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."