Heber C. Kimball was a humble man, and in his humility, no less than his kingly stature, consisted his dignity, and no small share of his greatness. It was his intelligence, earnestness, simplicity, sublime faith and unwavering integrity to principle that made him great, not the apparel he wore, nor the mortal clay in which his spirit was clothed. Nevertheless, nature had given him a noble presence in the flesh, worthy the godlike stature of his spirit.
"A combination and a form, indeed,
Where every God did seem to set his seal
To give the world assurance of a man."
The son and grandson of a soldier, he had early enrolled in an independent horse company of the New York State militia. Under Captain Sawyer, of East Bloomfield, and his successor in command, he trained fourteen years; one year more would have exempted him from further military service. He remarks, with honest pride, that he was never brought before a court martial or found delinquent in his duty.
Heber was also a Free Mason. In 1823 he received the first three degrees of masonry in the lodge at Victor. The year following, himself and five others petitioned the chapter at Canandaigua, the county seat of Ontario County, for the degrees up to the Royal Arch. The petition was favorably considered, but before it could be acted upon the Morgan anti-mason riot broke out, and the Masonic Hall, where the chapter met, was burned by the mob and all the records consumed.
Says Heber, "There are thousands of Masons who lived in those days, who are well aware of the persecution and unjust proceedings which were heaped upon them by the anti-Masons; not as many as three of us could meet together, unless in secret, without being mobbed.
"I have been as true as an angel from the heavens to the covenants I made in the lodge at Victor.
"No man was admitted into a lodge in those days except he bore a good moral character, and was a man of steady habits; and a man would be suspected for getting drunk, or any other immoral conduct. I wish that all men were masons and would live up to their profession; then the world would be in a much better state than it is now."
Commenting on the degeneracy of the Ancient Order—the old, old story of the persecuted becoming persecutors—he continues:
"I have been driven from my houses and possessions, with many of my brethren belonging to that fraternity, five times, by mobs led by some of their leading men. Hyrum Smith received the first three degrees of masonry in Ontario County, New York. Joseph and Hyrum Smith were Master Masons, yet they were massacred through the instrumentality of some of the leading men of that fraternity, and not one soul of them has ever stepped forth to administer help to me or my brethren belonging to the Masonic Institution, or to render us assistance, although bound under the strongest obligations to be true and faithful to each other in every case and under every circumstance, the commission of crime excepted."
Yes, Masons, it is said, were even among the mob that murdered Joseph and Hyrum in Carthage Jail. Joseph, leaping the fatal window, gave the masonic signal of distress. The answer was the roar of his murderers' muskets and the deadly balls that pierced his heart.