesnake bit one of his horses. He laid his hands on the animal's head, rebuked the poison, and declared to bystanders, "It is just as proper to lay hands on a horse or an ox and administer to them in the name of the Lord, and of such utility, as it is to a human being, both being creatures of His creations, both consequently having a claim to His attention."

1847. Kimball entered the Salt Lake Valley with the rest of the pioneer company in July; he returned the following month to Winter Quarters. In 1848 he led another wagon train of 66 family members and 556 others to Salt Lake. His company included 226 wagons, "1,253 horses, mules, and cattle, plus sheep, pigs, chickens, cats, dogs, goats, geese, doves, a squirrel, and some beehives."

"Brigham's Prophet"

Throughout their Church careers, Brigham Young and Heber C. Kimball were virtually inseparable, and their close friendship intensified after Joseph Smith's death in 1844.

1847. Brigham Young selected Kimball to be his second counselor in the First Presidency. Ever obedient to his president, Kimball told the Saints, "If brother Brigham tells me to do a thing it is the same as though the Lord told me to do it. This is the course for you and every other Saint to take, and by taking this course, I will tell you, brethren, you are on the top of the heap."

1848. Though not professing to be a prophet, Kimball could not help but notice, he said, that "people all the time are telling me I am." Brigham Young promoted the image: "I am not a visionary man, neither am I given much to prophesying. When I want any of that done I call on brother Heber—he is my prophet, he loves to prophesy, and I love to hear him."

President Spencer W. Kimball described his grandfather as "a prophet perhaps second only to Joseph Smith himself."

Though many of Kimball's dramatic prophecies came to pass, some did not. He predicted, for example, that President Buchanan, who initiated the Utah Expeditionary Force, would die an "untimely death," but the ex-president was ten years older than Kimball when they both died in 1868.

Many of his scriptural quotes could not be found in the scriptures, J. Golden Kimball recalled. But when listeners pointed this out, he countered, "Well, if that isn't in the Bible it ought to be in it."

Entrepreneur

1850s. Kimball operated large ranches in Cache Valley and Grantsville, and on Antelope Island. On City Creek near Temple Square, he established a gristmill, an oil mill (extracting linseed oil from flax), a sugar cane mill, and a lumber mill.

Kimball's estate was eventually valued at $100,580 (the 1980 equivalent of more than $2,000,000).

Appearance

"He was erect, portly, full-chested, broad-shouldered, powerfully made, about six feet high, and weighed two hundred pounds. … His face was very striking; a compound of keen wit, finesse, insight into character. … His form of aldermanic rotundity, his face large, plethoric and lusterous with the stable red of stewed cranberries … small, twinkling black beads of eyes. … His chin was double and shiny, from the twin effect of good living and close-shaving."

"An Old Horse that Has Lost His Teeth"

1865. Feeling intimidated by those who were better educated, especially Second Counselor Daniel H. Wells, Kimball was afraid of being supplanted. His insecurity was heightened when Brigham Young made important decisions about the First Presidency without consulting him. Heber's son Solomon wrote, "Those were days of sorrow for father, and he became so heart broken towards the last that he prayed to the Lord to shorten his days."

But, Kimball confided in a private memorandum book, "I was told by the Lord that I should not be removed from my place as first counselor to President Young."

Death

1868. Injured when thrown from a buggy in late May, he apparently recovered, but suffered a stroke on June 11 and died on June 22. Buried in the private cemetery near the rear of his home at 142 North Main Street in Salt Lake City.